Stop Selling What Makes Sense

One of the biggest mistakes I made early on was trying to sell people what I thought they needed instead of what they actually wanted to buy. In this episode, I’ll show you how that mindset shift completely changes your results.

[0:18]
I’m Igor Kheifets, and this is The ListBuilding Lifestyle. The podcast is for anyone who wants to build a wildly profitable email list working from home. If you’d like to make six figures, travel the world, and help people improve their lives in the process, this podcast is for you. I also invite you to claim a free copy of my best-selling book, The List Building Lifestyle Confessions of an Email Millionaire, at www.igorsbook.com. Get the free book plus $3,000 bonus package that includes my best capture page templates, email swipe files, and traffic blueprints. Visit www.igorsbook.com for details. And now it’s time to claim your List Building Lifestyle.

[01:06]
One belief I had to unlearn the hard way was at one point early on, before I was making any money, I was trying to sell things that I thought would sell, that I thought people wanted, and that most importantly, I believe they needed, and not things that people wanted to buy.

These are two very different things, trying to sell things that you think people need versus things that people are willing to buy or wanting to buy right now.

Because whatever the market wants to buy, it will show it to you by buying the products. But oftentimes, we’re delusional, and we come up with different products and services that people kind of need, like on paper, it makes sense for them to buy them, but they don’t.

[02:00]
I’ll give you a great example, actually something that Dan Kennedy spoke about. So, he was one time consulting somebody who was selling a training system for business owners, about how to make their employees be on time in the office and get work done. So, it’s kind of like a productivity system for employees.

And he wasn’t very successful at selling that system. And Dan Kennedy figured out why, because the way the training was positioned, it was positioned as a training for the business owner, so the business owner had to go through the training and then go and teach those things or do those things with the employees.

Now, as a business owner, you already have your plate full anyway, and you don’t want to be that guy, you don’t want to be the guy who comes in and starts like really policing everybody and tries to make people do stuff. It’s just not something a business owner wants to do.

So, Dan Kennedy had the guy reposition the program completely, and they started selling this program as a productivity system for employees where the business owner had to pay for the system. But the guy who created the system would actually come in, either into the office or in a seminar environment, and he would work with the employees himself, rather than the business owner having to work with the employees.

So in this case, the business owner would buy the system and go play golf, while the guy who was selling the system would come in and actually teach the employees. So, that one shift made the complete 180 for the business. The business started growing very fast for this guy, and he became very successful.

So, see the difference? He originally thought that every business owner would want this system, and he was half right, because the business owner wanted the result.

But no business owner wants to actually go and become the police officer and go train their employees. You won’t find even one. They’d much rather drink a bucket of paint and then do that.

So instead, he created like a done-for-you, if you will, package, same exact information, same exact training, but it’s now delivered by somebody else.

[04:21]
So, this is an example of going from something that the market should have or the market should be buying to something that the market is buying. There’s like a distinction here. Sometimes it’s a subtle distinction, but there isn’t a big enough distinction to make or break a product.

I’ve seen, by the way, a very similar thing where a friend of mine, who’s an Irish motivational speaker, came up with a program, it’s a video training on training kids about money, and he tried to sell it to the parents.

So basically, a system that is sold to the parents on how to train their children on money. Well, that’s not going to work, because the parent doesn’t want to do it themselves, the parent prefers for someone else to do it.

Because it’s the same mentality as, let’s say, math, like if my kid needs help with math, I don’t want to be the one sitting down with them and helping them, I’m going to hire a math tutor and have the tutor do the work, same exact concept.

[05:32]
Thank you for listening to The List Building Lifestyle. Get access to the previous episodes, transcript of today’s show, as well as other exclusive content at listbuildinglifestyleshow.com. Also, remember to claim your free copy of my best-selling book at www.igorsbook.com. It explains how I made millions with list buildings starting from scratch, plus I’ll give you $3,000 worth of free bonuses, including my best landing page templates, email swipe files, and traffic blueprints. Go to www.igorsbook.com now to claim your free package!