John Livesay to Speak at LGBT Week NYC StartUp & Entreprenuer Conference
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Looking For Venture Capital? 3 Tips to Get Funded
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The 3 Tips to Attract the right Venture Capital to fund your dream
Do you find yourself getting frustrated that your goals are not being achieved fast enough?
Despite all the passion that you have for your work, do you find yourself wishing you could share that passion in a way that was more contagious?
Is it hard to understand why venture capitalists and advertisers are so slow to commit?
No matter what our title is at a job, we are all the CEOs in our own career. Whether we are working for a company or running one, we need innovative ways to break through the clutter and move the needle on revenue.
Here are three key things to remember to tell your story about your products to potential buyers or investors:
I. Sell YOURSELF first!
People buy from people they like and who show empathy for their situation. Establish your credibility, doing it in a way that shows how you helped someone else achieve their goals.
Telling a story is a great tool to promote who you are.
Here’s an example from my past as the Conde Nast salesperson of 2012 for the entire company. I realized that coming up with a “never been done before “ idea was the key to my success. Guess jeans was celebrating their 30th anniversary in the same year that W magazine was celebrating their 40th anniversary. The concept that I came up with and got the CEO of Guess to embrace was to run an exclusive onsert showing 30 years of Guess models with W’s 40th anniversary issue. This generated over $500,000 in new revenue to W. The event’s goal was to find a way to drive press and awareness. We did a party that included images of Guess models such as Drew Barrymore next to images of herself when she was on the W cover. This resulted in amazing celebrity turnout and press for Guess.
A great way to get even more engagement after sharing your story is to ask the buyer for theirs. In the book, What Great Salespeople Do, it says “Everyone has a story to tell if given the chance. People want to tell their stories—they want to be heard, they want to connect, they want to be understood. It’s human nature. Pass the torch to your listeners and watch them run with it.”
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0071769714/?tag=mh0b-20&hvadid=3521976614&ref=pd_sl_10l9lkwvyd_e/
II.Sell the COMPANY
What does your company stand for? People need to hear the story of how your company was founded and WHY. When you tell a memorable story of how the company got started, it gives people an emotional connection.
Howard Schultz toured Italy and saw many people drinking coffee in cafes as a place for conversation and a sense of community. It was so MUCH more than just selling coffee . He wanted to take the same concept to America. He faced multiple rejections from venture capitalists, but was relentless and opened up his first coffee shop in Seattle. The mission remains the same-“Inspire and nurture the human spirit-one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time.”
What is your company’s mission that helps connect you with prospects?
III. Sell the PRODUCT
So many salespeople make the mistake of starting off the presentation with details and features of the product without selling themselves and the company first. It puts the prospect on the defense out of the gate and ends up creating friction vs having a natural flow of connection.
When you do get to the presentation to pitch the product, be sure to focus on the benefits to either the decision maker, or the end user, or both.
Here’s another great story about a startup that go Mark Cuban invested in their new social media app Ocho. The crazy thing is that it creates videos that are only 8 seconds long. Here’s the story:
http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/239626/
The founders of a new app were asked what made their product unique vs the competition. Here is what they said:
“Everything we build under the hood is designed to power a vision — the experience we want our users to have. For instance, Ocho is the first social network to introduce voiceover and volume control because that’s what we felt was necessary to make good UGC [user generated content] video.”
Note their answer is not about the features, but the focus is on what the benefits are to the user.
“People who tell the stories rule the world” Plato
So the question to ask yourself about what you offer is “Who have you helped?”
If you do not have all the answers to these questions and need some insights, let me know. The first people to send me their email to [email protected] will receive a free 30 minute coaching session.
Soar Your Way to Success with Integrity, Passion and Joy
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When I first started out in sales, despite having some great success, I used to fear someone was going to tap me on the shoulder and say “I’m sorry, there’s been a mistake, you don’t know what you’re doing. ”
How many of you have felt like a fraud in some way or another?
There is nothing wrong with “fake it till you make it” because when you learn something new, all the mistakes are at the beginning.
Remember when you learned how to drive? It was not smooth, nor were you confident to drive on the freeway at night on your first day on your own. Baby steps. First you learn how to drive in a parking lot, then side streets, then freeways. The same is true learning this new way of thinking about yourself as a brand and how to “sell it.” If you don’t like the word “sell” think of it in terms of emotional storytelling that makes you want or desire a certain outcome.
I have learned to define success not only financially, but also by achieving a sense of inner peace about who I am and the contributions I make to others at work and out of work.
When you realize the importance of having your identity be larger than your job description, you are on your way to freedom which fuels your energy to soar.
The keys are:
· Stay in the moment,
· Be comfortable with silence and
· Don’t take rejection personally
These keys will make your career soar and give you a sense of accomplishment.
We also don’t fret over what might or might happen tomorrow. My favorite quote from Mexico on this topic is “Don’t cry before they hit you.” Are you worried about a new boss or being fired? If it is not happening now, don’t cry about it. It probably won’t happen and if it does, worrying about it won’t help you when it does happen.
Fear of the future drains all the pleasure from the present. @jwlorr (Click to Tweet!)
You are here to get CLEAR for take off on your SUCCESS flight plan!
Here’s how it works.
What we focus our attention on MOST OF THE TIME informs and instructs the way our lives manifest. If you want to fly from LA to NY, you don’t think about how to get to Chicago. Focus on what you want and where you want to go and how you want to feel along the way. Emerson said “Life is a journey not a destination.” I take it one step further and say, how we feel during the journey is key.
When you add in how you want others to respond, feel around you, then you really soar vs just fly. If some of you are thinking, I’m not in sales, I would offer “ All of us have to sell ourselves all the time. Whether or not we are selling our ideas to get implemented or to get promoted, we still have to sell ourselves.”
You have to sell yourself first to YOURSELF. If you don’t buy what you have to offer the world no one else will either!
When you sell yourself, you are selling your integrity, your value and your ability to do what you say you will do. The people who can sell their concepts and their value most successfully get PAID the most. Did you hear that? Let me repeat it. The people who can sell their concepts and their value most successfully get PAID the most.
Let’s start this off with an Affirmation I would like you to use. “ What I have to offer has value and people want to buy from ME. I am lavishly compensated for my skills and effort.” If you say that to yourself with conviction three times during today, I promise you will start to FEEL a shift in perception. That is the first step towards a change in your belief.
If you are a student, you need to sell yourself to get admission to college. If you are interviewing for a job, you need to convince the person to hire you. If you are a real estate agent, you need to convince buyers that you are the right person to find their dream house. Even singers are told to “Sell it” when they are singing, which means make the audience buy it or get emotionally involved.
How you feel about yourself when you are selling directly impacts the results you achieve. If you are trapped in self defeating and negative perceptions about who you are as a seller and why you are selling….it will be a struggle to be successful.
I will assist in keeping ALL OF US on a flight plan of THINKING that will enable us to FOCUS on EXACTLY where we want to go.
Feel free to EXPAND on that destination in your life. We will be co-pilots in this journey. Please share your thoughts and feelings on selling yourself in the comments below.