Know Your Audience Before You Sell Anything

Why Knowing Who To Talk To Changes Everything

A Recent Conversation I Had

A woman I met was deciding whether to republish a book she'd written before. She was contemplating options and looking at dilemmas, so we talked. And then she sent an email about an offer she saw from another author and asked what I thought about it.

I’ve seen a lot of offers over the years. Aside from working in internet marketing sales, I took courses in marketing, sales, productivity, and mindset and learned the frameworks for a lot of different offers. I have been on a quest of figuring things out and it’s been interesting.

The offer type she sent me dates back about 8 years or so. It’s a straightforward offer that requires a lot of backend automations, a lot of ad spend to drive traffic to a landing page, and a menu of packages for people to buy into over time. 

Knowing what I learned from her, it wasn’t something I thought she would want to model but I explained how it worked. She isn’t trying to build an entire ecosystem and spend a lot of money on ads. She is looking at getting the book published again so people who need it can be helped. 

Understanding Your Target Market

She thanked me for the information and then I wrote her this. 

"You really need to identify the target audience you want to help with your book and whether they experience this subject as a pain point. If they do, you need to understand what methods they have tried to resolve their issues and why they failed if they still have the problem. Then, you need to identify what result you can provide that will satisfy their needs and give them a way to get results.

Once you have that figured out, it's easier to move forward with the idea. I hope this helps”

She said it did and I'll wait to hear back from her. I talked to a lot of people about their businesses over the years. I also got to talk to people who had a business idea and never got very far trying to get it going. I’ve tried my own business ideas. Ideas are great. But to be in business you have to provide something people will want to pay you money for. So let’s talk about how this applies to sales. 

How To Qualify A Buyer

Once you know exactly who you're serving and why what you offer matters to them, selling stops feeling like selling. You're not convincing anyone of anything. You're offering a specific solution to a problem they already have.

Take a videographer. A client comes in with an idea in their head, and they want to make it into a video. The videographer offers the skill to bring that vision to life. But the videographer also has to find out how much the client can spend on the project. Then they can present the options to do the work based on how costs are calculated. It’s not about being pushy, it’s about giving the client information so they can decide how to move forward, if they do. 

Or take someone who helps people get out of debt. Not everyone struggling with debt is ready to take action. The people worth targeting are the ones who will actually follow through on the recommendations. Knowing what you're solving, and who is actually ready to solve it, helps you get in front of the right clients instead of chasing everyone.

With my sales workbook. “Sales Without Being Pushy”, I wasn’t thinking about writing a sales workbook when I got the idea that my approach to sales might help people. I was putting together a presentation for a networking group. It was when I pursued the idea that I wound up writing the workbook. Sales is a real pain point for service professionals and small business owners. I have a solution that can make sales fun for them so they can get more clients. 

Why This Is at the Core of a Sales Approach

This is one of the first things I look at with every client, whether it's a service or a product. Who are you actually trying to help? Do they experience what you offer as a solution to a real pain point? What have they already tried, and why didn't it give them the result they wanted? What result can you actually deliver? 

Once you can answer those questions, the sales conversation changes focus. You're not really trying to sell anything. You're offering a solution to the people you know you can help. And you need to be in front of the right people for what you offer. 

Want To Check Out a Sample of "Sales Without Being Pushy"?

If you want to read through some of the sales workbook and try the first exercise in “Sales Without Being Pushy: Write a Simple Sales System You Will Actually Use”, there is a Read sample button under the thumbnail of the cover on Amazon. If it's a good fit for you, great. If not, cool.

The workbook is designed to guide you through 9 sections of stories, sales lessons, principles and exercises so you can write a sales system based on your own values, your own experience, and the way you naturally want to do business. Then everything is brought together in Section 10. You can check out the workbook on Amazon.

Click Below to Read More About The Sales Workbook