Finding People Who Want What You Have
Many of us cringe at the thought of selling – even those of us in the world of PPC advertising. None of us want to be a “dirty salesman”! Manipulating people into buying what we have to offer… doing anything to get the sale… twisting people’s arms… it just gives you a dirty feeling at the end of the day.
Unfortunately, business is the exchange of goods and services, and thus requires selling your goods or services. Selling is not optional. Which makes me wonder…
Wouldn’t it be amazing to find a way to sell without selling your soul?
Fortunately, there is.
The key to selling is very simple: find people who already want what you have.
This may seem simplistic. But hear me out.
Imagine that you’re stumbling through the Sahara, desperate for water, and you come across two vendors at the side of the road. One of them is selling water, and the other is selling guitars. You will eagerly purchase the water, but it would take a lot of slick talking and shady salesman tactics to get you to buy the guitar instead!
The magic of PPC advertising is that you get the opportunity to sell your product to people who are ALREADY looking for what you have to offer. When I got married, I needed a vendor for wedding flowers, and I wanted to DIY as much as possible. So I googled something like “diy florist companies”, and the first search result was an ad for a company that provides flowers for bouquets with instruction cards to assemble the bouquets yourself. I didn’t need to be convinced – it fit my needs exactly, I was already convinced I needed the product, and all I needed was someone to step in and fill the need! So I quickly ordered and became a satisfied customer.
Search advertising allows you to give people what they want, when they want it. There is no twisting of arms here. Advertising and sales don’t have to be annoying, “dirty salesmanship” if you are satisfying people’s needs who already want what you have.
How It’s Done
What do you need to do to find thirsty people? Well, examine your business and who your business exists to serve, and figure out where those people are – and what Google searches they search.
If you sell plumbing services, then you’ll find a lot of customers by advertising on Google searches like “emergency plumber near me”, but not on searches like “plumbing companies hiring”.
If, on the other hand, you sell injury lawyer representation, you’ll find customers under search terms like “injury lawyer in my area” but not on searches like “how to become an injury lawyer”.
The former searches are thirsty for what you offer; the latter searches are not.
Once you know where your people are, meet them there. Meet them at the top of the page of Google search results. Target the searches your people are searching, and be diligent to block the searches that your people aren’t searching. When your people click on your ad and see that you are selling exactly what they need, when they need it, for a good price, a purchase will be a no-brainer. You won’t have to twist their arm into purchasing because they’ll be asking you where to sign.
So don’t hunt people. Don’t beg, cajole or manipulate. Don’t call people incessantly. Don’t try to force people to buy from you when they don’t want what you’re selling. That’s what a lazy salesman will do – using shady tactics to trick people who don’t want his product or service into buying anyway.
Instead, exert the extra effort to find the people who are already thirsty for what you’re offering. You want to be the one who offers water to thirsty travelers. When you offer water to thirsty people, they will come to you. Your business can be a means to serve people’s needs in a meaningful way!
At the end of the day, you’ll feel good about yourself, because you won’t just have made a sale – you’ll have helped someone, and you’ll have given them something of value in exchange for their money. That’s one well-kept secret to job satisfaction – give something valuable and receive something valuable in return. That’s the secret fulfillment to be found in sales done right.
