The Disconnect Between Product and Marketing...

[jsawvel]

I am new to selling and copywriting and I am kind of running into a wall.

I am doing a lot of reading about copywriting and the selling process, but there seems to be a disconnect between the selling proccess and the product you are selling.

Perhaps they are too different fields and I just need to learn more about the product side.

There seems to be this idea that ANY product can be sold, given you are a good salesperson or you use the right techniques.

So, I have been going out and reading books to try to understand HOW to sell products, as if selling is something I can master and then I can sell ANYTHING to ANYONE.

It seems like perhaps there are TWO CAMPS of sales people. There are the people that use the SAME techniques to sell anything.

And there are the people that do a good job of presenting product benefits to people so they have REASON to buy.

Ideally, selling should be about communication. You as the seller should be there to communicate the benefit that your product is going bring to your customer. The good seller communicates effectively.

However, the other camp of seller seems to shun communication, because perhaps they have nothing REAL to communicate.

This camp of seller seems to stay vague on everything or simply play on emotions and include little reason in the sales pitch.

Perhaps if you don´t have enough time to educate yourself about a product or a product is not compelling on its own, you have to use something other than COMMUNICATING THE REAL BENEFITS.

So, more information on how to find quality products to sell would be helpful. I guess if you are stuck writing copy for a crappy product, then you just have to figure out how to sell it no matter what.

[jsawvel]

[procopywriter]

jsawvel,

Where do I begin...

Any serious marketer understands the need for a quality product, and won't waste his time promoting substandard crap. Long term success and wealth comes from building lifetime relationships, not constantly looking for the next sucker.

There are certainly con-artists out there using legitimate marketing techniques to pawn their products. But that's not the path to wealth. Any serious business person (or copywriter) is going to run hard in the other direction from such people.

In one sense, all marketing is manipulation. It's designed to arouse emotions to get people to buy. But people also need logical reasons to back up their buying decision, and any good marketing piece will provide them.

Very few will buy just on emotion alone. And if they do, they often immediately regret it. (The proverbial "buyer's remorse".)

In short, to be effective at marketing you need BOTH a quality product AND an marketing piece to sell it which includes logical reasons to buy as well as emotional benefits the prospect can connect with.

I hope that clears up some of your confusion!

Aaron

[jsawvel]

I think the emotional tools should connect with what the person is already feeling, rather than trying to stimulate other emotions that "get the person to buy" but are not in line with what the person wants.

I am all for giving people what they want. And to do this, I think you have to show them how it will satisfy them and connect with their emotional reasons.

But I don´t really agree with using techniques to manipulate people´s emotions.

I think if you use them, then you are a bit weasley.

Ofcourse, if you are and you don´t mind, then thats ok.

Probably the hard part of marketing to people´s specific desires is the difficulty in discovering what those desires are.

Its probably easier to make a GENERAL appeal to people.

I was just reading in a copywriting book written by Bly that it is the "copywriters obligation to use every tool in their arsenal."

Im sure clients will be pleased if you use "every tool" available to sell. However, you aren´t really looking out for your customer if you do.

One sales tape I was listening to said that you should CHOOSE products that will benefit your customers and then "get your customers to buy them."

So, that is one way of making yourself feel better. If you know you are providing quality products that will improve the lives of your clients.

[procopywriter]