(Ok, that's a lie....subtraction, some multiplication and one long division problem.)
I called...begged...and then got to retake it. Then I got the job.
My first sales job was working in one of the gift kiosks at the Met museum in New York City.
It was summer and I was 15. I absolutely hated every minute of it.
I didn't care at all.
At first -- I tried to do the minimum. Then I gave up.
When people would ask for a piece of jewelry, I would say:
"Look, are you sure you want to buy this?"
"You DO realize this is not really a pearl...it's just a plastic ball covered in shiny paper?"
"The metal they use to make this cross is terrible...not solid...look how easily it bends"
My only plan was to get fired. Then I would be free.
To my horror the opposite happened, sales went up!
I found something about this recently in Jay Abraham's my life in marketing.
(It's here and free: http://www.abraham.com/my-life-in-marketing/)
(See: Part 3 at 1h18m)
Jay Abraham talks about the most important copy writing trick is to always reveal a flaw in the product. He learned this apparently from Joe Karbo of 'The Lazy Man's Way To Riches' fame. Who is thought of for selling hype...but his actual trick:
Reveal a flaw.
As I am a recovering direct marketing addict -- here is something else from that world:
Gary Halbert would always say the 3 reasons people don't buy are:
1.) They don't want it
2.) They don't trust you
3.) They can't afford it
(I may have 2 and 3 in the wrong order--I'm too lazy to look it up).
People want to do business with people they trust. Even if they themselves are not trustworthy.
When you reveal a flaw people trust you.
Duh....
http://www.inc.com/marcus-lemonis/why-vulnerability-is-key-in-business.html
When I try to figure out how to sell something I spend hours trying to put it in the best possible light.
Most of this effort is a wasted.
As someone who obsessively studied direct marketing as an attempt to hide from actual sales (always a fatal error) for years and years -- I have a particular problem with this. I think being a wannabe copywriter may just rot your brain.
You get obsessed with choosing that one magic word to make the thing look as good as possible. If I say, "great" instead of "good" everyone will love it and all my problems will be over.
But this is almost all bullshit.
It's better to spend some of that energy figuring out how to reveal a flaw.
Be ultra specific -- but reveal why they might not want to buy it.
"This widget does X it doesn't do Y So good.....it's terrible at Z."
Where as every other insecure human will say, "Yes, it does that too! it's awesome!"
What's interesting is not that this is true -- since it obviously is -- but how come so few people will do this. It shows the level of insecurity humans feel. Fallen, Pathetic creatures that we are.
