Seth hit it again with his to-the-point genius. He went to the Farmer’s Market. Someone sold him an eggplant. He says:
In our permission marketing world, sometimes it’s easy to forget how important selling is. Not because people are so stupid that they need to be sold something. Not because selling is obsolete because you can just search for what you want and then buy it. No, because selling overcomes fear. Fear of closing, fear of commitment, fear of blanching or sauteeing or just plain fear of buying something.
Salespeople who sell properly sell stuff people wish they would have bought in the first place. It’s a huge service… I’m pretty sure we need more good salespeople, not less.
Marketing usually only brings customers to your doorstep. Good, old-fashioned selling is necessary to the buying experience. And we do live in an experience economy. Your customers expect you to know what they want even if they don’t. Don’t forget to close the sales that are just waiting to be sold.
On the same topic and thread – here’s a link for professionals that outlines the implications of selling in professional business very clearly.
In a previous life I sold radio advertising. I’d get a new client – someone who hadn’t advertised with our station before, or not in a long time – play the spots, come back at the appropriate time to see how things were going. Too often the conversation went like this:
Me: How was the response to your ad?
Client: I didn’t really see sales go up like I wanted it to.
Me: Did many people come to your sale?
Client: Yeah, we saw plenty of people, but they didn’t buy the product I advertised. Radio just doesn’t work for me.
They just didn’t get that we’d done what we promised to do.
After enough of those, I began to make my motto, “I’ll get ‘em in the door. After that, it’s up to you.”