Get Ready To Sell In 2018

When it comes to selling like a Key Person of Influence, high value positioning is everything. When a salesperson from Apple has a conversation with a prospect, they have the power of a world-class brand behind them.

But how can you get that same edge when you or your team are unknown to the prospect?

Create digital products.

One of the best ways you can really share your ideas with a vast number of people in an effective way is to create a digital product; this will likely be a download or an online tool. Such products are not an interruption, they are a means of communication that consumers have chosen to participate in.

If packaged correctly, such products have a high perceived value, even though the cost to reproduce them is almost nothing.

If someone takes an hour to listen to your podcast, they feel rapport with you, they bond with you and really start to understand what makes you unique. If someone joins your membership, books onto your webinar or takes your online test, they are spending time and getting to know you. You start becoming the person they must do business with rather than a person they could do business with.

Productise your services.

A service can be packaged up like a product. You can give your service a name, it can have a method, it can have a brochure, it can be delivered by other trained professionals. This productised service could include elements that are standardised and elements that are bespoke.

Don't fall into the trap of thinking you deliver a service and this step doesn't apply to you. Treat your service like a product and you'll see an uplift. One of our clients, a plastic surgeon, thought he would struggle with product creation because it doesn't get more bespoke than performing surgery. However, he has now given his method a name, created brochures, compiled testimonials and created additional products into the overall bundle. As a result, his value went up and his waiting list has grown immensely.

Your service is part of an ecosystem, so be sure to make it as productised as you can, and to surround it with other products that help educate, inspire or relate to more people.

Share your secrets.

Here's a big secret: Don't keep secrets. Share your best ideas with everyone. Consider that the most famous chefs share their recipes every week. The more they share, the more their value goes through the roof.

You don't hear people saying, 'Now I have Jamie Oliver's recipe, I will never visit any of his restaurants again!' Instead, people attend Jamie's cooking classes to find out how they can use the recipe to cook a delicious meal. The more people have, the more they want, so share your ideas freely.

You will also make room in your mind to have even better ideas. If you share powerful ideas, people will come to you to implement them, and you can have a valuable service offering that does that.

Nike doesn't sell shoes. They sell an idea of what it means to wear their brand, and they command a premium for it.

Great brands sell ideas and Key People of Influence understand how to take their market beyond the functional and commoditised aspects of a product or service, and instead lift people up to the vital, valuable and essential qualities that help them get what they really want, that don't just get sales, but create champions of their brand.