One of the best persuasion lessons I ever done heard was 10 or so years ago, when Michael Senoff was interviewing the late, great negotiator Jim Camp.
Sometime during the interview, they did a bit of roll-playing.
(As if Jim was selling Michael gasoline)
And, to make a point, Jim Camp said to Michael:
“My name is Jim Camp and I work with Phillips Petroleum, and we offer high grade gasoline at $3.70 a gallon. And you will find our additives to be of the highest quality. So don’t you want to buy Phillips gasoline?”
To which Michael obviously declined.
Why?
Because all Jim was doing was making claims.
And, all those claims did was create objections.
(Like a lot of today’s email and other sales copy do, not-so-coincidentally)
So, he switched it up.
Instead of pitching the gasoline, Jim asked Michael about his car’s engine, asking how many miles he could afford to take off its life, asking if he’d ever experimented with a higher octane and, if not, what held him back, and so on and so forth, and constantly bringing it back to Michael’s car and not his gasoline.
It was a great example of the difference between pitching and selling.
And, pretty much the opposite of how the marketing proles write email copy.
Well, guess what?
In the November “Email Players” issue I go into how to apply this concept of not creating objections in emails (or any other kind of copy) in depth, and in a way none of your lazy, flakebook addicted competitors listening to the nonsense on social media about selling are doing, or would even know how to do.
I’m sending this puppy to the printer in 3 days.
If you want to get it, subscribe here in time, while you can:
Ben Settle
