If My Product’s So Great How Come I Can’t Sell It? 100 Customers in 100 Days

Based on a book by Kim Klaver

I recalled having been introduced to this early this year. This has helped me a lot and I am sharing them in the hope that more people would be enlightened. This is quite long so I am cutting it in various parts. But note that all of them are equally important.

The following is a very brief “Cliff’s Notes” summary of the book If My Product’s So Great How Come I Can’t Sell It? Sections of the summary have been paraphrased to hit on key points. This is not meant to be a substitute for the book, but rather a study guide. Kim Klaver goes into much more detail and provides a number of examples in her book and the 3 Scripts class that the book is based on.

Part I

Four Agreements:

1) Let go of the 9 in 10 who won’t buy. There are many reasons people don’t buy, like:

• It’s not on their radar. They may not value the same things you value like looking good, losing weight or making money. It has to be on their personal “Change List” before it gets on their radar. Once it’s a priority on their Change List, they’ll buy.

• Still on their vent list. People have two lists on their minds – the Change List and the Vent List. People complain, whine, joke, and beat themselves up for the items on the Vent List…but they never do anything about it. Items on the Change List are those that someone is actively doing something about.

2) No more seller talk. You always have to put yourself in the shoes of the consumer. It’s not what WE think that matters, it’s what the consumer thinks. When sellers start talking, almost no one listens. Here are three signs of a seller:

• Generalities. If your words and phrases speak to no one in particular, who will respond? For example, “health and wellness,” “nutrition program” and “home based business.” Generalities that are vague or abstract don’t catch anybody’s attention; therefore, nobody buys.

• Techno-babble. This is jargon, shop talk, like “patented, scientifically proven nutritional supplements,” “USANA Health Sciences,” and “Sense skin care line.” Only use words that a 13-year old would understand. Don’t get into the names of products, companies, or technical terms. Names of diseases are also techno-babble; symptoms are not. For example, most people don’t know what “fibromyalgia” is or feels like, but they can relate to achy muscles and being too tired to get out of bed.

• Hype. Promises. Chestbeating. Unbelievable claims that sound inflated, excessive or extravagant turn people off and few people believe them. These are predictions or promises over which the seller has no control, like “these products prevent cancer” or “you’ll be able to go off your medications” or “this will get rid of all your aches and pains.” These can also be considered chestbeating, like “this is the most exciting, fantastic, amazing, wonderful, cheapest, highest quality thing out there.” Doesn’t everyone say this about his or her product? What is distinguishing you or your product?

3) Lead with YOUR hot button. Forget about other people’s hot buttons and lead with your own… the thing you are concerned about or something that happened in YOUR life – which is the reason you do your program…the reason why you fell in love with your product or service. You’ll be able to find people just like you, who buy for the same reasons you did. And because it’s YOUR hot button, you’ll be speaking the truth. Examples – wanting to work from home with your kids, needing to lose weight, finding a product that gives you more energy, or taking a vitamin that gets rid of the aches in your joints. State your hot button so clearly that your prospects hear it distinctly. Use these strategies:

• Find YOUR truth. Tell about your experience so that the listener feels the pain, the need, or the excitement you felt. If they feel the same thing, or know of someone who does, they will say, ”That sounds like me. What do you have?” or “That sounds like someone I know. Tell me more.”

• Be honest always. Tell them right off that you market your product/service or are introducing it to people. People want to buy from other people they feel they can trust enough to take advice from.

• Don’t project your results onto others. Just because you had success with your product or service doesn’t mean the whole world will. People are different and react to the same things in different ways. So relate your experience as an instance of how it worked for you and then put the ball in their court as to whether it might work for them or not.

• Pretend it’s your “first date”. Tell them enough to whet their appetite. Then let THEM ask for the “next date” or more information.

• Believe in the power of specific words. HOW you say something may be as important as WHAT you want to convey. Specific words have the power to turn people on OR off.

4) Do it over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over…

I hope this has been a short but helpful PART I. Keep on coming back for the rest of If My Product’s So Great How Come I Can’t Sell It? 100 Customers in 100 Days