Okay, in reality it’s not that hard to sell the dream but far too many marketers, salesmen and business folks miss the mark. It’s costly. Think about in it terms of conversion rates. Not selling the dream causes bad conversion – few prospects become clients.
However, when you effectively sell the dream, conversion rates not only go through the roof but up-sell because it’s literally effortless.
Sell the Vision
Don’t try to sell the product or service, sell the dream. Don’t sell the technicalities and the specs; sell the vision that includes the person you’re pitching to. Don’t stick to just the benefits, either; sell the dream not the noun.
- Use descriptive language that engages the creative or imaginary aspects of their minds.
- Speak with enticing verbiage that paints a rosy picture.
- You should be trying to appeal to them emotionally, on the human level, get it?
Example #1 of Selling the Dream
Let’s pretend you and a buddy are at the club, and you’ve run into a duo of single girls looking for some action, for some after-party fun. Here’s what not to say:
“Hey, how about you two ladies come on over to my place. I have a big beautiful home.”
“Hey ladies, I got lots of alcohol at my pad.”
This looks silly, like you’re bragging or desperate. You can expect an awkward silence as the girls look at one another and smirk. Don’t hand them the bell right away like that, instead keep it in play like this:
“Right, so check this out. I think you should come with Billy and I back to my house. We’re going to have tons of fun and rage unto the morning. You’re not gonna regret it, or look back and think, boy I wish we had more fun last night. Come on, let’s get out of here and really entertain ourselves. What do you say?”
That should give you a rough estimate of what I’m talking about. Appeal to the vision, or the dream. I mean, they are out to have a good time, right? Let’s put selling the dream int a more business-like situation.
Example #2 of Selling the Dream
If you want to get the attention of a wealthy investor or potential business partner to pitch a product or perhaps a technology start up or something, here are some things to include. Paint the picture and sell the dream.
- We’re gonna live it up with another profitable and break-out business of our own.
- We’ll be waking up every morning with an adrenaline rush.
- We can control the future of the company rather than depending on boards or project managers.
- When we sell this thing, think about the fame, acknowledgement, prestige and accolades.
- We can go on a celebration cruise to Hawaii. My treat.
Assessment
- Understand that the key to selling is enrolling people into doing things by selling a dream or vision that includes not only the benefits but the awesome outcomes.
- Understand why simply focusing on products and services has seriously poor conversion rates.
- Sure, if you’re talking to a techy, engineer, programmer or doctor, they’ll dig the specifics and the nouns. But with most other people you have to start training yourself to craft visions around the products or services, and sell that.
