Why Hard Selling is so uncool these days
So here is my beef…
I become a customer…which I am very often within the online world, and I am looking to buy myself a new camera.
Pretty cliche, right?
Well, it is the truth. With the US dollar being close to par with the Canadian one right now, us Canadians can get excellent deals by buying US versus buying Canadian. In fact, things like clothes are close to 50% cheaper down there, with items like SLR digital cameras being close to 25% off.
For all of you crafty marketers out there, now is a great time to market ALL products to us Canadians, as we are going online by the fist-fulls, looking for great deals.
However, don’t fall into the trap that I saw many marketers falling into when I tried to buy a camera online.
I got turned off…pissed off…and frankly almost decided to go down to Costco to buy my camera as a result of the type of “hard sell” marketing that I saw taking place!
I understood the benefits by reading these sites, however I was not able to commit to buying any camera based on what was on all of these websites because their marketing styles frustrated me as a consumer.
What were they doing that was so bad?
First off, they were feature heavy. They loved to tell you all about the features. To me, and amateur photographer at best, I would need a professional beside me to translate terms outside the normal MP, Digital Zoom, etc to really understand what they were talking about.
Their marketing message went something like this:
……
……
…… and more features I didn’t understand.Oh ya, this is the best camera, see these testimonials
……
……
……and more rubbish.
Don’t forget to buy from my site, my name is BEST CAMERA DEALS.
……
……so let me get this straight, your first name is BEST, last name is DEALS, middle name CAMERA.
There are a few major problems with this page. First, I don’t understand what the heck many of the features were, and many beginner’s buying a starter SLR Camera would be in the same boat. Features mean nothing to a potential customer, benefits are everything.
Secondly, I don’t care about company produced testimonials…they mean nothing to me these days. I want first-hand reviews.
Lastly, hiding behind the website, or at least not offering me a pen name makes it difficult for me to relate to anything the website was saying. Notice how I said “website was saying”… that is because that is exactly how it felt. I would prefer someone to be speaking to me versus a website.
…and I know this is how must customers feel in this day in age.
It would have been nice if they said stuff like..
It takes the same quality as a $5,000 camera, the only difference being in some of the small lighting features that you wouldn’t use anyways, unless you have an assistant with you. It works excellent in all outdoor lightening situations and is excellent for high quality, detailed scenery photographs.
This is a usable piece of information. This allows me to quickly say, hey, good thing I read this, because I don’t need to spend money on a more expensive camera. I am just going to be using it for a trip to Europe and will probably only take pictures of scenery.
Now that makes me much closer to buying this camera than someone stating that it has XXX feature, XXX zoom, and XXX lightening options.
OK, I have gotten the benefits rant out of the way. However…
Outlining the Benefits is NOT ENOUGH THOUGH!
You know you here the old saying “sell the benefits, not the features”?
I have even said this to others in the past, but as I think about it, selling the benefits no longer the answer to the entire requirement of the consumer.
The person selling the product should be selling themselves as a person should they not?
Consumers are damn smart these days. Smarter than they have ever been. I fall victim to this every time I buy something. I can spend days researching online before I make a purchase, whereas prior to the last couple of years even, I was a much quicker (and I guess to a certain degree, irrational) consumer.
The main thing people look for is:
Advice from People.
Not companies. People are real. People have opinions. People say when things suck and say when things are awesome.
Marketers often times don’t.. If you sound like a marketer, you sound like a newspaper ad. If you sound like a person, you sound like a friend. People buy from friends advice.
I will take an online example here to explain my theory.
Selling an Acne Cream to Someone That Needs Acne Cream
Should be a pretty easy sell right?
I mean, this is someone that knows they have acne and need a solution to help them out, yet a lot of Internet marketers still have much difficulty walking this person from the “already informed” stage to the “buyer” stage.
Hellooo…they want to buy. Sell yourself as somebody that is credible, someone that is real, and someone that can help.
Not a robotic “Y-O-U M-U-S-T B-U-Y” sales pitch.
Before I get into this, let’s analyze one of the leading acne products out there, Proactiv. I am going to create a list of the features and the benefit translations:
Features:
- has acne fighting ingredients
- shipped within 5 days
- comes with 2 free gifts
- gets an overall rating of 4.9 out of 5 by consumers
- moisturizes your skin
- guarantee to work or your money back
- Comes in a 2oz bottle
Benefits:
- makes you face look flawless to the human eye
- start removing acne before next weekend
- has extra gifts that will make your skin oil free
- real people, with real acne issues love it
- makes your skin feel and look like porcelain after
- it works for most people, but if it doesn’t, there is no risk in trying
- comes in a travel size bottle so you can take it with you on vacation
Don’t sell the solution, sell the face!
You heard it straight from the horses mouth. People want the face, they don’t give a rats about the bottle it comes in, the ingredients, the gifts, etc…they ultimately buy the product to get the desired result, which in this case is “clear skin on their face”.
OK, let’s start off a good sales message here touching on some of the benefits:
I know how you feel. I have acne. I still get it, even tough I used Proactiv, but it is way more manageable. I don’t get funny looks any more, and I don’t get snide eye comments about me being a pimple-face.
If you want help, I suggest you try Proactive. It carries the most powerful stuff for fighting acne in the world, but it doesn’t burn your face off like some of the other products out there. It won’t end acne altogether, but it will make it manageable and allow you to sustain a clear, soft face when you are using it.
One thing I do think you should always consider when buying is whether or not the company guarantees the product. Proactiv does which really made the difference between me buying and not buying. They understand that it won’t work on some of the more severe cases and this is why they have this in place.
Is it worth a shot? I will leave this up to you as you are the one spending the money. However, my experience and research says that you will benefit from it. You will know right away if it starts working, and I believe the company will ship the product by next week, so if you do have an engagement or event coming up where you want to show off your new skin, this would be a good opportunity.
If you have any questions about Proactiv, you can feel free to contact me and I will be more than happy to give you a helping hand.
What do you think?
This is much better than some authority or website telling you that it rates 4.9 out of 5.0 and comes in a oval shaped bottle which is 2oz in size and it has a 60 day money back guarantee. Oh ya, it has this stuff in it called Benzoyl Peroxide.
People like a realistic, personal approach to being sold on anything. Saying something is the best in the world raises red flags. Hiding behind a website and writing as though you are an authority can raise red flags. And outlining just features is simply not effective.
Be real and make your selling strategy a soft sell, not a hard and abrasive sell.
Happy selling,
Kyle
**Side Note: If you can’t give a personal opinion because you haven’t tried the product, then you will have to take a different approach. Use a friend or someone you know of as an example.
“I know that someone near and dear to my heart had acne growing up and the impact it can have. They use to vent to me about the emotional pain they endured from the teasing and weird looks.” etc…
Really this article open my eyes like what to focus on, previously I used to focus on features, I used have list of features and people do visit to my article by very less conversion.
Now if I list benefits first and than the features, than I believe my conversion will improve, very inspiration article and make sense..
Thanks Kyle for taking the time to write this article..
I think the hardest thing is indeed to be able to sell product through writing without cramming it down on readers or buyers. People will check out info and others’ opinions against your own. Writing in an atmosphere that leaves them a choice and favorably ushers them toward the product is an art. However, to actually be a writer about a or any product that attracts or inspires you can be problematic especially if you’re not a user for private reasons, e.g. financially or family members preferring a product other than your own choice which leaves you without the actual product experience. It leaves the option of becoming an imaginative writer based upon proven market demand and maybe even talking to some people who actually use or have used it which is technically a way of making the product real to yourself. I think that technological product features and its technological advancements, the can do’s and can’t do’s, will always be addressed by writers in different styles but remain staple based upon the same tech info that is innate to the product itself whereas an article like acne cream is totally personal and can trigger any reaction on application. Now that becomes a totally personal experience with a totally personal article content.
I just felt a need Kyle to emphasize the difference in between the 2 products you exemplified which differ day from night in sentiment. Well, this is what yr article triggered in me which is very well written ! Thx
@April C
I agree. Often times all it takes to realize whether or not you are doing this is to read the content yourself. I don’t think people do, they view it as something other than human interaction, perhaps a process. Marketing is not a process and with the influx of information vying for our time, poor quality information is going to lead people away from your information and so is hard selling.
I get totally turned off myself whe someone tries to jam something down my throat, it tells me, the person is not confident about the product and needs to use pressure tactics. I am already not listening to what they have to say a soft confident approach is the better way.
I used to sell feed to farmers early on in my career and through all the sales training, it was often stated – if you can’t make a difference in someone’s life, why would you expect them to buy this product? I’m with you, in all this hype, I get turned off and in fact, I came across a website that did this same thing to me moments ago. I strive to make a difference in this world and hopefully the rest of it will follow. I’d rather get to the end of my days knowing that someone’s life was changed as a result of something I did, rather than forcing them to BUY BUY BUY! I’m always trying to put myself in the reader’s shoes.
@Slyviane
It seems that we are moving further away from “pen names” and closer to using real identities. I think a lot of this has to do with people’s comfort level of sharing…and sharing with people they don’t know. It is somewhat scary, but social networks have created much more personal information sharing and at the same time, much more accountability.
Completely LOVE your article Kyle. It is no more fashionable now, but there were some marketers a few years back who advised people to do just that “hide behind the website”. I never like it really, and now completely hate it and try my best to get away from it. As a matter of fact, two of my niches which I used to use pseudo-names for I now switched to my real name
People like to identify with real people, not “Ghosts of the internet”.
Funny I did write a couple of articles about acne and I found it so easy to use my own battle with acne for the articles. I don’t even know how you can write an article about acne without writing about yourself or someone you know. Even if you don’t have acne, anybody knows someone who does LOL!
Thanks again, Kyle for the great article
@Steve Lane
Great to have you on baord at WA and I look forward to working with you. If you ever need any help, please don’t be afraid to get in touch with me inside of Wealthy Affiliate.
Cheers,
Kyle
Thanks Kyle:
I just joined WA a couple of days ago and wanted to let you know that I’m very glad that I made the move.This post really made a lot of sense too me and has really given me something to think about when writing content. In the little time that I’ve had to go through all the info that WA has to offer I couldn’t fall to notice that it is full of insightful and informative pieces like this one.
Keep up the awesome work!
S.Lane
Great post Kyle,
You know selling products online is never easy, especially if you have no one to show you how to do it right. Internet marketers are so keen to make money, as a result, they fail to do it the right way.
i agree with you about the hard sell…I don’t like the rapid mouth run. hard to trust many things these days.
I am trying to get an honest site, definately without scammers. Why don’t people accept money orders for a site so you can start to make money at home?
Everyone wants your bank debit card (could be risky) or you need to use a credit card(also riskyWhat the hell do you do when someone wants you to put up ex amounts of money just to start when you don’t know if they are not scamming?
sincerely,
rosetta sawyer
One of the best quotes I heard from a successful female sales (clothing) consultant was: “I don’t sell. I just help people to buy.”
Yes i concur with Ina’s statement. As someone just emerging upon this market, making money online, getting overwhelmed with so much information from various sources is confusing and most frustrating. The turning point for me was the list swapping, so I had to also unsubscribe from a few lists. My main goal is success and visualizing myself succeeding is the driving force. Thank you for your post. It was indeed very helpful.
This is why you are the Wealthy Affiliate … great post and really good perspective, will definitely use this and have some insight now as to where I might have gone wrong … thanks!
@ Ina
I hear you. It is very easy to lose the trust in this niche these days…and that is one of the main reasons Google clamped down on this niche as a whole. People like yourself were getting scammed over and over again. You may hear outrageous claims like $10K in 7 days, 60K list in 2 days…that is bull. There are underlying reasons and resources that lead to this success and as a newbie marketer, you have no hope of achieving this without the groundwork being put in place first. Fortunately for you, you have become aware that these offers are just that, offers. Going forward, your hard work is going to pay off Ina. Wishing you a successful 2011!
I’m still in the “feeling” stage of online money making. After spending hundreds of bucks on rubbish, still haven’t make a single dime yet. What really pisses me off is that sales letters or whatever you call that packages you received which is supposed to tell you how to make money. They are aggressive, overwhelming, invasive and in most cases so confusing for a beginner that I usually just go halfway reading it before deleting it. What I hate most about it is the LINKS. There are so many links you don’t know do you have to read on or are you suppose to first follow these links. Okay you decide to take the link, just to discover there are MORE links and now you are totally confused. And all these links prompt you into buying yet another package while you don’t know what the hell you are doing with this one you have bought already!.
So, I don’t buy any more, not from anyone. I’ve learned my lesson. I wanted to try online money making because I was desperately in need of money, but now I have lost so much already that I don’t know where I’m going to get the money to make up for it.
Oh and I have undescribed from every one of these online marketers, except you, Kyle, because you are the only one who really make sense in whatever you said. I think you are about the only one left that I still trust!
Thanks Kyle you could be more right,people don’t want to see a sales pitch or be bothered by that crap, I think basically a person with a site or trying to sell or promote a product really needs to “warm-up” to a potential customer,it makes a big difference,it puts it on a more personal level so to speak,and do away with the robotics.
Cheers Dave
Thank you for posting this, it was very imformative and makes lots of sense to me. I had hard selling and like to be left alone with shopping at the mall, etc.
Lise
kyle
thanks, I have…many lesson that I learn from you!
Thanks very much !
raul
Hi Kyle,
Nice write up/Rant
I agree wholeheartedly. My only addition is online marketing product long sale letters. They are RUBBISH. I wish the world would change and make them illegal punishable by imprisonment at least.
All i need to know is what problem it solves and how, the price and the licensing agreement. When you look at testimonials on these slaes letter you just know that a) they are paid for or b) they were given free copies to evaluate
regards
Amen! Well said!
I also don’t like pushy, but I think there is a distinct difference between a hard sell and being pushy. In the right place a hard sell can make the difference between a sale and no sale.
I have often seen, especially newbies to Internet marketing, being afraid to sell. They provide a lot of information, even stress the benefits, but the never ask for the sale because they are afraid to offend people. The result, they don’t get the sale.
I agree with Kyle, but with a slight twist.
The turn off isn’t the hard sell, it’s the inappropriate hard sale. What’s the difference?
The inappropriate hard sell screams buy me now, I need the sale, I’m desperate. the inappropriate hard sell doesn’t know their market, isn’t listening, and just uses a stand in your face approach all the time.
The appropriate hard sell is one in which you know the market, you attend to what they want, and why they want it, explain the product in a way they can relate, and don’t just say, well if you feel like buying cool, but instead say here’s how you can get this now in a way they will respond to.
The key to any selling is knowing your market. Each type of personality responds to a different type of sales message. The type A person wants the brass tacks approach, they are not interested in your story, they want the details, period.
I am such a person. I hate small talk, and I will tell you to just give me the information I want to know. My time is valuable and I don’t want to wade through emotional connections. This doesn’t work well at all for someone who is not a type A personality. An artistic type of audience want to *feel* what it can do so to speak. A technically minded person wants to have the information presented so they can understand how and why the product works. Etc. Etc.
If you can understand what and who is the majority of your market – you can approach them in a way that they will respond to. Online this is a difficult task at times, but it can be done, if your willing to put some time and research into your product and market before you start selling.
Of course this is my opinion… so if you don’t agree that’s quite alright
~
Nice post I have tried to sell products I haven’t used before.
I got to agree that is hard selling. Now I have a website on how to build a website. It is eaiser now to relate to customers issues and help them with their issues. If everybody takes note on this post they will be a step ahead than many IM’s.
Take care WA!
Mike
Great post Kyle.. like always!
Love your simple and to the point way..
I actually feel the neurons flashing in my brain while reading it (aha moment).
Makes me want to run to my blog and check if there are no rubbish in there.
Thanks!
Inday
Thanks Kash we never badger or twist arms. We sell needs– food. There is a lot of competition at a farmers market. I have to convince people to buy our food instead of a competitors. If people wave and walk on thats ok. There is so much to choose from, thats the spice of a farmers market.
I’m glad to hear NM is improving, your right it is also partly amateurs to helped give NM its bad rap.
@Bruce D: thanks for sharing, good points. I’d stop by your display only if (a) I’ve a need or (b) I see something interesting. I’m not counting being dragged there unwillingly by anyone as a reason.
Greetings convert well, but you can confirm that at Wal-Mart
. We both know that acting detached is plain cold, but some salespeople need to chill! Linking to need, if I hear your greeting and don’t feel the need, I may just grunt/nod head/wave hand and keep moving. Question answered?
Oh, re. NM, the people I know who are succeeding build relationships. When more NMers become more professional as regards sales training and team-building, plus have better business discipline, retail will be facing stiffer competition. Amateurism and desperation gave the industry a bad name more than fraudsters.
I assumed everyone would realize we are talking about two different things, but good you clarified it. What I don’t get about buying on-line is what is going to make anyone click on the buy button, without that nudge. I have never bought anything on-line and probably never will. I just don’t trust it. I want to see it feel it smell it, before I buy it. Never buy anytthing from a catalogue either. Am I just old? or old fashioned?
@ Bruce
As a product owner, a “nudge” is absolutely mandatory. Whether it is you just saying “hey, come check out my booth again, I have some new stuff”, or you explaining exactly what you are offering and why it is of good quality and value. This post was making more reference to the “hard sell” from the affiliate perspective…that is, promoting somebody else’s stuff. I can guarantee you that even your best friend trying to “hard sell” you on something, with you knowing that they get a commission will come across in the wrong way. Chances are you would not even buy from your BEST FRIEND if you were approached in this way.
So, yeah, nudge away if you own the product or in your example, the booth.
Cheers,
Kyle
So Kash same question to you as Kyle if you came to our display/ vendor booth at a farmers market would you want me to greet you and talk about our products, and maybe give you a nudge? Bruce.
I know this is Kyle’s blog but I would like to respond to Kash’s comment. what ruined relationship marketing was Network marketing, aka cult marketing and selling. If NM companies would have been honest and legit, NM would have taken over retail sales years ago. but because there were and still are so many out there that are so borderline fraudulent, many are sceptical about relationship selling because the next thing that usually happens is your asked to come to a cult meeting. Party type relationship selling usually works good,even though some are NM companies, they are not trying to recruit all your friends. Chatting with people does not produce sales orders, it cultivates good friendships, and that is good. But not everyone gets the itch a lot of people want to see the benifits/ advantages of what you are selling. Interpersonal skills and selling skills are very different, “work them, tie them” together and you should have a great sales ability. I’ve been knocking on doors and seling since I was 10, yes 4-H club fund raisers selling raffle tickets.
Kyle I see the point, and agree with it. You have to sell, but in the right way,and whether people realize it or not they are being sold to all the time. Advertising, displays, marketing material will sell very little; add a GOOD easy- soft sell to the rest of the effort and sales will soar. For a good sales training everyone should door to door sell for a while, that way you get a true feel for what closes a sale, and understand that not all people buy in the same fashion. Being able to read people is the best sales tool there is, and you can’t learn it from any book or course. And people from different age groups like to be sold to in different ways. Face it people from the gen-y group and the vetrans group have very different purchasing habits. But regardless of age or gender, almost everyone needs a nudge to make the actual purchase, unless it’s necessities ie groceries. We direct sell at farmers markets, did some experimenting last summer,I stopped “selling” for one day to see if our display and materials would sell for us, and just let consumers come to us. Sales dropped about 50% I only did it once. Kyle if you came to a farmers market and came up to our vendor display and you didn’t know much about what we are selling would you want me to greet you and show you the benefits of what we produce and market: or would you want me to just stand back and wait for you to come to me? Bruce.
The old saying is “to sell John Brown what John Brown buys you’ve got to see things through John Browns eyes” is truer now than ever.
Thanks for the reminder.
@ Ana
That is why “forums” and “groups” were invented. You can obtain a load of information simply by visiting some of the niches top mediums for “communicating” problems and “dealing” with problems. This can truly give you experience in a niche without having experience…if that makes sense. In terms of product knowledge, it can be beneficial to be a user of a product before recommending it as it comes from the real world, working experience. The knowledge can be obtained without actual product use though (the experience is).
Cheers,
Kyle
@ Bruce
I agree…that sell could definitely use some polishing. That was what I came up with in a few minutes, but I had a point that I was trying to make clear for the audience. If I were to promote any niche, I would always suggest to become intimate with it. The best way to learn something is to immerse yourself within it…and this is all part of the required research.
Cheers,
Kyle
As a “fellow customer” and one who has experienced both sides of the relationship, I feel you. It’s all over the sales world, this hard selling. How it took so long for relationship selling to become cool again is nuts. Personally, I don’t like buying either: I just feel an itch and the need to scratch. As for selling and being sold to, HATE and HATE.
On a related note, this I find strange: I can get to be on chat basis with people quickly, even make friends and acquaintances quickly, but it stops there. This ability has NEVER yielded great sales for me. Many sales I’ve been credited for could’ve happened unassisted, in my view. Example: I’ve bought shoes without salespeople’s help, as have many people. Selling self alone much easier for me than self linked to product or service…help, Kyle, HELP!
Hi Kyle,
That’s absolutely the way I feel every time I sense someone hard selling, whether it be online or when shopping offline (specially when you are approached by someone who hasn’t got the full knowledge of the product or service, and is trying to sell it hard just to impress the manager). Consumers are much more aware these days of many of the sales person tactics, scams and untold truths that roams many of the markets, so they can push that sale.
Do you know one of the things I hate about “upselling” specially online, is that as soon as you read everything about a product and you fell that the product is going to help you, you purchase that product and then you are hit with another product, and another product and so on. This situation is related to many top online marketers that I have been following for the last 2 years. This for me is the biggest turn off. And you ask me why, and I tell you that the sales person wasn’t honest with you from the start.
It doesn’t take a Clever Person but a Bigger Person to sell and make that customer come back for more of your products.
Great post
Marco
Excellent, but Telmari has a good point. Many of the products we want to sell are not part of our personal experience and we can’t honestly say how they worked for us. That’s what makes it hard. And many times — most of the time, I’ll hazard — you just don’t have access to someone else who has used it, had the same problem, etc. So … are you suggesting we only sell things we have used? Rather limited.
Probably almost everyone has had the vacuum cleaner salesman in the house, that after 2 hours you wanted to run and leave him the house keys. Those types are totally unwanted, but anyone selling a quality value product, and wants a few minutes of my time to show me that value is welcome. But the high pressure sales guy with a grossly overpriced product shouldn’t waste my time. Unfortunately it’s the 2% of the second type that ruins selling for the other 98%. Kyle have you ever done a direct sell of your own product? Neither of the above examples would sell me, although the second is better. Seeing the benifits and value of a product will almost always sell it. Your sell needs a little tweaking and polish
HI Kyle,
That is a very good post, there is plenty enough advertising of this type of product
on T V, and yet they advise you to be so careful, thanks again,I Agree with you 100 %
on this one,
Sonny
Wow! The more I feel like joining your team Kyle…you are so direct to the point and talk sensibly..I like mentor who is like that….really. Im a sales person and your write up is really true…I think, I will learn much from your team. Thanks a lot and hope to be one of your students soon! Happy Easter!
Yes, I agree as well. I also do not like it when marketers text yell when trying to sell their products. It makes me click out immediately. I am also tried of reading long sales letters, it bores me and I tend to click out of them as well. I like short letters that tell and not sell… They are easier to write and easier to read. They supply needed information and it speaks to me as a human being. I have more to add but am trying to keep this relevant and short.
Thank you for your eye time.
Bob/Texas
I am with you. Any hard push type tactic sale is never a good thing for anyone. The long term approach to this type of tactic will kill your business and make anyone run away from you as soon as they see you coming. It is best to show the benefits(short list) and let the product sell itself.
Great post Kyle,
The days of blatant advertising to consumer are slowly running out.
Just start helping people out in a friendly way and the rewards will duly follow.
After all, $1m is cool. But $1m with the knowledge that you’ve helped someone fulfill a wish is priceless
Great post Kyle.
You are good man. You are worth the time spent reading you. You really do care about all of us, buyers and sellers. And you teach well, giving great insght. You’re in a place I like to be at.
You are good.
Well said Kyle,
I can relate to your piece here. In my real world shopping experience, I prefer to check items at the shop or mall peacefully without any unsolicited or interjection from the salesperson. The reason being that in most cases, all they do is hard sell, hard sell all the way. I use diplomacy to keep them at bay until I have made my choice. For some reasons, I get pissed by their intrusion even though I know they are trying to help earn.
Based on this, hard sell is not working for me, but I will definitely go for gentle moves like recommending items after hitting on benefits. Reviews sound really cool because it is easy to recommend down the line in my opinion.
Nice post.
ken9
Kyle,
Thrilled to read your article educating marketers about the various hazards of hard-selling. We know too well that no one likes to be sold…, and we know too well that consumers love to buy in the presence of true expertise.
Thanks for posting this important marketing reminder. Truth-be-told, I’ve never favored a hard pitch either as a business person, Internet marketer or consumer.
B. Brinkmeyer
Good call Kyle!
People love to buy, but they hate to be ‘sold-to’! Kind of like any good relationship – you can’t ‘force it’, it just has to work out naturally.
I think the biggest thing that gets in the way of “first-hand experience” is when I really don’t have “first-hand experience”. If I’m comparing & selling lawnmowers on my site, and haven’t purchased any of the models, it’s difficult to put together a recommendation based on anything other than just the facts about it.
Same goes for Clickbank/info products. I like to recommend only things that I believe will help people – but when the product consists only of a solution for a problem I may not have, it’s difficult to provide personal experience and honest feedback, so I don’t recommend info products I haven’t been able to evaluate or at least get a lot of personal experience about from people.
I guess that’s where the benefit of simply ‘pointing out’ products and solutions lies – you don’t need to tell the person that ‘it will solve all their problems’, only that it’s one of a few options out there that may be worth looking more closely at.
-Telmari
Great post again Kyle,
Well I guess it means “don’t sell” in your marketing effort…instead just suggest or recommend.