Well, do you? Do you hard sell products and services to your list?

Hard selling products is an art really and in many cases, it is WHAT MAKES THE DIFFERENCE between making the sale and not making the sale.

I was reminded of this fact yesterday when I was getting my hair cut.

The girl who usually cuts my hair wasn’t there and I didn’t have time to wait, so a different girl ended up cutting my hair.

She Was A Hard Seller

So as I’m sitting there, she begins making typical small talk with questions like: "How are you doing?" "Where do you work?" you know…regular stuff, but before I knew it, she slipped into what was to ultimately a sales funnel.

I only recognized it as such because I study internet marketing.

Here is what she did. She began by getting me to opt in to the funnel by asking: "How do you want your hair cut?" Not too aggressive and a standard question for this situation.

I explained that I like it short and care-free for the most part. I wear a pretty conservative hair style. She followed up with: "Do you want to spike it a little bit?"

"Huh?" I said, "spike it?" "Sure" she said, "tease it a little bit".

"What do you think?" I replied…"You’re the hair stylist."

"I think you should" she said, so I said "Go ahead".

So, after she finished cutting my hair, she immediately pulled out a small container of what appeared to be a hair styling gel of sorts and applied a little to her finger and put it in my hear. I smelled great.

Then she proceeded to use it to style my hair in about three different ways, the gel being what made it work in all three cases.

As I was looking at my hair (slightly spiky) I said, "maybe brush it down a bit more" to which she quickly, "well then you’re not changing anything".

She was right and I immediately recognized that fact.

As I sat there looking at my hair, subconsciously, I knew that the gel was a fundamental part of the process immediately as she showed me exactly how it was to be used, you know…"the benefits".

As we settled on a style, she said: "I have a small container of it. Do you want one?"

"Uh, sure" I replied as I continued to stare in the mirror. Honestly, I wasn’t going to mention it again and I wasn’t sure if she was referring to a sample of it or what.

Regardless, she had shown its benefits. Then came the hard sell…after I thought she had forgotten about it…at the register.

With in the blink of an eye, she grabbed a small new container of the gel and added it to the bill and rang me up at light speed.

In light of our previous conversation and due to the fact that she had already rang it up, I opted to buy it.

Actually, in retrospect, she really didn’t sell it to me, she gave it to me and then charged me for it. Now THAT’S a HARD SELL in my opinion and it made the difference between me buying the product or not.

Yeah. She was a veteran for sure.

Do You Hard Sell To Your List?

I many cases, in real life and in internet marketing, the difference between making the sale is how hard you throw the pitch.

Obviously, in internet marketing or list marketing, you can’t "ring somebody up" until they click the buy button, but there are some things that you can do that are similar.

Such as:

• One Time Offer – These are great because they catch people off guard just as I was caught off guard. Usually, the more time people have to think about things, the more likely they are to opt out. One time offers bring with them what I like to call "a feeling of ultimatum".
• Last Chance Offer – In an autoresponder series, it is great to give tons of value, but every once in a while, you have to pitch them something. I like to use a three message series spread out anywhere from three to five days that feeds them: benefits, benefits, and finally a last chance.

The Bottom Line

People need encourgement to buy stuff. Selling stuff, selling anything takes skill, patience, and great copy and in some cases a hard sales pitch.

I consider myself a hard sell, meaning, I don’t crack open my wallet easily (unless its for food) and in this case, it was a hard sell that got me. Touché to the hair cut girl. LOL!

But seriously, if you’re interested in learning how to sell, definitely check out this affiliate marketing training program >>> CLICK HERE

Mark Thomas

Mark is the Administrator of TheBitBot.Com News Articles For Ezines and Chief Editor of the TBB SEO Newsletter. Writes. Scripts. Hacks. Cracks. Re-Writes. Mods. Practices SEO of ALL shades. Has Some “VERY SMART” Friends Boldly Experiments. Publishes. Moderates. Trains. Explains. Pursues Three Important Careers Simultaneously. If you are interested in submitting a guest post with us then simply [ click here ] and sign up for a free account. Then simply submit your guest post there.