Happy National Family Day! As my first manager always said, your sales team is your family (until the whole family gets laid off and has to go find a new family). 🙃 

In today’s Follow Up:

• Sales lessons from an infomercial legend 👑 

• A tip for leaving voicemails 📞 

• Sales across the internet 💻️ 

• An email scraping tool 🛠️

• 4 new sales jobs 💰️ 

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Sales Lessons From an Infomercial Pitchman

When it comes to “As Seen on TV” infomercials, Anthony “Sully” Sullivan is a legend.

He took over as the face of the OxiClean infomercials from Billy Mays (R.I.P.), and his company is the brains behind some of the most famous “As Seen on TV” infomercials in history.

Sully is a master of the pitch.

And after selling millions of products to millions of people on TV, it’s safe to say he’s learned a thing or two about sales.

So we went on a deep dive to find some of Sully’s best sales tips that we can use as sales reps.

Let’s dive in. 👇️ 

The Formula 🧪 

When you find a winning formula, don’t mess with it.

For infomercials, Sully says it looks something like:

If you’ve ever seen an infomercial, you know the exact formula he’s talking about above.

And the structure of this formula can be applied to selling almost any product.

Even though you might not be selling millions of widgets through a TV screen, a winning formula is the key to any good sales pitch.

Information Matters

Be precise and direct.

Always be ready to answer these 3 questions:

• What is your product?

• What benefit does it provide?

• Why is it the right fit for this person?

If you don’t know why your product is the right solution for the prospect, you aren’t ready to pitch them.

And after you’re done pitching them “just be quiet.” Let the words sink in.

Tell me, don’t sell me 🗣️ 

One night, Sullivan was out to dinner with the CEO of HSN.

The CEO happened to be on the board of the Fisker electric car company and Sullivan remembers her saying: “Oh my god, this car. They use renewable wood, they use renewable energy, it has a solar panel on the roof, you don’t have to put gas in it. And I’m taking it to work and I’m plugging it in.”

She didn’t try to sell him the car, but she made her story feel personal.

Three days later, Sullivan went to the dealership and bought himself a Fisker.

The difference between the salesperson you trust vs. the one you don’t is their ability to make the story feel personal and get you invested in the product.

Preparation is Key 🔑 

Anthony makes his pitch look easy, and this is no coincidence.

Sullivan knows everything about every product he’s ever sold. What the market looks like. Who his competitors are. Every function of the product.

He practices his pitch for hours and hours before he even thinks about filming the commercial.

B2B sales are no different. The more you practice your pitch, objection handling, and product demos, the better you’ll be.

Rule of thumb: The easier it looks, the more work it takes.

Confidence 🤌 

The secret to Sullivan’s infomercials is having so much confidence in the products, that prospects feel the urge to pick up the phone and buy.

The more you need to close a deal, the worse you’ll perform. Prospects can tell when you’re desperate for a sale and this usually leads to mistakes.

At the end of the day, you can’t force someone to buy your product. But you can give them everything they need to make the choice on their own.

Humor 😂 

Sullivan also believes every good pitch needs a joke. Humor helps with sticker shock and lightens the mood of the call.

Don’t try to be a comedian and avoid crude jokes, but add some humor when you can.

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And that’s a wrap!

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