A very successful individual let me in on the secret to his enormous success.
This man was rich beyond any of our dreams. His financial wealth was physically evident, but his intellectual riches were safeguarded from those looking to adopt his methods, and use them to enhance their selfish desires for material goods.
As a professional, I kept my requests polite and infrequent. He knew that I was excited to have earned his friendship, but that I would become ecstatic to learn his theories.
One day as we engaged in casual conversation which consisted of marketing, technology, and his favorite iPhone app, he directed me down a path that was completely unexpected. He started revealing more about how he arrived at a point of total financial freedom.
I was about to hear the secret to success!
Just when I thought that my ears were going to be graced with entrepreneurial magic, he would leap down a different road, and run off on a tangent about past business deals, and relationships that he wanted to rekindle. I was becoming restless, but I hung on his every word. About an hour went by, and I grew more and more impatient.
Finally, after an additional 45 minutes of squirming in my seat, and lengthy stories about businesses that he thought were doing it right, he turned to me, lowered his glasses, leaned in, and using an authoritative tone shouted, “Do you know what I mean Andy? That, right there, is the key to success!”
I sat there stunned. Was I day dreaming? I listened to this man talk for almost two hours. Had I missed the secret? He could tell by the expression on my face that I was repeating every word of our conversation in my head, searching for the code.
After about a minute of silence, I simply nodded my head and said, “Yes.”
We both stood up, shook hands, and I thanked him for his time. He walked out of the door, and as he was disappearing around the corner, I sunk back into my chair, and slapped my forehead in disgust! After a few minutes of sulking, I packed up my bag, and started walking down the street to my office.
As I stomped along in the cold air, I once again started replaying our conversation in my head. After about the fifteenth replay, his words started to morph into a single idea. I stopped, almost in the middle of the street, and sifted through my bag looking for a pen. I began to feverishly document each key point that was hidden in his ramblings.
After I had about six points printed on the back of an old issue of "Fast Company," I started looking for a connection, a congruent theme that would summarize his vision into one highly sharable word or phrase.
I sat down on the front stoop of an ice cream shop that was closed down for the winter season. It was way too cold for me to stay stationary, but I knew the secret to success was hidden somewhere in my sloppy handwriting. Just as I began to lose the feeling in my right pinky finger, it hit me! The secret was revealed. It was so simple that I almost felt cheated.
In order to sell anything, anytime and anywhere your offer MUST contain a ton of VALUE.
I know you are probably disappointed. You took time out of your day to read this post in hopes of discovering the secret to success. But in reality, the “secret” is not the hidden treasure you envisioned. Value is why we buy. Not value in the sense that a product is worth money, but an emotional value. Something that you can’t place a price tag on.
If you really want to unearth the deeply hidden value that will cause you to buy anything, anytime and anywhere, take a few minutes and try this short exercise. We’ll use money as the motivator. Answer the following six questions, and circle the answer to number six. The words that are contained inside your circle will define your emotional value. Every person will have a different final answer, but if you learn how to develop your product, and appeal to your customer’s true sense of value, you will be able to sell anything, anytime and anywhere!
1. Why is making money (losing weight, finding true love, having children, etc.) important to you?
2. Why is (answer to #1) important to you?
3. Why is (answer to #2) important to you?
4. Why is (answer to #3) important to you?
5. Why is (answer to #4) important to you?
6. How will (answer to #5) change your life?
If you perform this exercise correctly, you might start to notice that your emotions are heightened. You are no longer thinking about just making money, but you are envisioning the satisfaction that’s associated with making life changes. In six simple answers, you unraveled the definition of what it really means to earn an honest wage, provide for your family, live life in line with your beliefs and really be HAPPY!
So what if I developed a product that could get you there faster? Would you be interested? My guess is that you would. And that the price would be a second thought. If you learn how to market your business as a way for people to experience their answer to question six faster, you can sell anything, anytime and anywhere.
Just be sure that what you offer has VALUE.
Caution: Don’t ever offer something that you can’t provide. As quick as the method of appealing to a person’s true value will make you rich, it will put you in the poor house even faster if abused!
Andy Sokolovich is the owner of small business marketing firm Bent Business Marketing. He can be reached at andy@BentBusinessMarketing.com.
