The Secret To Selling Anything

There is a very good possibility that you and I have met before.

When I was 19, I used to sell magazines door-to-door. I traveled all over the United States, walking up and down neighborhoods, spending the day talking to people and getting doors slammed in my face.

And I used to average $3,000 a week!

How was this possible? I can tell you for a fact that it wasn’t the magazines. Who really needs magazines? Buying them at the newsstand was a lot cheaper than I was selling them for. To be honest, it didn’t matter if I was selling, colored tissue-paper, I would have had the same amount of success.

The reason I thrived was because I didn’t sell them magazines. What I sold was me. What people paid for was the opportunity for me to entertain, enlighten, and inform them about who I was and what I was trying to achieve in life. I learned how to get people to know, like, and trust me within the first 2 minutes of meeting me. That is why I was able to sell magazines for five years, with each year better than the last.

As you begin to build your business online as an affiliate marketer, this same secret holds true. You will never write a single article about selling a product. Your articles will be about you and your passion about the niche you chose. You have a message that is so important for people to hear you are willing to write them without ever seeing a dime. If you don’t believe this and commit to that before you ever write an article, then this business is not for you. If you can commit to that, then here are some tips to help make your self-promotion efforts natural. To make your message irresistible to those who read it.

1. Know thyself

In order to sell yourself, you need to know who you are and what your message is. This requires you to look in the mirror and ask yourself the following questions:

What are your values?

What are you passionate about?

This helps you to discover your message, your vision, and your purpose online. How does your site help others when they visit? When I sold magazines, I never, ever mentioned magazines. I told people my story. I was out here building character, learning to become a leader by talking to successful people like them, asking for advice on how to achieve goals, I wanted to learn from that person at that moment how to be the best I could be. I was making a difference for my future children and my neighborhood. My customers ate it up. They wanted to see me succeed and if buying a magazine helped me get closer to my goals, then they would ‘do their part.’

Remember, we aren’t trying to sell shovels, we are trying to teach people how to dig a better hole. If they happen to buy a shovel we recommend, it’s an added bonus.

2. Develop quality relationships

This the heart of selling yourself – developing relationships with people so they want to do business with you, refer to you as an expert, refer you to others, and help you achieve your dreams. Once again, the better you know yourself and your core values, the better you will become at connecting with others who believe and think the same as you.

You must make a daily habit of engaging in your niche's community, whether it's through blogs, forums, FB groups, or even here on WA. Practice giving good comments, not just the standard "nice article" or "I agree". If you must, open up another tab and research your answer before you post. Practice Adding people to your inner circles, your friends list. People value consistency over all else and they will notice your tireless effort. You will develop some of the most meaningful friendships and business relationships before you realize it. People want to help out their friends, but first you have to become their friend.

3. Improving the value of your message

At this moment, how much is the value of your message? This is where most people struggle online, because they want people to pay hundreds or thousands of dollars for a message that’s only worth $5. Let’s be honest, if you are a new to marketing online, then your message isn’t worth much. That’s perfectly ok. There are plenty of items you can sell for five bucks and make money right away.

However, if you want your business to grow into a sustainable, steady income stream for yourself, then you must increase the value of your message. This means investing in furthering your education. It’s not good enough to ‘get through’ the courses here in WA, you must MASTER them! Whatever your chosen niche is, strive to become the authority in that niche. Learn everything you can and always look to learn more, whether you have to pay for it or not.

We used to call this ‘product knowledge’ in the sales industry. I took the time to learn what every single magazine was about. I used to go to the bookstores at the beginning of every week and read the latest issues. When I would go out knocking on doors, I could recommend at least three magazines for you based upon your interests and values. I could engage with you on any topic because I had already read the latest articles. That was why they had to subscribe for three years instead of six months when they ordered from me, because I knew my message was worth a three year subscription, not a six month subscription.

By practicing and implementing these tips, you will learn how to sell yourself and make people want to buy whatever you are selling, not because they believe in the product, but because they believe in you.