Internet marketing has done a LOT of great things for businesses. This is especially true for individual entrepreneurs and marketers. People who once wouldnt have stood a chance of going head-to-head with big businesses now finally have the same means for reaching gigantic audiences and tracking metrics. This has levelled the playing field and essentially enabled thousands of happy marketers to retire early to their own private islands (well, maybe a few).
Either way though, tools like email marketing, Facebook ads, Google ads, SEO, content marketing and more are a godsend for the small business.
The only problem? These tools in some way make things a little bit too easy. Thats especially true when you think of those ready-made business-in-a-box type offers. You know the ones: the ones where you buy a digital product to sell, along with your email sequence, your sales page, and more.
The issue with this is that while those systems might work well, the buyer doesnt really understand how to use them. And as such, they dont get the full benefit.
Whats worse, is that because were so reliant on all these easy wins, many of us have lost some of the most fundamental and powerful business skills.
In particular?
Talking to people.
Thats right: actually speaking to someone in a live and interactive manner so that you can listen to what they have to say and actually respond. And this makes ALL the difference.
Why? Think of it this way: when you try and sell something through a sales page (a single page that explains to visitors how great a product is), all you will end up doing is talking at them. You can use every psychological technique in the book to try and make your product sound great, but at the end of the day, this is a one-way conversation.
The same thing is true with email marketing, with advertising, and with just about every other tool in the internet marketers tool belt.
And that just doesnt work all the time.
You might be lucky. You might write the perfect sales pitch that happens to perfectly tap into the way that the visitor is feeling right now. You might answer all their questions, and assuage all of their fears.
But then again, you might misread the situation. You might not realize that this particular customer isnt that concerned about earning money. Or that they dont like reading. Or that maybe they dont like being spoken to that way.
Or maybe they have a question: should they get package A or package B?
Can you guarantee that X?
Because no one is around to answer their questions, they will leave. And youll never get the chance to sell to them again in most cases.
Compare this with an ACTUAL conversation. In an actual conversation, you still do your sales spiel. You still dish up all the facts and figures and explain why they should definitely choose your product. But then you open up the floor. NOW you have the opportunity to their questions. Or at least you just try and judge from their responses how they might be feeling.
If theyre into it? Great! You can double down on that strategy and really drive home the sale.
If theyre apprehensive? You back off. You try a different tact. Right there youve already kept someone who would otherwise have left.
If they have a specific question? You ask them what that is and then answer it for them.
And suddenly, you can turn a pitch that isnt going so well around.
This is the power that any great door-to-door salesman has at their disposal. And its something that is lost when you use any kind of ready made sales pitch.
Whats more, is that its something that SO MANY of us have forgotten how to do simply because we havent had the opportunity or the need.
But what if we regain that skill and bring it right back?