The Difference Between Helping and Selling

byJohnCrossley

2.8K followers

4 years ago

I know the majority of you will know that Kyle, Carson and all the training on Wealthy Affiliate will talk about how helping people, rather than selling to people has a much better success rate online, right?

But, it was so nice to see that it made a huge difference in the offline world too...

I want to share with you how helping, instead of selling made a huge difference to our little family run business.

My wife and I run a wedding business here in the UK. We offer a number of services, from wedding invitations and wedding stationery to Hire Equipment including a Magic Mirror Photo Booth and Light up LOVE Letters.

Last weekend we were at the UK National Wedding Show showcasing our services. To put it into context this was our biggest wedding fayre yet! 4,000 Brides had registered to enter and they all had their own entourages too. Before that we had only done local ones where you might get 50 through the door if you were lucky.

We were hoping to get a bit of exposure to our business, hopefully get a couple of bookings and get people to sign up to our mailing list.

There were competing companies in the room offering similar items and similar prices...

The Key Difference Was WE Were Helping, Not Selling

We were overwhelmed by the interest in our products and services. The main reason people came and spoke to us and then came back to us later on was because we were helping them.

Gem and I have been to a number of these wedding fayres before doing our research and you find a lot of the people are trying to sell to you. There are more interested in making a sale, then they are about how they can make your wedding day special.

I am not a natural salesperson and find it extremely off-putting when someone does do that. It makes me want to walk away and even not have something because of the sales pitch.

So, our main goal the weekend was to help people. Talk to them about what we offer, show them how it works, talk to them about how we operate and how we can help them and all the time talking about how special their day will be and we want to make sure we help with that and not hinder that.

AND IT WORKED!

By not pushing, and if you factor in that we did not walk away with any concrete bookings but they all came back and booked on Monday (deposits paid, etc)

It was a great example of everything that Kyle and Carson say about promoting products online via affiliate marketing.

The number of people who had seen what we offer and what the competing companies were offering (our prices were about the same) they chose us because we showed we cared about them and our business.

There was a couple who had already had a quote for the Magic Mirror at £300. Because of the mileage charge, ours would have been priced at £325 but they booked with us, because we showed we cared and they were willing to pay the additional cost because the other vendor didn't really seem bothered about whether he made the sale or not?

Back to How This Relates to Wealthy Affiliate

You might reading this and saying, "OK John, how does this relate to Wealthy Affiliate or Affiliate Marketing?"

Well, I will say that the recurring theme in all of the training and anything Kyle or Carson mention is that helping people online has a much better effect that selling to people.

The wedding fayre brought a lot of focused people through the door. They are planning one of the most special days of their lives, so they are wanting people who are going to add value to their day. The reason many of them booked with us is because we were helpful, and not just looking for a sale.

So when you create your content, or create your landing pages or do anything offline or online remember there is a person on the other end of the conversation and they are looking for someone to help them.

Think of it this way. The 4 photo booth companies there all had a relevant product to show a relevant audience, but the key difference between us and the others was the sales pitch (landing page or content).

We were not convinced we would make sales at this show, we were just there chatting to people, talking about our services, how we could help them and it Worked!!

It is something that you feel flowing throughout Wealthy Affiliate. We all help each other, we just need to remember to do that on our websites or in anything in life really. Pushy sales will not make you money quicker, in fact it might even take you longer.

Help from the instant people meet you and you will reap the rewards of your hard work.

The wedding show was awesome, we took enough bookings to pay off the show and even pay off next years too.

So, it made me think about a couple of challenges we have in the online world. Competition and Content.

There will always be competition, but if you are providing really helpful content and a great user experience then it will definitely make the difference.

Trust in what Kyle and Carson tell you when you go through the Training. Trust that Helping is the right way to sell when it comes to online and even offline sales and you will onto a winner.

Sorry, I seem to have rambled on a little, but hopefully you can see how it can transform your business just by helping

All the best

John