“If You Are Going to be in Business, You Must Know How to Sell”

In his book Automatic Wealth Michael Masterson states that in order to achieve Financial Independence you need to master a financially valuable skill.

Selling is the number one skill you MUST learn if you are going to be in business, and this applies offline, too. If you do not know how to sell, you and your business will struggle financially.

We are selling everyday, whether we sell ourselves our friends or the latest film we’ve just watched.

Look at this common everyday phrase: – “have you seen xxxxxx? I saw it last night and I ….”

Sound familiar?

Well that is selling in a nutshell! Some people do it better than others but we all do it, and with a little bit of training and practice you can soon become a master at it!

Forget the numerous “no selling required” ads you come across online because they are pure B.S. – for one simple reason: people don’t just walk up to you and give you money for your product – you have to tell them about it.

If you do not know how to sell or HATE selling how can you tell people about your product in a way that makes them want to buy it from you? And, if they don’t buy from you – HOW can you make money?

For instance, if it were not for their ability to sell, how would professionals be able to charge such high service fees and still get paid the amount they ask? If it were not for their ability to sell, how could the Wright brothers have managed to convince the world about their first aircraft when people were still living and traveling without them?

Today, the Internet marketplace is jam-packed with plenty of fantastic ideas and wonderful products. Chances are that you have already located:

• A great idea that you think you can make money from
• A product that solves a specific problem, and/or
• An income opportunity to provide to people online

But the fact is: if you do not know how to sell your products, you cannot turn them into money-producing assets, no matter how great the demand or high in quality they actually are.

Everyday as you have dealings with people you subconsciously become acutely aware of whether or not that person has the ability to sell. I’m sure that you’ve often noticed that whilst many people have million-dollar ideas, more often than not they do not have the skill to sell them, let alone instill commercial value into those ideas or products.

I think you get the picture.

Whether you are selling your intellectual asset, service, tangible goods, yourself or whatever kind of product or solution you have, unless you have the ability to sell, your product or asset is worth absolutely nothing!

This may sound a little harsh but it is a cold hard reality. Sure, you may get lucky once in a while but to really become successful…… Well, you have to be able to sell!

Good News

The good news is that using the leverage of the Internet there is no need for you to go door to door to sell. Even if you join a Multi Level Marketing company, you can cover thousands of prospects via the Internet in an extremely short period of time, something that you cannot possibly accomplish in a face to face, conventional business.

There is no need for you to travel around to meet your prospects either. The Internet brings every other Internet user right to your computer screen. What’s more, you don’t need to recruit your own salespeople – or even do the selling yourself manually to every single prospect…

All you need for the selling to be done on your behalf is powerful sales copy!

Take another look at that last statement again because…..

“Your Sales Letter is Your Sales Person”

Yes, your sales letter is your virtual sales person. Your sales letter does all the selling to your prospects on your behalf.

Unlike in conventional and direct response marketing businesses, there is no need for you to train and recruit multiple sales people. Instead, all of your efforts should be focused on creating a powerful sales letter that produces a minimum 2 to 4 percent conversion rate, then fine-tuning that letter to improve the conversion rate as you go.

In other words, for every 100 prospects you refer or who visit your web page, you are aiming for a minimum of 2 to 4 of them to be your customers. Once you achieve that (and you will!), all you need to do is introduce targeted prospects to your sales letter, confident that it will do all the selling for you, day after day!

Your sales letter is like a personal letter from you to your prospect, in it you tell him why he needs your services/product. You remind him of his problems and why you have the solution to those problems, thus convincing your prospect to buy your product or the access to a service from you.

What You Need

You have probably already got a great idea, or a product and some basic selling skills (remember the film you saw the other day?)

Now all you need to do is develop and hone those skills in order to formulate a sensational sales letter. A sales letter that arouses a deep primal need in your prospects and makes them bolt frantically to your order button, desperate to buy your products, every time.

This means that you have to:

1. Improve your writing skills.

Since you will be writing your own sales copy, you will need to have good writing skills and a good command of English. Even if English is not your mother tongue, with a little work you can develop this skill. Note however, that you do not need to be a master of English to write a successful sales letter. As long as your letter carries emotion and personality it will work. Forget all the grammar lessons you learnt at school – just copy what works and learn from the masters.

2. Inject your personality into your letter.

Yes, you must inject your personality. You will be writing a somewhat personal or emotional letter to your prospects. A letter which needs to move and arouse them to take action, so be friendly and approachable with your words. You need to write from the heart. Don’t write a stiff letter, not only is it boring to read but it will turn people away from your web page faster than you can blink!

NB. Mix your writing skills with your personality, write from your heart with truth and sincerity and you will compose the perfect sales letter!

And last but not least, you need…

3. To take action!

There is a wealth of information on how you can write your own killer sales copy staring right at you – don’t waste it by not doing anything with the information! If English is not your first language – no problem – print out a couple of great sales letters that move you and copy their structure and grammar (Learn as You Earn!) Don’t just copy the letter wholesale though that’s plain old theft. – Your letter must come from your heart!

Got it? Good, now go and get started.

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Stuart Elliott is a world class copywriter who has written numerous stories on sales letters and copywriting. Drop by:
http://howtowritekickbuttcopy.com to pick up a free copywriting power guide.

Article copyright Stuart Elliott 2006 all rights reserved. You may only reprint this artitcle in it’s entirety and you must include this resource box.

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