Took the Nerd Girl to see Iron Man 2 yesterday.<\/p>\n
Was a GREAT movie, too.<\/p>\n
And I highly<\/em> recommend it.<\/p>\n In fact, on the way home (after my “nerdgasm” wore off and I could think rationally again), something occurred to me about the movie that’s directly applicable to selling, marketing, copywriting or any kind of persuasion.<\/p>\n Here’s the skinny:<\/p>\n Iron Man 2 had some extremely good special effects. <\/p>\n But, they did not take away your attention from the story. <\/p>\n In other words, they weren’t the focus of the movie, the story<\/em> was (as it should be). <\/p>\n And you know what?<\/p>\n That’s exactly how selling should be.<\/strong><\/p>\n All the cool sales “fireworks” are well and good.<\/p>\n But what a lot of marketers do (and it’s especially rampant online<\/em>) is get so caught up in the hot new sales and persuasion “techniques” their favorite goo-roo has been using (usually on them)… they forget about the REAL part that makes the sale:<\/p>\n Helping people solve a problem or eliminate a pain.<\/p>\n To paraphrase the late (great) Eugene Schwartz:<\/p>\n You want the person to look through your sales pitch like they are able to look through a glass showcase and see the product inside. If that glass becomes dirty, reflective or calls attention to itself, you’re dead in the water.<\/p>\n No sale for you.<\/strong><\/p>\n And that’s what focusing on the tricks and tips do:<\/p>\n Dirty the glass.<\/p>\n Just like too much attention on special effects does to a movie.<\/p>\n Anyway, the point?<\/p>\n It’s not about us and our fancy tricks and tips, it’s about them<\/em> — their problems, needs, desires and pain. <\/p>\n Focusing on THEM is the key.<\/p>\n That’s the whole secret to speeding ahead on the highway of selling and leaving your competition eating your dust (while making more of ye old green stuff, too).<\/p>\n You can learn more about selling like this at:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n