“It practically sells itself” is a funny statement.
If you need to say it, it’s proof that whatever you’re hocking doesn’t sell itself. Yet, we hear variations on this claim all the time, usually accompanied by a shotgun blast of features, benefits, statistics, use cases, testimonials and more… all of which, yet again, confirm that the product or service in question can’t sell itself. It’s the salesperson’s paradox.
Don’t be fooled, though: many services can and do sell themselves. When’s the last time someone sold you on a piping hot cup of delicious coffee? Won you over with a great pitch about the benefits of a stylish Hawaiian shirt? Extolled the virtues of a good coffee cake (guilty)? It’s the same for services—but only when they’re positioned as solutions. If you can solve a problem, you don’t need to sell: your solution will often sell itself.
This is our philosophy at JXM, whether we’re talking coffee cake or omnichannel retargeting campaigns. Sales—whether in person, on a website, in marketing or in any other medium in which one person is attempting to influence the purchase decision of another—should be rooted in belief.
Sales shouldn’t be an uphill battle
There are tons of salespeople out there who are exceptional at their job. They know the product inside and out, backwards and forwards, and they know how to turn a no into a yes with enthusiasm. They’re tenacious and resilient, and they’re always ready to charge into battle, eager to come out victorious on the other side. At JXM, we ask: “why not give peace a chance?”
Abandon the battle for “yes” and instead, have a conversation about “how.”
When you truly believe in a product or service, you don’t need to change the presentation or adjust the message. Instead, the very nature of it allows it to sell itself. We’re not putting up a façade, navigating a playbook or taking a tactful approach—we’re looking to have an open, candid conversation.
In explaining what we do and how we do it, we trust our clients to see how it all fits together with their needs, wants and expectations. There’s no need to sell anyone on anything.
Belief paves inroads to transparency
When you believe in what you’re selling and tell it like it is, it brings a level of transparency to the relationship. You’re no longer a salesperson; you’re a solutions provider. You’re not out to get something; you’re here to offer something. These subtle shifts matter, and they start with belief in your product or service.
At JXM, we don’t approach clients with machinations to “get the go ahead.” Rather, we seek to question if the solution we’re offering is the right one for you. When we believe it is, we’ll tell you and show you, and trust in the fact that we’ve done enough to prove ourselves.
If we don’t believe our solution or approach is a good fit, we’ll tell you—we’ve walked away from big contracts and massive budgets before. Why? Because without belief in our ability to succeed given the circumstances, the relationship is doomed to fail. The last thing we want to become are paradoxical salespeople, selling our solutions to justify them.
Belief paves the way to something better than sales
At JXM, we employ approximately zero salespeople. We don’t have anything to sell. Instead, we’re in the business of providing solutions that sell themselves. More than that, we’re in the business of helping our clients discover a belief in their own products and services, so they can spend less time focused on selling and more time spent solving and offering solutions.
Belief in the legitimacy of your product or service leads to happier customers, more meaningful relationships and better expectations. More importantly, it reframes the idea of sales and selling. When you stop pushing to close sales and start seeking to solve problems, you’ll find that your solution sells itself.
Let JXM help you change the way you approach selling. The hard work isn’t in figuring out how to position something; it’s in discovering the true nature of your product or service. From there, the “what” is simple. You just need to believe.
