dno

> Yes this make sense and I totally agree,
> however,

> I started my selling career at 7 or 8
> selling flowers door-to-door.

> Now, I've written about my
> "mentor" who probably taught me as
> much about selling as anyone...and how he
> gave me books to read on selling.

> The problem I had (or one of them) was this:

> the flowers I was selling, I had picked for
> FREE in a field behind most of the houses I
> was selling to.

> It was an old nursery that had been abandon
> and gone to seed, I drove Dien by it looking
> for the lone sentinel that still pops up
> every Spring and serves as a reminder to
> what once was, it is a daffodil.

> So, how do you sell something people can get
> for free if they WANTED them?

> The first book I read at 8 was Elmer
> Wheeler's "Tested Sentences". the
> second was Elmer Leterman's "The SALE
> begins when the customer says NO."

> But I was able to sell FLOWERS to people who
> really didn't WANT them, or else they would
> have gone into the field and picked the
> flowers themselves.

> But maybe I was just too darn cute to
> resist?

> Maybe, a couple of years ago I took a
> part-time Summer job selling FROZEN meat off
> the back of a Pick-up truck.

> Ever have one of THOSE guys knock on your
> door?

> HELLO, that was me. And I did it to test
> myself, my selling skills, to see if I still
> could walk the talk, because I try to
> encouarge everyone to take at least one
> selling job in their lives.

> Preferably door-to-door. The list is fairly
> impressive of people who have done this.

> NOW, door to door is hardly TARGETED
> marketing, and you rarely encounter people
> who WANT what you are selling.

> So here is where I disagree with the concept
> somewhat.

> It is my job as a marketer to MAKE them want
> it.

> Because maybe they didn't know it even
> existed before I showed up. I met men who
> make six figure incomes selling frozen
> steaks from the back of a pick-up truck. Who
> in their right mind would WANT this? Or even
> BUY this?

> That is what I thought as I started to sell
> it. First thing I did was to buy a case
> myself. Then I had a party, and cooked the
> meat in the box.

> First day on the job I sold 3 cases within
> the first hour. To complete strangers. NONE
> of whom wanted what I had to sell.

> At 259 bucks a pop. That was over 750
> dollars in sales in the first hour, I
> learned HOW some of these guys could make 60
> and 70 thousand dollars a year.

> I didn't believe it at first. But after a
> few days on the job, I could see how easy it
> could be FOR THE RIGHT KIND OF PERSON.

> In between the flowers of my youth and the
> Pick-up Steak experiment...I have sold a lot
> of stuff...door-to-door when I needed some
> really quick bucks.

> Stuff that no ONE wanted per se. Like the
> DEFENDER OF WOMEN, or the Victory Miracle
> Polishing Cloth...a couple of my bread and
> butter winners.

> Or when I sold businesses on Action Ads,
> which were clocks placed in pizza shops and
> dry cleaners, and the ads would rotate in a
> neon lighted frame.

> Or TVs, VCRs, Stereo Equipment...although
> this is a different type of selling because
> they come to you in a retail
> environment...but DAK and Comstrad, and JS&A
> did OK selling stuff people WANTED after
> they were sold on it.

> NOT told about it, but carefully crafted
> SALES attempts to get you to WANT it.

> NOW this I agreee with, and as I've written
> about below, I too have done this. I think
> my SQUARE ONE WORKSHOPS might fall into this
> category. But I don't know yet. I havent'
> really tried to SELL it either.

> I agree here too, but experience has taught
> me that MARKETS can be created. The
> INNOVATOR takes the risks, then the rest of
> the group follows safely on tested and
> proven methodology...

> for example, Ben Suarez used the COMIC
> section, and ran full page ads, it was
> unheard of at the time, there was no MARKET
> there.

> But, he built a huge winner from those ads,
> and his company keeps chugging away to the
> tune of 125+ million dollars a year.

> Was there a MARKET for the Heraldry Name
> idea that Gary Halbert came up with?

> The "Nancy" Letter is one of the
> greatest pieces of salesmanship in print
> ever created. There was NO market with money
> burning a hole in it's pocket, just waiting
> for Sir Gary to ride in and take it.

> The MARKET was created. By the product. And
> more importantly by the SALESMANSHIP.

> Innovators almost always inroduce product
> before market. Steven Jobs had a market for
> the PC?

> There was no obvious market are

> Which is my point and opinion, it is OK to
> do that as long as you know that innovation
> is the harder road, the least likely to
> succeed, the one that requires the most
> work, BUT, may also have the greater payoff.

> In sales, the RISK/REWARD idea as shown on
> the Pictogrigm of Finances holds true, just
> as it does in investment worlds.

> And here is where I agree, for the beginner,
> or for the marketer who wants a "sure
> thing", or as close as possible as you
> can get to one.

> Don't get me wrong, I've said the same thing
> for a dozen years. MARKET FIRST, product
> second.

> But, I've seen the exceptions. In 1985 WHO
> wanted a VCR? Product came first, then it
> was up to people like me to SELL them.

> Same with the CD player when it first
> arrived? Who would buy that, although you
> could argure there is always a MARKET for
> music...so I'd have to conceed that point.

> Now here is an AMEN to that statement. I
> agree.

> The PROBLEM that very few talk about is the
> COMPETITION for a market. Take the whole
> biz-op/money making market. Going to go
> away?

> Hardly. But is it harder to compete in? Jim
> Straw, a man who has sold MILLIONS of
> dollars of stuff via mailorder addressed
> this on another forum recently, saying that
> there is a LOT more choices for people, and
> that thins the stew for the market.

> Here's a market...Internet Marketing...

> How many books and courses and web sites are
> dedicated to this MARKET (1/2 the net,
> right? HA!)

> But a person can only read so much, learn so
> much, spend so much money that it would be
> in my opinion a harder market to
> CONTINUOUSLY pump the money from.

> And marketers like to and should go to the
> well that gives them water.

> But at some point the MARKET gets too thin
> or saturated...until an INNOVATOR comes up
> with a different way to market.

> There is not a day that goes by that at
> least ONE good idea shows up at a forum.
> FREE for anyone who wants to run with it.
> But that is also part of the problem,
> getting people to DO.

> Again, I agree, but also DISAGREE. I may not
> know BEANS about astrology, but if I know
> there is a hungry market in this case and I
> have access to a person/company with
> products of interest, here is where the JV
> comes in handy. Most people don't regard a
> JV as a marketing effort, but it most
> definitely is.

> If you like pink hats (no I

> But, if you are an INNOVATOR, you create a
> PINK hat, get Madonna in days gone by or
> today Brittany Spears to wear a pink hat in
> her next video...and write a hit song about
> how cool pink hats are...you CREATE THE
> MARKET...

> Sound FAR OUT?

> Well, I guess I could throw out Gary Dahl
> and the PET ROCK for an example...any MARKET
> there?

> Totally created for the product. Yes there
> was a gift market. Yes there was an
> "unusual gift" market (and as an
> aside, take note, Spencer Gifts is making a
> comeback, do you have a crazy gift idea?)

> AMEN again. Don't fall in love, test test
> test.
> But you can use other people's INTERESTS
> same as you can use their talent, their
> money or their time. Fall in love with what
> you are doing.

> Within the DOING, a part of that might be
> marketing, might be product development,
> might be innovation, might be acquistion of
> a cash cow.

> Just love the day and the processes of the
> day.

> The PROBLEM Richard is it is NOT simple. It
> is NOT something everyone can do. Finding a
> MARKET takes incredibly hard work. Finding
> and testing a product is arduous. Marketing
> is hardly as simple as AIDA. Although that
> plays an important part in one of the sales
> processes that take place.

> The reason there are so many SCAM sites, and
> the reason so many people start and quit
> businesses every year is because it is NOT
> simple or easy.

> It is hard dang work.

> This is an excellent way to do it. But it is
> only one way. And you are an experienced
> marketer with a lot of success. My thing is
> this: skills of success are not easily
> transferrable or even easily acquired. MOST
> people who attempt to just use the AIDA
> formula come in too far up the line, before
> they know WHY they are even doing what they
> are doing.

> MOST people are not cut out to do the AIDA
> formula either in person or by REMOTE MEANS.
> It is my opinion that these are skills that
> can be hired out, and free the Entrepreneur
> to do other things.

> Case in point, Rick Smith, the Net
> Guerrilla, once he let the PROS do his
> graphic, it was a catalyst to help him FOCUS
> in on what he does best. So, as simple as a
> graphic might be for some people, if it is
> not the right one, then the AIDA formula
> falls apart at the outset, because you may
> have captured attention, but for the wrong
> reasons.

> but

> NO you can never DRONE on long enough here,
> we like DRONING, my picture is next to it in
> the dictionary.

> I appreciate your sharing your expertise
> with us, you have done some remarkable
> things, I for one am dying to know some of
> those inside secrets, but alas, I don't have
> the time to do it. Nor the want. You are
> going to have sell me.

> I TOTALLY AGREE WITH THIS STATEMENT, except
> where I might have disagreed above. OK?

> Gordon Alexander