I’m sitting at the dining room table, hand writing some of the sales letters from the Robert Collier Letter Book while my licorice tea cools off.
Collier was a direct mail writer, successfully selling all kinds of products during his career, including jewelry, tires, books, and clothing.
Hand writing successful sales letters like these helps to slow down and focus your brain, while (more…)
While the financial reward of being a good salesman has it’s
appeal, I’ve not historically been good at selling things to people. (Or at least that’s the story I’ve told myself!)
The last time I was trying to “sell” (as a career) was during the down economy in the early 2000s.
No one was buying, and I wasn’t making any money trying.
I’m an introvert, mostly — again, one of the things that I tell myself. I’ve practiced becoming more extroverted. I’ve intentionally put myself into situations where I need to be more extroverted.
One reason I’m drawn to persuasion because I see it as a way to interact with people. It allows me to better understand their motivations and behaviors, and to better connect with them. It pushes me to do so.
Sales, on the other hand, is a whole different beast of persuasion. To be “salesy” meant (more…)
I started the persuasion and marketing book reviews on PersuasionReadingList.com (now Goldmine.Marketing) in 2016. The first was My Life in Advertising by Claude C. Hopkins, a classic written in 1927.
Since then, I’ve summarized my favorite lessons from dozens of books — and I have dozens of other marketing, copywriting, and persuasion books on my shelf that I’ve read but not written about.
It’s been fun and educational on my end — and I hope on your end too!
As I continue along my journey, learning about the forces that influence us and how we, in turn, can influence the world around us, I was bound to (more…)
Much of what we think of as “persuasion” is really “motivation.”
The secret to “motivating people” is to find what already motivates them, and to tap into that. Because you’re not likely to change someone’s mind, and…
people aren’t going to work against their own happiness.
A great way to tap into existing motivations is to frame your argument in a way that encompasses the interests of each group. (more…)
During my last trip to New York City, we visited the World Trade Center Transportation Hub, also known as the Oculus.
The stunning architecture of this sweeping building cannot fail to impress. The inside feels huge and open like a European cathedral. The outside looks like a pair of wings, flapping in multiple photographic exposures across the Manhattan skyline.
One thing that will forever stand out about the Oculus, however, was the doors.
In his 2008 book “Predictably Irrational,” Dan Ariely opens our eyes to our decision making process and how it can be used against us.
Everything is Relative.
Our choices are made in comparison to other options, and what we might lose or gain with these decisions. Unfortunately, all too often we don’t know the value of those options at all! For example, do you really know the price and quality of one television set over another?
If given a set of options, Ariely lays out the predictable choices in each:
A few jobs ago in a different company, I split my time between IT Support and IT Sales. It was my first job in IT. I felt lucky to be there.
In the Sales role, my sales manager was constantly looking over my shoulder.
I would compose an email to a client and he would revise it.
I would write up a specific piece of hardware and he would suggest something different.
“Why do you hate so-and-so, so much?” And he had answered them, with his shameless impudence, “I’ll tell you. He has done me no harm. But I played him a dirty trick, and ever since I have hated him.”
–Dostoyevsky, “The Brothers Karamazov”
The human brain is excellent at keeping itself free of blame. We have a self-image that we’re a good person, and we also do things that harm others. The cognitive dissonance this causes can be uncomfortable… until we rewrite our memories or justify our actions. (more…)