Want to be Rich? Sell People What They Want to Buy, Not What You Want to Sell Them

It's so painfully simple. Sell clients what they want to buy and you will be rich. 

You can tell by looking at this guy that he doesn't care about you or even what you want 

Ah! But easier said than done. Most salesmen do not get rich because they keep trying to sell people what the salesman has to sell, not what the people want to buy. How can the salesman sell people what they want to buy? How can the salesman know what people want to buy?


Simple. Ask them.


I meet salesmen all the time and constantly have to repeat myself when it comes to this point. No matter how many times I repeat it, it still bears repeating as sales people don't seem to get it: Sell people what they want to buy and you - and what you have to sell - will always be in demand.


It doesn't matter if it is a product or service, or even you, learn what the customer wants and sell that to them. 


I must be poor at explaining this concept to people. Why? Because, yesterday, with my own staff, I had to explain it again, and I've worked with that person for several months! I had to explain it again! Folks, this was at least the 5th or 6th time I've had to go through it.

"Have I got a great deal for you!"

Here it is again: Sell customers what they want to buy, and not what you want to sell them, and you will be rich. Does this sound like some sort of word game or Za Zen Buddhism? It isn't. 


Like I said, my explanation must be bad. Let me try again, this time let me put you into the head of the customer. Imagine that you are the customer in this next scene.


Here goes two examples. One is the example of a bad salesman. The other is a good salesman. Which, as a customer, do you prefer?:


Example A: 


You are the customer. You go into a clothes store because you want to buy a new coat. The salesperson approaches you. The sales person holds up a pair of bright red and white striped slacks and says to you, "Hello! Please buy these pants!" 


Do you buy the pants? Probably not. You probably run out of the store and think this sales clerk is nuts. You certainly don't like being approached this way. And you probably won't go to that store again.


Unfortunately, this is how most salespeople are approaching their sales job today. The honest sales manager and sales person will admit it.


Example B: 


You are the customer. You go into a clothes store because you want to buy a new coat. The salesperson approaches you. The sales person says, "Hello! May I help you find something today?" Do you answer? Do you say, "I'm looking for a coat"?


Yes, you do. Why? Because the salesperson has offered to help you find what you are looking for. The sales person knows where most of the merchandise is located so, if you are really serious, you will respond positively as it saves your time and is convenient.


This salesperson has asked what you want and you answer because you really do want something and you have walked into their shop to look for it.


It is so simple. Find out what the customer wants and see if you can fill their need. 


Aha! But it's different if I am a salesman and I go to the customers home or place of business. This is true. In the example above, the customer has walked into the clothes store for a reason. How does the salesman create communication and trust with a customer - when visiting that customer at home or work - so that they can explore what the customer wants to buy? Simple again. Ask. Create communication. Do not say, "Buy these pants!" Ask how the salesman can help the customer achieve what they want. 

"You don't need a new refrigerator! Buy this car!"

I work with a lot of mass media; broadcasting stations, both TV and radio, and magazines. They all have a problem. Under their traditional way of doing things, they are selling what they want to sell. They are like the sales person in Example A. All of these salespeople make appointments with clients and then go to see them and ask them to buy time slots in programs that have already been decided on. I can't name one broadcasting salesman - and I know several at many different TV and radio stations - who is out asking the clients what they want to buy and making the effort to fill customer needs. (Recently, though, I know a magazine who has been doing that and has begun to do very well doing so).


The broadcasting station salesmen are like used car salesmen in the United States; they are still selling their services they way they were sold 40 years ago: One way sales. Instead of creating open communication and having the ability to answer customer needs - and offer a flexible, wide array of services and choices, the broadcasting stations are still selling time slots on TV and radio. The great salesman will be creative and offer solutions to customers. 

Listen carefully and with an open mind, offer creative solutions

Are you still selling yourself or your services and products the way you were doing it ten or twenty years ago? If you are, then it should be obvious why your sales are bad. Is there any successful company in the world selling things they way they did twenty years ago? Not is the west and not in Japan there aren't.


Become a needs and solutions provider for your customers. Do some research on them. Go to their web page and see what they are doing for in-house promotions. See how you can support. Get information and knowledge. Talk to the customers and ask them what they want.


Find out what they want to buy and help them to get it. Brainstorm and offer creative solutions... Once you do and trust is made, perhaps then and only then, you'll be able to sell them what you want to sell them.


But first you have to find out what they need and help them get it.




This article was inspired by Kimitoshi, Youichi and Tom

My Near Death Experience

Have you ever seen these people on TV who claim to have had a near-death experience (NDE)? They all claim seeing "clouds" or "lights" or floating in a room outside of their body. Some also talk about seeing angels and long dead relatives. These are some of the common experiences people who claim they've had near-death experience.


People who hear about these near-death experiences usually think the person telling the story is "crazy."

I never used to believe that stuff at all either... That is, until it happened to me. Yes, I have had a near death experience. Actually, this has happened to me twice. Both times were in Japan. This post is about the first time it happened to me. It must have been about 1995 or so.


I was once told by a Za Zen Buddhist priest that having a near-death experience was the fastest way to enlightenment. I know that my thinking radically changed, but don't know if I could say I was enlightened. I don't think I am a very enlightened person, but I have had experiences that should have enlightened me. I have had these so-called near-death experiences. Well, actually, I'm not happy to be able to say that I've had them twice. I reckon that, in a way, it should be sort of embarrassing. I reckon that near-death experiences should enlighten anyone who has a lick of good sense. I guess I don't have enough sense.

But you can't really run around telling people this sort of thing. Why? Because if you tell people that you died and came back to life, no one will believe you. They'll all think that you are nuts. I'm not a Christian but I am well versed in the bible. In the Book of Mark, when Jesus toured the countryside and healed the sick, he told those whom he had healed to, "Tell no one." He did that because, well, because it's obvious. If you were deathly ill and then you witnessed a miracle and were cured, and told people what happened, they'd all think you were nuts... Of course.


It's like telling people that you were abducted by aliens or have seen ghosts... Or even an exorcism....

You see people who talk about these things on TV sometimes, but you can't figure out if it's real or not unless you've experienced it yourself. George Foreman talked about it. I saw him on a TV interview talking about his near death experience. When I heard his words, I knew that he wasn't lying. I've been there. I've done that.


After a boxing match that George lost he was taken to the locker room and there he passed out and says that he "died" and had an out of body experience. He says that he was falling in a dark tunnel into pitch black. It was then and there he knew that he had died. He then says that he thought to himself,


"So this is death? Oh well, at least I believe in God." George then goes on to tell about how a giant hand caught him as he was falling and then he "...felt the blood of Jesus pouring through his veins."


Some may know this story. When George recovered, he was a different man. He was no longer angry at the world and he retired from boxing and became a preacher. It's a great story.


My story isn't that great because I was never heavy-weight champion of the world... But my story is similar.

This isn't what I did, but it's just as stupid

I don't really want to go into the complete details (it's embarrassing how stupid I was - it was an accidental drug overdose) but I was doing something that I wasn't supposed to be doing. You know how that is? Accidents always happen when you are screwing around and not being careful...


Those sorts of things happen all the time. And that's why accidents happen all the time; people not being careful and doing dumb things.


Anyhow, after my little, er, "mishap," I knew I was in no condition to do anything. If I called an ambulance, and if I recovered, I'd probably get arrested. If I went out anywhere, I'd probably collapse and the results would be the same. So I did what I thought would be the safest thing to prevent a heart attack, I laid down on the floor and tried to stay calm.


Later on, I don't know how much later on, I can only recall that I opened my eyes and I was floating in the air with my back against the ceiling. It didn't seem the least bit strange to me that I was floating in the air and looking down. I was in no pain and felt fine.


Below me, on the ground was the body of a young man and there were three extremely old gentlemen leaning over the young man. The three old gentlemen were all dressed completely in white. (And, no they didn't have any wings.) The entire scene had a misty, almost fog-like like appearance as if it were happening in the clouds but we were inside a room.


I looked at them as they knelt over while silently looking at the young man. I couldn't tell if they were praying or examining him. I spoke up, pointed to the young man, and said to them,


"Hey! That guy doesn't look right. There's something wrong with that guy..."


The old gentlemen didn't respond or seem to notice me at all. I kept repeating the sentences but they ignored me. Then, I paused for a moment. I looked at the young man and he looked strangely familiar to me. Yes! He did! I knew who it was! That guy laying on the ground was me. 


But it wasn't me! It's hard to explain. That wasn't me lying on the floor, "me" (I) was floating in the air...but it was my earthly body laying there lifeless and still. 


I spoke to the men,


"Hey! That's me! That guy is me! No! I can't die! I have children! I have lots of things to do I have too many things to take care of before I die! No!" I think I began shouting...

It was then and there that the man sitting in the middle oh-so slowly turned his head up towards me and his eyes met mine. What I saw shocked me. His face looked as if he must have been 150-years-old. His hair was completely white. His eyes were sunken in and his face incredibly wrinkled. I have never seen such an old person in my life before.


He looked up at me hanging against the ceiling. In his eyes were anger and revulsion.


The other two men never even glanced at me. The man in the middle just stared at me not saying a word. No! It wasn't a stare. It was a glare! I could read his mind. I could understand the anger in his eyes. He was thinking,


"What... a... disgusting... waste... of... life!" 


I paused. I knew he was right. It was a complete and disgusting waste of life. This realization was like an arrow being shot into my heart. I felt ashamed of  myself. 


I then no longer wanted to protest. I felt defeated. I shut my mouth and then I closed my eyes. I then realized that I was dead for sure but, for some strange reason, I didn't feel sad anymore. I can't remember if my eyes were opened or closed but I saw my life like a movie. It went by me like a flash. I saw my mom; I saw my childhood; my childhood memories.... I actually felt okay.


But that's the last thing I remember about that part; seeing my life and feeling okay....


I don't know exactly how many hours passed, but I woke up on the floor and it was nearly dawn. My clothes were soaking wet and I was freezing. I did my best to dry myself off and then I went home.


It would be a few years later that I would enter drug rehabilitation... I was glad I did. I was also glad that I was able to experience this so-called near-death experience. It changed me a lot. I am also no longer angry. I am truly striving to be a better person and to make a difference. I know that I am one of the truly fortunate few on this earth. 


These stories are so ridiculous and outrageous that no one would make them up. Yet, like I said, if you tell people this, they'll think you are crazy. When I was a younger man, I would laugh at these stories... But, I don't laugh at them anymore. It's easy, it seems to me, to tell a charlatan from the real thing.


I just now searched for you for a Youtube video that deals with this subject, and I found a good one. I am, again, totally blown away how close some of these people's experiences are to mine. 

I can't say that I wish for you a near-death experience because that involves something very dangerous or traumatic... But, if you do, and come back fine, then I envy you.


Just don't tell too many people about it. They'll think you're crazy.