So, we’ve talked about how not to sell.  Today, I thought I’d talk about the other side of the coin and give some inspiration about how I do sell.

Most of the time I like to ‘sell’ with options.  Give someone options for what they’re looking for with an explanation of why I’m giving those options and what the differences are between the options.  Two examples come to mind.

Website Selling

I love giving people options when it comes to solutions for their website.  I do my research and learn everything I can about what the best solution for the person is.  I also take the time to get educated about which one I think is the best choice.  Like with most things in life, it usually comes down to money (and/or time.)  I usually give people three choices:

  1. The expensive, all-in-one solution.
  2. The ‘some money’ / will get the job done solution.
  3. The free, DIY option.

This gives a person a choice to make an educated decision based on the options that are best suited for them.  I generally appreciate it when it happens with me and have noticed that people appreciate it when the same happens to them.

I have no problem telling people I don’t have a good solution either.  As you may (or may not) know, I generally create websites using WordPress.  So if someone tells me they want a site designed in Drupal, I try to explain that my ‘skill set’ is really in WordPress.  I will attempt to explain why I believe WordPress is the better choice, but I also know that someone with the same ‘skill set’ in Drupal can make just as beautiful a website.  Therefore the decision is theirs to make.

Effectively giving someone the website they want (and deserve) is the ‘name of the game.’  Learning Drupal (the way I know WordPress) would take years and it would be a disservice to my clients if I lead them to believe otherwise.  Part of the cost of getting a website created is the knowledge and experience I have in WordPress.  Just like how you go to college for 4 years to gain knowledge so you can get paid more money!

Bible Selling

Regardless of your (or my) religious stance, I think you can appreciate the point of this.  When I was in college I worked at a Christian bookstore.  One of the things I loved doing was helping people pick out the right Bible translation.  If you don’t know, there are dozens of types of translations based on many different manuscripts.  Some people like the ‘Old English style’ of King James while other people prefer the New King James that uses the same manuscripts but updates the language.   Still other translations use different manuscripts (there’s about 5,600) and different translations.

I absolutely loved asking questions and showing people the difference of translations.  I would ask them if they were going to use the Bible for studies or just casual reading.  I would show them the difference  and let them know why they were different.

Conclusion

No matter how you slice it, I like to sell by education.  I like to give people options so they can make the best decision and spend their hard-earned money on exactly what they’re looking for.