“How do we sell Liverpool to people who’ve never visited?”
A few days ago, I went with some business leaders from Liverpool to the House of Commons. We went to learn about the huge investment that’s coming to our city, and to promote Liverpool to the powers-that-be.
And that was the brief I was given – “Andy, how do we, as business leaders, sell Liverpool to people who’ve never visited?”
This was the advice I gave them. You can use it, to help sell your ideas to others. It’s my 3Ps:
- Priority
- Prove
- Passion
In more detail:
#1 Priority
The first step of any sale is to find the other person’s PRIORITY.
Don’t talk about yourself first. Nobody wants to see a bunch of Scousers running round London, saying “Liverpool is great”.
Instead, first discover what matters most to them.
For example, you might speak with a Business Owner, who says she’s setting-up a new office, and her PRIORITY is to find a location that is a great place to live – helps attract and retain staff etc.
#2 Prove
We then use relevant info about the thing we’re selling (in our case, Liverpool), to PROVE it will help them achieve their PRIORITY.
For example, we could discuss ’Liverpool’s Cultural Kit’ – award-winning theatres, concert arenas, football, all the Beatles stuff etc.
And/or, we could mention famous companies who have a huge presence here – Unilever, Shop Direct (formerly, Littlewoods), Kyndryl’s new AI Hub etc.
And/or population stats – numbers, skills, etc.
#3 Passion
Whenever you sell anything, speak about it with PASSION. If you can’t convince yourself, you can’t convince anyone else!
Of course, there are other elements to selling. Some even don’t start with ‘P’. But we all found the 3Ps was a simple approach to remember when speaking with all the MPs, peers, VIPs etc. Which means…
… Action Point
When you’re selling something today – your idea, your product, yourself – use the 3Ps.
Remember: nobody will buy from you because you say you’re great. But they will buy if they think your product will help them achieve their priorities – so, make them great.