Billy Mays is my personal marketing hero. Not only is he the best pitchman in the business, but he has proven that people like to buy from a sales pitch. Billy Mays played a major role in the recent popularity of informercials. There are jokes flying around twitter.com about a conspiracy involving Ronco knocking off Billy Mays. I’m sure the Sham-wow guy is a suspect as well. Okay, so maybe it’s a little soon for such humor. But this goes back to the story about Michael Jackson in that twitter.com is my source for the news. After all, I don’t stare at CNN all day, I am on the Internet doing my thing. I can have a movie or whatever going and my trusty twitter.com account feeds me with all the static from the outside world (dumb stuff as well as useful stuff).

Okay, back to Billy Mays. What I love about Billy Mays is that he is the epitome of the high pressure salesman. He is the personification of what every consumer in the world despises about salesmen. The only thing more disgusting than an infomercial pitchman is … well … maybe they really are the most disgusting example of the stereotypical sales slime. But that’s what is interesting. If no one likes the slimy pitchman with the high pressure “but wait, there’s more!” tag lines, then why do they sell so many products? This is a huge industry and these guys make millions in sales off of their pitches. If everyone hates them, why does it work so well?

Why do people hate salesmen?

People do not want to feel like they were tricked into buying something. It’s all about blame-shifting their buyers remorse. If a buyer regrets a decision, he automatically blames the salesman for making him buy something he didn’t really want or need. Sometimes a salesman will misrepresent a product and deserves that blame. Sometimes the buyer got what he wanted to buy and just regrets his moment of weakness. The issue is that whether it’s the buyer’s fault or the salesman’s fault, it is always the salesman’s fault. Thus salesmen get a bad reputation. People do the same thing when they make fun of lawyers. When they need a lawyer, then they hire them. But when they don’t need a lawyer, they make fun of them. People actually like the sales process and that’s why they buy. The sales process works. But it is still fun to make fun of sales slimes, isn’t it?

The real point of this is that people really do need sales people to help them make the right buying decision. Most businesses would fail without a sales pitch. Whether it is an infomercial, a catalog, or a guy in a cheap polyester suit, sales pitches are absolutely critical to nearly every business. A sales pitch tells someone what to buy, why to buy, how to buy, where to buy, when to buy, or whatever else and the customer benefits from this “education” as long as the sales pitch is honest. Of course people fall victim to fraudulent sales pitches, but that’s not what we’re talking about here. We are talking about having a real product or service and using sales and marketing techniques to help the customer discover the value of our product and how it will benefit them.

Why do so many entrepreneurs hate selling?

I deal with entrepreneurs all the time and I am constantly hearing them say, “we get all our business by word of mouth.” If you are getting all of your business by word of mouth, chances are you are not getting much business. I can see a correlation between size of company and marketing budget. A “zero” budget usually equates to a very small business. But it’s more than just budget. It is about a willingness to actually “pitch” your products and services. I have one client that says, “I never talk about my business. I don’t want to be a salesman. My customers just find me by referral.” In other conversations he drops mild hints that he is looking for referrals. But what is that? That is a volunteer sales force. He wants other people to talk about how great his services are. There is nothing wrong with that … but it is really just a sales force inside of a denial about selling. If no one ever talked about how good your business was, you would not have a business at all. If you rely on word of mouth to grow your business, then really you are just depending on a volunteer sales force. Volunteer sales forces will produce some results, but not nearly as much as can be done with a properly orchestrated sales campaign.

Usually the objection from entrepreneurs about selling is tied to the fear of putting off some people. Your customers expect you to sell. They also expect you to show them respect and deal with them honestly. While the running joke is that no one loves a salesman, this is far from the truth.

How to sell without driving off customers?

The first thing you must accept is that with every action you take and every decision you make, you will gain supporters and lose a few as well. You cannot judge a campaign by the complaints of a few people. You judge your campaign by the overall impact on your business. If you get many new clients and lose very few clients, then the campaign is probably effective.

The key is to make sure your message and the elements of your marketing are in alignment with your values in the sense of, why are you in business? What is your mission? If you communicate that in a way that is consistent with your business and the products and services it offers, it will be well received.

If you don’t know how to do this, then you need a little help from someone about branding and image. The first priority is to have a solid brand and image, then to communicate that brand and image so that customers get to know you for what you really are. Then sell products and services inside that brand and image. Your brand and image is where your credibility comes from and your sales pitch inside of that credibility is where your sales come from. Build a brand and sell your products and services inside that brand. Customers will love that about you. No one will ever tell you they want to see an ad or watch a commercial or whatever. But when they do, they will buy your stuff if the message is consistent, professional, and credible. All you have to do is to carefully examine ANY successful business in your area and see that branding, image, marketing, and sales are all consistent and are a very refined process.

Billy Mays is the proof!

The legacy of Billy Mays is clear. His mission was to sell home products that appeal to everyone. He has a large target market and television fits that market. Ask any home owner if they like infomercials? They all say “no”. But ask them about Oxiclean, the Ped Egg, or Mighty Putty, and they all know every detail. They watch the commercials, they buy millions of the products, and they all make fun of the pitchmen. They don’t hate the pitchmen, they love them. Sales works. People like to be sold. They just don’t like to admit it. Create a breakthrough in your business with a solid branding and marketing campaign.

The Big Demo

I attended a sales seminar with an excellent sales trainer. He told a story about how he gave this seminar to a corporate sales team. When he did a mock sales presentation to one of the attendees, he demonstrated the process of leading a prospect into a positive buying decision. It was an interesting technique and the “victim” didn’t stand a chance at saying “no” in this mock presentation. The CEO of the company was in the seminar and watched the trainer do this to his employee. The CEO said, “Do that to me! I want you to do that to me! That’s amazing!” Being sold can actually be a lot of fun. It’s just that no one will ever admit it.

The Challenge

I am certain that you have a really great example in your mind of a really bad sales process and you are using that example to de-validate everything I’ve said. Sure, I have had those experiences too and I can remember a few of those quite vividly. I challenge you to examine other sales experiences you have had and notice that most of them were quite smooth and pleasant and felt much more like you were making the buying decisions and they actually felt good.

My challenge to you is to carefully review your brand, image, marketing materials, and sales presentations and make sure they guide your customer through a decision making process and that you help them along the process. Your sales and marketing needs to guide the customer through the negatives of not buying your product, the positives of buying your product, the benefit of choosing you to buy from, and create some sense of urgency and call to action that encourages them to decide now because people will procrastinate.