 A few weeks ago, I was having a conversation with one of my nephews. He was planning to start a business and like most people who are planning to start businesses, he thinks he needs his own business because he couldn't get a good job that pays him well. Unfortunately, people in this category can hardly master the game called entrepreneurship. You see, entrepreneurship isn't just about creating a product, not even about creating a good product. Most times entrepreneurship is about creating a movement, about getting masses to fall in love with your offer and about getting people to choose you instead of your competitors. In other words, selling is the real game of entrepreneurship. And that's why in today's video, I will be sharing with you three skills you need to master to be able to sell a lot of your products and services to your market. If you're new here, don't forget to subscribe. 1. Genuinely like people Over the last one decade, I've been greatly in love with the psychology of persuasion and marketing. I've read tons of books just to understand what makes people want to buy and what makes them say no. One of those great books that were of value to me is The Six Principles of Persuasion by Robert Caldini. Caldini wrote about liking in his popular book and you don't even have to be a psychologist to understand this. As humans, we hate to be used and part of being used is being sold. We're hated when we perceive that someone wants to sell us something and that's why 99% of advertisements are being ignored. Okay, why in the world should I give you my money? Why should I trust what you said about your product or services when in fact that's the exact thing everyone else says about their product or services? But what if you can make me like you? Now you're talking. If I can like you, I can trust you. And if I can trust you, it simply means that I'm open to your message and I wouldn't find it difficult to open my wallet as well. Now, let's get to the bottom of this. How in the world can you get your target audience to like you or your product? Well, you have to like them first and there's no way you can fake that. Yeah, you can fake anything for some time but eventually people will know that you're faking it and that's the end of your trick. Now, how do you get your target audience to know that you like them? Here's what I found out. If you genuinely hate the problem you're solving, that will result in loving the people who need a solution your product or services is creating. Think about Steve Jobs. He got several millions of people worldwide to like him and his company not because he was a nice guy. In fact, Steve Jobs wasn't a good guy. He wanted to have as a boss or father. But one thing assure, the guy hated the way the computer was the size of a room and he hated how computers were for the few rich guys. Because of this hatred for those problems, it was easier for him to get his target audience to like the solution he was creating and create a movement around that solution. Think about Tesla. It's been wronged without any advertising budget but by a guy who lives with anger. Elon Musk is angry about many things. He couldn't believe we as humans are having only a single planet. He couldn't believe that this single planet of ours is becoming warm and warmer so his message is if we don't do something about climate change, we're doomed. And how can we do that? Let's get rid of all these traditional vehicles in our roads and replace them with electric cars. Now, how can you apply all these to your own business? Well, you have to choose the enemy you really hate to see alive. You have to choose a problem you really hate to see exist in. If you really hate the problem your product or service is trying to solve, then you'll be angry about how such problems makes life difficult for your target audience and they will receive this as love for them, which is and in turn, they will like you or your product. If you forgot all my rant in this video, don't forget this, nobody really loves to be sold to. We hate to buy because we don't trust anyone who wants to sell to us but we love to buy from people we trust and before you can get anyone to trust your offer, you have to first get them to like you. Make sense? 2. Focus on being different, not better Up until around 2008, my approach to business was let's build a better product. However, in the year 2008, God sent a book my way, titled What the Reach Know and Desperately Want to Keep Secret. This book isn't a great book by the standard of many other best sellers but I learned from it something that would forever change the way I look at entrepreneurship. The concept is called unique selling promise, USB. This concept is simple, yet most entrepreneurs don't take it seriously. Think about this question, why should I buy from you? If you're selling what 10 other people are selling, why should I buy from you? Why should I choose you instead of others? Then someone will tell me because my product is better. Another person will say because my price is cheaper. The problem with these two answers you gave is that first cheapness is not an appeal. In fact, having the cheapest product in the market can often be interpreted to mean having a substandard product and claiming to be better than your competitors is hard to prove. Here's what I mean. The human man can easily see what is different while it is very difficult to see what is better. Set God in calls this the purple cow. If we're both selling cows it is difficult for me to convince a cow buyer that my cows are healthier than yours. Well if they are purple, they'll definitely catch attention. After I learned this concept my approach has been how can we be different, not how can we be better? Then someone will tell me but if you don't have a quality product you can succeed in business. Yes, but quality is overrated. While you need to pay attention to quality, if what you offer is not different from what other people offer, well nobody would care about your quality product. Focus on being different, then you'll get your audience's attention. If audience's attention is the most valuable asset in selling, you can use it to sell more of your products than if you are trying to be better than your competitors. 3. Service Don't sell. One of the bibles of my life is Claude C. Hopkins book, Scientific Advertising. You see, Hopkins was one of the greatest marketers of his generation. He sold more stuff than 99.9% of marketers or entrepreneurs and you know his secret? Well, he never really sells. He instead offers services. There is one quote from his book, the best ads ask no one to buy. That's useless. Often, they do not quote a price. They do not say that dealers handle the product. The ads are based entirely on service. They offer wanted information. Now, listen to this. The best product is not presented as a product but as an instrumental revolution because people are selfish, the only product that will earn the devotion of those that are presented by someone who has already done them a service. Think about Merike Cosmetics Incorporated. Merike didn't call people who sold for a company salespeople. She called them consultants. Doesn't that make you think twice? Salespeople are trained to get your money. Consultants are to advise and help in rendering your service. In recent years, companies are built around blogs, podcasts and YouTube channels. The reason why this strategy works is that people who have been consuming your free content for a period of time have started seeing you as a consultant. Someone who is helping with advice. Such people can easily patronize your business as opposed to that of other people who shout, give me money. So look for a way to not appear as a salesperson. Look for a way to act as a consultant. Offer advice and help. At the end of the day, those who truly get us to buy again and again, those who don't try to sell to us. These people differentiate themselves from the crowd in the market. They get us to like them because they are angry about our problems and they don't appear to be selling us anything. Instead, as Merike called them, they are consultants. I hope this video helps someone. My name is Steve Courage. I'm a Nigerian entrepreneur based in Lagos. If you wish to know more about me, see my face or consume videos I specifically make for Africans, check the description box and join my new channel where I show my face and teach Africans how to build successful businesses. I love you.