Is this my worst ever selling?!

8th October 2024

I recently said this to my 11-year-old son:

“On Friday, if you are OK with missing school for the day, you can come and see me speak at a conference. There will be 2,000 people in the audience. I’ll be introduced onto stage by Stephen Mulhern – that guy we watch on TV – the one who presents Catchphrase. The speaker before me is Deborah Meaden from Dragon’s Den. I can introduce you to these cool people, and to other celebrity guests.

Also, as a speaker, they have a fancy Green Room, with free drinks and snacks. So I can show you what that’s like. And how they put on my lapel microphone. And what it’s like to walk along the backstage corridors to get to mainstage. I think you’ll really enjoy it. Would you like to come?”

His reply:

“Did you say I don’t have to go to school? Then, yes!”

Nice.

So, the final 95% of my sales pitch was totally irrelevant.

Which is pretty bad selling.

Because, when we sell, we should:

  1. Focus on what the other person perceives to be valuable
  2. Say the minimum possible, so they say “yes”. And then …
  3. … when they do say “yes”, shut up!

I’m always amazed by how stupid I was two weeks ago. And this story is yet more proof of that…

Action Point

What’s the first thing you have to sell today? Is it your idea? Your product? Yourself?

Whatever it is, remember the three rules above. The last one is critical – after all, I’ve never heard of a salesperson who listened themselves out of a sale!

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