How to Sell Anything: Crash Course Entrepreneurship #12

CrashCourse
6 Nov 201911:04
EducationalLearning
32 Likes 10 Comments

TLDRThis video explores sales strategies for entrepreneurs, arguing that selling comes down to building relationships through questioning and emotional appeals. It notes that asking open-ended questions allows you to understand customers' needs and make informed suggestions. Appeals based on greed, fear, envy, pride, shame or altruism also influence decisions. Online tools facilitate connecting with customers, generating leads and turning them into loyal buyers. The key for entrepreneurs is developing authentic relationships where a product or service helps the customer.

Takeaways
  • 😀 Sales can be scary but entrepreneurs have tricks like crafting narratives and emotional appeals to persuade customers
  • 😊 Good sales require building relationships by asking open-ended questions and listening to understand customers' needs
  • 😯 Emotions like greed, fear, envy, pride, shame and altruism influence purchasing decisions
  • 😮 Entrepreneurs should target different emotions through words and arguments to compel customers to buy
  • 😀 Testimonials from satisfied customers can provide social proof and convey benefits
  • 🤔 Website design matters, but clearly communicating value proposition is most critical
  • 😃 Email marketing helps convert website visitors into leads and ultimately loyal customers
  • 😕 Funnel and flywheel metaphors describe stages from awareness to purchase and beyond
  • 😁 Listen, ask questions, tell stories, build relationships - that's how anyone can sell
  • 🤑 Revenue streams = $$$ ... we'll cover those next time!
Q & A

  • What are the two key strategies for selling anything?

    -The two key strategies are: 1) Asking questions to understand the customer's needs and make an emotional connection, and 2) Making emotional appeals to influence the customer's purchasing decision.

  • What are some examples of emotional appeals that can be used in sales?

    -Examples of emotional appeals include appealing to greed, fear, envy, pride, shame, and altruism. For instance, exclusivity appeals to greed, highlighting potential losses appeals to fear, showcasing awards appeals to pride, emphasizing environmental impact appeals to shame, and linking purchases to donations appeals to altruism.

  • Why is asking questions important when selling a product or service?

    -Asking questions allows the seller to understand the customer's specific needs, issues, and motivations. This helps build an emotional connection and identify the right solutions or offerings to meet the customer's needs.

  • What are some ways an entrepreneur can generate leads online?

    -Some ways to generate leads online include: having a strong value proposition on your website, driving website traffic through social media platforms, giving people opportunities to opt-in via email signups, using automated email systems for follow-up, and leveraging word-of-mouth through happy customer referrals.

  • What are the differences between the sales funnel and flywheel concepts?

    -The sales funnel focuses on constantly acquiring new potential customers, with only a small fraction making a purchase. The flywheel instead builds on existing happy customers to generate referrals and new business through word-of-mouth.

  • What might an entrepreneur say to appeal to a prospective customer's sense of fear?

    -To appeal to fear, an entrepreneur could emphasize the potential consequences or costs of not addressing an issue or making a purchase. For example: "Without additional data, your business risks falling behind competitors" or "This solution will prevent revenue losses from systematic issues."

  • How might appeals to altruism and pride work together in a sales pitch?

    -An entrepreneur could highlight how a purchase helps charitable causes (altruism) while also boosting the customer's public image for supporting social good (pride). For example: "This donation-linked purchase boosts your reputation for corporate social responsibility."

  • What tools are available to help entrepreneurs build professional websites?

    -User-friendly website builders like Squarespace, Weebly, WordPress, and Wix allow entrepreneurs to create great-looking, professional websites quickly without advanced technical skills.

  • Why should an entrepreneur's website clearly showcase their value proposition?

    -Prominently featuring the value proposition conveys at a glance how the product or service solves customer problems and improves their situation. This motivates visitors to learn more and potentially convert to customers.

  • What entrepreneurial skills are needed to sell a product or service successfully?

    -Key skills include the ability to listen and ask questions, build emotional connections, tell compelling stories, convey expertise and value, facilitate purchase opportunities, and provide excellent customer service.

Outlines
00:00
😊 Introducing Our Fairy Godmother of Sales

The opening paragraph introduces Anna Akana as a guide for learning sales strategies. It discusses the challenges entrepreneurs face in pitching ideas and appealing to customers. The key idea is that asking questions and making emotional appeals can help sell anything.

05:02
😃 Asking Questions and Making Emotional Appeals

This paragraph explains two key sales strategies - asking open-ended questions to understand customer needs and making emotional appeals to connect with them. It provides examples like using "why" questions and mentions common emotions that drive decisions: greed, fear, envy, pride, shame, and altruism.

10:04
😎 Putting Strategies into Practice

The third paragraph shows entrepreneur Andrea using questioning and emotional appeals to potentially sell data services to a restaurant. It illustrates connecting with the customer, making informed suggestions, and appealing to fear or pride as needed.

Mindmap
Keywords
💡entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship refers to the process of starting and running one's own business. It is the central theme of the video, which aims to provide advice to entrepreneurs on how to sell their products or services. The video focuses on key sales and persuasion strategies entrepreneurs can use.
💡sales
Sales refers to the process of persuading prospective customers to purchase a product or service. Mastering sales strategies is portrayed as an essential entrepreneurial skill. The video emphasizes relationship-building, asking questions, and making emotional appeals to be an effective salesperson.
💡emotional appeals
Emotional appeals refer to marketing or sales tactics that target people's emotions rather than purely logical reasoning. The video advises entrepreneurs to incorporate emotional appeals into their sales narratives or pitches, using emotions like greed, fear, envy, pride, shame, and altruism.
💡questions
Asking open-ended questions is highlighted as a key sales strategy to better understand potential customers, learn about their needs, and build rapport. Entrepreneurs are advised to ask 'why' questions multiple times when speaking with prospective clients.
💡relationships
Developing relationships with potential customers is emphasized as vital for sales and entrepreneurial success. Building relationships by asking questions, listening, and having authentic conversations is positioned as superior to traditional "used car salesman" stereotypes.
💡story
Crafting a compelling story or narrative for your product or service can make sales pitches more persuasive. The video urges entrepreneurs to "tell a meaningful story" when selling to connect with prospective clients on an emotional level.
💡lead generation
Lead generation refers to the process of identifying and qualifying potential customers. Methods like email collection and automated follow-up campaigns are cited as ways entrepreneurs can generate sales leads online.
💡funnel
A sales funnel is a visual metaphor for the customer journey from initial awareness to purchase. Only a small fraction of leads turn into actual customers, so sales strategies aim to guide leads through the funnel.
💡flywheel
A flywheel represents customer loyalty and word-of-mouth driving business growth. Unlike the sales funnel requiring constant new leads, the flywheel depends on developing relationships with existing customers.
💡revenue
Revenue refers to the money a business brings in from sales and customers. The video emphasizes that the end goal of sales strategies is to generate revenue streams to ensure entrepreneurial success.
Highlights

The key to selling is developing relationships and telling a meaningful story to prospective customers.

Asking open-ended questions to learn more about a customer’s life can help us make a sale.

What do they really need? How can you connect with them? What does their time frame look like? What obstacles are they facing? Really hear what the person is saying.

Even the most logical person can’t totally separate themselves from their emotions, which is why emotional appeals can be persuasive too.

Depending on the situation, we can target different ones. With greed, entrepreneurs want the customer to think “buying now means I’ll be rewarded.”

Fear can also spur immediate action. You can use words like “consequence,” “cost,” or “harm,” or an argument focused on “missing out,” to make a fear-based appeal.

Envy can lead customers to think “my life looks nothing like this, but if I buy this product, maybe it could!”

Show off awards you and your customers have won!

Altruism can get customers thinking “my purchase will help people.” When talking with customers, emphasize the benefits to them, to employees, to partners, or to the world.

By researching their pains and gains and asking questions, we can know that a product or service will authentically help them in some way. We’re all on the same team.

Developing a strong customer-base online can make it easier to successfully start up a physical store or network with bigger retailers down the road.

Then, you want to show off the site on social media platforms -- as long as that’s where your target market is. If you’re trying to sell to the 60+ retirement crew, maybe SnapChat isn’t where you want to spend energy.

Email addresses are like gold in the marketing world because we’re given more chances to connect with the person. We can use automated systems to follow-up with an emotional appeal or attractive coupon offer, and turn that lead into a real customer.

That fraction of a fraction is where we can put in the work with these sales strategies.

The bottom line is, anyone can sell. Listen, ask follow-up questions, and use all your available information to tell a story, develop a relationship, and make it easy to make a purchase.

Transcripts

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