Nobody Needs What You’re Selling (And Why That’s A Good Thing)

I can’t ever figure out if I’d want to be the zombie or the person being chased by a zombie.

Hey, it’s Marie Forleo, and you are watching Marie TV, the place to be, to create a business and a life that you love. And today I have a question for you. So, in life, all of us are always selling something. Whether you sell a product or a service, or you work within a company, you got to be selling something. But do you know what you’re really selling? Hmm? I got to say, the answer might surprise you, and it may make you a lot more money. Let me explain.

So recently Josh and I went on a trip to Morocco, and our very first stop was Marrakesh. So once we got settled in our riad, we went for a walk through the Medina, not to be confused with the funky cold Medina.

(singing).

Now Josh and I have a thing for Moroccan rugs. We think they’re really beautiful, and we were hoping that we’d be able to find one on our trip, for a great price. So we’re walking down the Medina, not even five minutes. We get lured into a rug shop by this very charming and charismatic man named Mustafa.

So Mustafa had this awesome rug shop, so he pulled us in. And at first he sat me down, and he had me try my hand at hand rug knotting, with this lady who worked with him. Then a minute after that, before I knew it, we’re in this huge room with marble floors, and we’re sipping mint tea and we had stacks and stacks of beautiful rugs all around us. It was awesome.

So after a few minutes, we had narrowed things down to our one favorite rug, and Josh started the negotiation process. But I wasn’t quite sold yet. I said to myself, “Hold on, hold on. These are beautiful, they’re awesome, but I have to be honest, I don’t know if we even have room for a rug like this. I mean, I don’t know if we even need it.” Mustafa said, “Look, nobody needs a Moroccan rug. You don’t buy a rug with your head, you buy it with your heart.” And you know what? He was totally right. I mean we didn’t necessarily need a rug, but a rug wasn’t really what we were buying anyway. We were buying this beautiful little piece of art. It was a reminder of our Moroccan adventure together. The one where I got to try my hand at hand knotting a rug, and where we had our very first taste of Moroccan mint tea.

The fact is, we are rarely ever buying what we think we’re buying. So here’s an example. If I buy a necklace, what I’m thinking about is how that necklace is going to help me express my own style. Or maybe I’m thinking about, “Oh my God, this great necklace will really help me dress up a tee shirt. So if I need to go out to dinner fast, I can just throw it on.” Or sometimes, if I get a necklace that has special symbolic stones, I’m actually buying into my own wellbeing, something I want to work on for my future. So rather than just a piece of jewelry, I’m buying an expression of my style. I am buying easy nights out, and I’m buying my future wellbeing.

Here’s another example. If I’m buying a garlic press, what I’m really buying is a future experience of great times cooking for my friends. I love to do that. So I get such pleasure out of hearing them ask for seconds or talking about, “Hey Marie, how did you ever learn to make such a killer sauce?” So in reality, what I’m really buying, is a future memory of getting all the people I love together, and whatever may happen from there.

The fact that Mustafa knew what he was really selling and he wasn’t shy about articulating that, that’s what closed the sale. He knew that the key to getting me to open my wallet, was getting me to open my heart. Now, whether you sell with words or images or copywriting or whatever, you’re going to realize you’re going to sell so much more, and have your customers love their purchases, if you can convey what they’re actually getting: the feelings, the benefits, the future memories, and to help you remember that, I want you to remember this tweetable.

The best way to close a sale is by getting your customer to open her heart.

Now, if you ever use words to sell your products or services, instead of interpretive dance or smoke signals, and you’d like my help with this, come on over to TheCopyCure.com. It’s a new program I’m working on. It’ll really help you sell from the heart.

Now it’s your turn. What are you really selling? What are people really, really buying from you, and what future experience are they hoping to get? As always, the best discussions happen after the episode over at marieforleo.com. So go there and tell me all about it now.

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I like the beginning and the end so much, in the middle, it’s okay. Yeah, it was really… It was a pretty aggressive email from mom.