Sell Me The Dream

Friday morning on the airwaves I heard 'Imran' win five thousand of some local pesos.

As part of a promo, his challenge was to ring in to a radio show and pitch some kind of ice bath plunge thang.

"What are you selling?" Asked the ringmaster, then given the name of the product in response. "What is that?"

Blimey, he rambled on a bit. Breathless too.

Eventually, the host wrapped him up, "alright, okay, we got it..."

"Did you ChatGPT that?"

His fellow zoo-mates giggled away.

Despite the unconvincing "no" in response, he followed up with;

"Did you just read the description from [the local dominant ecommerce delivery giant]?"

Cue more chuckles from the studio, getting louder.

It turns out, he kinda did!

Despite being told he missed half of what it can do for you, he still snagged the cash price. Lucky lad.

For segment sign-off, the main presenter couldn't help but pass on a future tip though;

"This is the secret of sales, don't sell me the product, sell me the dream...."

We've all heard of this. In its many forms.

One of the earliest I recall reading among other steers in a career memoir from cubrep days;

'sell the sizzle, not the sausage'.

A favourite update of which came via The Golden Circle.

In general, when I've helped sellers better answer that most innocent yet fiendishly wrong-footing of questions - 'what do you sell?' - lead with purpose.

It can be a tricky balance to make work. In that you don't want to antagonise the prospect by waffling around platitudinal deepism mantras. Making them infer you might not have anything real to sell.

Yet leading on the problem you fix is usually the winner.

Are you getting your 5k too?