"On the road to wealth, developing a financially valuable skill is the most important step. It's the foundation upon which every other step is based.

"What is the world's most valuable skill? Simple: the ability to sell. Not just products and services - but ideas, concepts, and beliefs."

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"Contrary to what you may think when you get out of college, the world is really NOT looking for smarter advertising. Despite our best hopes and the results of every focus group I’ve ever attended, most people most of the time want to be sold hard.

"Hard doesn't mean hypey. Hard means 'Convince me! Make me a believer.' Hard means understanding the complex emotional/psychological desire of your prospect, recognizing his beliefs and feelings, and giving him a big, multilevel promise that makes his molecules shake.

"Hype is what you do when you aren't smart enough to sell smart. Hype works, but only temporarily. And it has many unpleasant ramifications."

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"There is something basic to every business that I call, for lack of an MBA education, the 'basic selling dynamic.' By that, I mean the fundamental things you have to do to make a single profitable sale: figuring out where to advertise, how much to spend on advertising, how to position your product/service in terms of the competition, how to price it, what kind of guarantee to give, etc. Until you get that working, the future of your business is uncertain."

© 2007 Michael Masterson's Blog
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