I have spent Gourmet Chocolates lot of my life in life insurance cover business of selling. I have sold life insurance, machine software, pots and pans, beauty treatments, nutritional products, clothes and training services to name bit a few. In those 30 years of Marketing experience one immutable fact has emerged. persons hate being sold to.

However that is also at the root of one of lifes great paradoxes. Whilst we hate being sold to, we all love to purchase. Buying something that we really want or that really solves a problem is a wonderful feeling. For persons running a business that presents a real problem.

So often the selling techniques we experience as clients seem to be trys to trick us into buying something we dont really need and that practice in the past has given the entire selling profession a bad reputation. Having so often been the victims of these high pressure selling tactics, its not surprising that we are very uncomfortable when we must sell.

So how do we solve that paradox - Easy.

Stop Selling!!

That's right - None of us likes to be sold to - so don't sell to persons. On the other hand we love to purchase - but - often we need assist in making the right buying decision, we need anyone to "assist us to purchase."

As a Marketing trainer years ago I developed a new definition of selling when teaching persons to sell life assurance.

Selling is Solving Peoples Problems at a Profit

It's all a matter of concentrating on understanding a customers mesothelioma cure really seeing what's in it for them, what they want to achieve and then providing them with the best solution that fits their budget. that applies whether you are selling online or offline, focus on helping persons to solve their problem and they will be comfortable about buying your products.

A few years ago I did a lot of work for the Institute of Marketing and Marketing Management helping set up their training division. As an association they often got special exhibitor deals for trade shows and were all set to go off to one when they asked me what I thought of the promotion material.

It was a complex futuristic looking poster incorporating all the services they offered and took about 5 minutes to decipher. What they wanted to do was get new members and sell training courses and the post was clearly trying to sell all their services. I persuaded them to shift the focus and put up citibank student loan consolidation hand-written posters that read:

Double Your Marketing Free Consultation

They had salespeople queuing up at the stand for two days asking for more information and trying to get a free consultation from the Marketing trainers there. Marketing persons want more Marketing they dont want training courses or magazines or seminars - unless they lead to more Marketing.

What do your clients want? What problem are they looking for you to solve for them? How Espresso Machine you assist them to purchase?

When you send out a Marketing letter, when they come to your web site, visit your trade show booth, look into your shop window, pick up your brochure what message do they see? Do they see a message trying to sell them something, or do they see a message helping them to purchase a solution to a need or problem?

Copyright 2005 Richelle (Rikki) Arundel, UK

About the Author:

Founder and First President of the Professional Speakers Association, www.RikkiArundel.com Rikki Arundel is an International Keynote Speaker, Trainer and Writer and an expert in Marketing and marketing communications with an impressive track record.

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