The Secret of Best-Selling Authors
The title you never noticed. The skill you never considered.
Have you ever noticed what the most value-providing books have in common?
What makes those books so better and read so many times throughout the world?
Why people gush to the local book vendors, online marts to search for some particular authors or books?
Right. The tag of the Best-selling book, From the best selling author.
But why aren’t those authors called Best writing authors instead?
I recently read a book named “Rich Dad Poor Dad” by Robert T. Kiyosaki. In the book, the author mentioned a life incident where he met an amazing writer but who was struggling to make it big.
She had masters in the writing and her novels were impressive but she was not able to sell it big.
She showed her curiosity to be a bestselling author herself someday.
On asking the author how can she enhance her career, he suggested learning on how to sell.
She stiffened and asked, “Are you saying I should go to school to learn how to sell ?”
Author nodded and said yes.
She was offended by the thought of being a salesperson.
To which author showed one of the books to her and asked what’s this?
She was confused.
The author gently explained that it says Best-Selling Author, not Best Writing Author.
Perhaps, It was not just the writer who didn’t like the idea (or looked down on this skill). We are surrounded by people who feel the same way about sales or we have felt the same as ourselves.
Why do people buy?
To sell something you need to understand why people buy.
What motivates them to spend their hard earned money on your product?
According to Cole Schafer, people buy for two reasons
- Move closer to pleasure.
- Move further away from pain.
Or sometimes for both.
You got a new job at a very large company. So, you invited your friends to a party at your place.
You went to the market to buy snacks and liquor for your friends.
Instead of getting the usual drinks that cost $20 dollar you bought $50 dollar bottles. After all, you got a new job.
You drunk danced and had fun all night.
In the morning you had pain in the head so you went to the supermarket to get a high-powered medicine and Lemonade.
That is the basic structure of buying. First, you bought the drinks to Move closer to pleasure. Then the medicines to Move away from pain.
Doesn’t have to be liquor or medicines for all I know. But you got the point. Right?
So you have to understand the motive of your users for buying your product.
In the case of books, people read books to learn something that gets them pleasure in real life. It could be a management skill, business tactic, communication skills and more.
People also do read books to avoid the pain by knowing the cause of pain.
So a book works both ways.
People buy because other people buy.
People get tempted to buy a product when they see somebody else using it.
That’s how the trends are created.
Do you remember the time some people were wearing the white thick sole shoes? and suddenly everybody started wearing them.
When you go to the e-commerce websites they show you stars and ratings to create a social proof that people like this product.
The Best-selling books have a label that says “More than a million copies sold”. Isn’t that one of the decisions changing factors in buying a book. Think about it.
People don’t trust the salesperson, but they sure do their friends.
Keep your product contagious.
So to sell better you need to know that when do people use your product in a time of seeking pleasure or ditching pain.
Why learn Selling?
The point is you could be best at anything but if you can’t present it as a marketable skill to the people it is of no or very little use.
Selling is about making people trust you, your product and/or service.
If you are making a sales pitch, you need to give a clear reason for why they should trust you.
If you see the great authors and sellers when they sell you their ideas they pitch it to your subconscious {heart} not your mind. They use real-life examples to make you think about it.
This helps them establish trust.
“We justify our emotional choices with rational reasons. You tell yourself all the rational reasons why your $1,000 Mobile is better than the $500 one. The warranty, the quality, the specs….”
Because once you sold the idea to heart now it will sell it itself to the brain.
Selling doesn’t mean lying to people to gain profit.
When it comes to sales, people don’t like to be sold, they like to buy. A fair deal.
Have you ever visited Starbucks to order something and you end up buying 3 things more that you never wanted and you felt good about it anyways.
This is how real and effective selling looks like.
They didn’t trick you up, they didn’t deceive you. They just sold it to your happiness.
Your heart.
You need to evoke those feeling of happiness, joy or satisfaction as well to sell better.
Which emotions to evoke comes directly from the purpose of the product.
And now you need to communicate this to the people in such a way that they trust you.
So you are one skill away from being wealthy.
Little take away for you
Learn to sell as one of my friends puts it what’s the harm in making your passion a passive source of income. So there is a difference between Passion and Business.
Just like The Best Writing and The Bestselling authors.
You have to understand why people buy or should buy from you? What are you offering them? A step towards pleasure or a step away from pain?
People buy from the heart and find a logical explanation for their decisions afterward.
Give your users data and knowledge to justify their purchase to themselves as well as others.
Rohan Mishra is the UI/UX designer, Making Useful Usable. He also shares about UX Design, Business, Entrepreneurship and Life Experiences. You can connect with him on Linkedin.
