"Don't make people guess what you want them to do." , Success Secrets of the Online Marketing Superstars, Meyerson, pg 54.
Fine artists usually have some issue with charging for their work. While they're very passionate about their artistic expression, it is quite another thing to actually say, "hey, pay me this much for this piece of artwork". In fact, these are often times the words you'll never hear them say. Instead, like my friend T, they'll get a manager to do it for them. This is not a bad gig, but what about the rest of us working Janes who can't afford to cut a deal with a "handler"?
The sale is like a game of chess
A few years back, I was a salesperson for a supplement company. Part of the gig was placing cold calls to stores that had either never heard of our company, or had carried our products at one point, but had discontinued them. This was rough because there was a script.
We've all received that phone call where you know in your heart that the drone on the other end is reading a script. It sucks, it feels like bad form, but everybody has to make a living, right? While I hate receiving that phone call, it's even worse placing that call, believe me.
What I learned about the wretched script
Needless to say, every fiber of my being rebelled against that script, it was stupid. It sometimes didn't make sense where the owners wanted you to emphasize words and my enthusiasm seemed to wane after the 20th call...but I DID learn something. Every question, every stupidly emphasized word was a stepping stone en route to closing the sale. There were several questions in which the customer had no choice but to say yes and that's what you want. You want that person on the other end to get used to saying yes. It's sneaky, but it's a lot like a game of chess. Once I understood that, reading the script and emphasizing specific parts of the copy weren't that big a deal. In fact, if I read the script precisely as it was written, I'd close much more often than I didn't. The biggest thing was that last block of words where I asked for the sale, if that didn't make it, the phone call was a dud.
