A Sale is Made Every Time!
“Put that coffee down … coffee’s for closers only!” - Glengarry Glen Ross
It’s no news to anyone that I am a reader and a writer. I love fiction, non-fiction, poetry, you name it. I just love words.
What may surprise you is that I am also a HUGE theatre buff. While I like a good film as much as the next person, I am more partial to plays. I just like how you can tell a complete story and get to intimately know characters, all without CGI effects or leaving the confines of a tiny stage.
You may be wondering why on earth I am talking about theatre in an affiliate marketing community.
I was watching one of my favorite plays the other day.
Okay, in the interest of full disclosure, it was the movie version based on the stage play, but I didn’t think I could fit all of the actors in my home office… we make due with what we have.
Anyway, I absolutely adore David Mamet’s Pulitzer winning play, Glengarry Glen Ross. It’s about a group of shady real-estate agents that will do practically anything to make the sale.
Interestingly enough, there is actually very little in the play about sales, per se. Rather it is about the characters and how they cope in the world. In fact, there is a twist at the end that seems to come straight out a murder mystery (don’t worry, I won’t spoil it if you haven’t seen it.)
But watching this play for what seems like the 500th time — I did say I was a fan, didn’t I? — it got me to thinking about sales, which got me thinking about marketing, which of course led to me thinking about affiliate marketing.
(Yes, I know it was a rather long and convoluted journey to get to that point, but stick with me… we’re going places.)
A Sale is Made Every Time
There is an old saying in sales:
“A sale is made every time. Either you sell them on your product or service, or they sell you on their excuse as to why they can’t buy. So, in the end, the only question is, who is selling whom?”
While it a bit easier to see how this might apply to a face-to-face, or perhaps even over the phone, type sale, how does this apply to affiliate marketing?
After all, the visitor comes to your site, reads your content, and leaves. You’re not really “selling” them anything.
Or are you?
A salesperson gives a “pitch”. You write awesome content.
A salesperson leads them through the sale, one step at a time. You use various techniques (great headlines, subheadings, short sentences, bullet points, etc.) to guide them through your content.
A salesperson gives them a hard-close. You give them a Call to Action.
It’s true that you’re not giving them a traditional hard-close of a sleazy door-to-door salesman, but make no mistake, you are still closing them.
So, you see, from a certain perspective you really are selling. You’re trying to sell them on consuming your content and then taking an action, be that to join your mailing list, post a comment, or click on an affiliate link and make a purchase.
But if your content stinks; if you are just throwing something together with no real plan of how you will get them to take the action you want, then you will miss the “sale”. They will simply click the back button and be gone, likely to never return again.
A sale is made every time. Are you selling them, or are they selling you?
Post your comment below (see what I did there?) :-)
Recent Comments
40
Thanks for the post. This is an area that I have to work on. I don't consider myself to be a creative writer, however with all of the help and wisdom on this site I hope to improve on my content writing skills.
Check out my post on creativity. You're probably more creative than you think, but there are some great ideas in there on how to develop more. Thanks for sharing.
You sold me your story I am not a fan of long post but I am a writer and you are a good one..
Great work and I compliment your writing skills you are truly a writer from beginning to end..I enjoyed reading this post.
Thank you for your incredible words. I am truly humbled. Writing is perhaps my greatest passion in life and comments like yours are what keeps me going :-)
Interesting. I've finally realized that I should not be "selling". I should be providing solutions to perceived problems and touting the wonders of a product while increasing the perceived value of the product in the eyes of my visitor in such a way that all their objections are answered and the product or offer seems wonderful to them. Kyle has been instructing us to not "sell" but to solve problems and "help" our potential customers. I'm finally getting it.
Exactly. You are still "selling" from the standpoint of influencing the reader to 1) continue reading, and 2) take some form of action. But neither of those will happen if you don't build value into your content. You've got to make it worth their time to stick around. Thanks for sharing.
AJ, you sold me. Or I bought! Your conclusion makes total sense.
There are situations where a visitor to our websites is window shopping or not ready to take action. In this case I feel the content as well as the website should give an air of authority so the person will return if they are ready to make a decision.
With that in mind, I can think of another call to action. Ask the visitor to bookmark my website and return when they are ready to take action.
Cheers!
Edwin
Yes! lol
Seriously, though, I think bookmarking would be an excellent CTA if you didn't have a link for them to go to. Great suggestion :-)
All of us are selling all the time, just that on different terms and context. All of us have to work and by working, we are selling our time to our employer.
By being an entrepreneur, we are also selling ... by using our passions, talents, skills, time, effort ... to convert it into passive income.
In relationships, we are also 'selling', if you think about it.
That is just my view. Thanks for sharing.
Love it AJ
Yes you are right either way someone is selling something.
Food for thought much appreciated
Jennifer
See more comments
AJ, I have to wrap my head around this one. The question is for me, Am I writing content that holds the reader? Am I selling a product to solve a problem or am I just telling them about WA?
I will go back to each post to see what my answer is.
Thank you. This is one of those revelation moments.
Laura
Thank you for this blog! I have been wondering how you sell via writing blogs. Are we able to add links to where products can be bought? But how do you get the commissions? These are questions I have while I am at the end of phase 2.
Glad it made you think about things. And to answer your questions, the correct answer is, "Yes." lol
Seriously, we should always be striving for all three if it makes sense within the context of the content. At the very least, however, you should be targeting at least one potential outcome for the reader.
Thanks for sharing :-)
Yes. This is all covered in the training. You will create quality content that your target audience is looking for. Once you have a steady stream of traffic, you will begin to recommend products and services (i.e. affiliate links) that your readers may find useful.
The key, however, is the word "traffic". Think about it this way. You can have all the links in the world and you still won't make a dime if no one is there to see them.
Moreover, if you stuff your site too soon with affiliate links, it comes across as spammy and anyone who does show up won't stick around for long (Haven't you come across sites like that? The ones that just scream, "Give me your money!")
Thus, the best course of action is to forget about the money -- at least for now. It'll come soon enough. Instead, right now just focus on creating fantastic content that both attracts an audience and builds trust with them. Once you develop that kind of brand loyalty, they'll buy practically anything you recommend.
In the grand scheme, making money is actually the easy part. It's building a fan base that can be difficult.
Hope this helps :-)
AJ has incredible knowledge and an excellent resource. It appears he has answered your concerns.
Laura
Hahaha... thanks for the compliment, Laura, but I don't know about the "incredible knowledge" part. My wife and kids think I'm pretty much an idiot. lol
Yes, this may be true but here at WA, you are an unstoppable wealth of knowledge. Just accept it as it is true.
Laura
Thank you so much. Very helpful! I will have to review all of my posts and tweak them.
Awesome. If you ever need anything just give me a shout :-)