Your winning axis
One constant across creative entrepreneurs, and really almost every entrepreneur, is a deep, visceral hatred of sales. They find it grimy, it makes them feel gross, and nobody wants to have a conversation about something they loathe.
I used to think it was a sales phobia that kept people from embracing it, but even after teaching people to get over their disgust for years, at best Hapitalists think of it as a necessary evil. Thus, they come to it limply, begrudgingly, and unenthusiastically, which is about the worst way you can engage with a potential customer.
They create a self-fulfilling prophecy of failure and hatred that generates a vicious negative feedback loop.
The fact of the matter is that the more you hate sales, the less likely you are to make them, which makes you more desperate, which turns people off, which makes them less likely to buy from you.
It's an awful spiral, but it doesn't have to be.
In fact, I believe every man, woman, and child on this planet loves sales. I know you don't believe me, and it might even bubble up a lot of feelings inside you, but I really do believe it's true. I've worked with thousands of creators in my career and seen it with my own eyes.
The problem is that every person you've ever learned from has taught you the wrong way to do sales. So today, I want to introduce your winning axis, the cornerstone to selling something you love without ever having to sell anything...
...and it uses something you probably already love to do it, namely storytelling.
All sales, you see, is about telling a story. In its simplest form, sales is about telling a story about your customer's future and putting yourself directly in its inevitable path.
Whether you're talking about Amazon, Facebook, or Stephen King, they are all selling you a transformation that takes place after you accept their version of reality.
- Amazon's version of the future was that online retail will be the most powerful form of commerce the world has ever known. They won that future by cutting prices until they were so ubiquitous that people couldn't not buy from them.
- Facebook's version of the future was that everything is interconnected and the future is everyone being connected together through their platform. They won by scaling that idea and then monetizing that connection through ads.
- Stephen King's version of the future is that you are gonna love the heck out of his books, and that his words are going to help you think, escape, and forget about your life for a little while.
Each one of those is a compelling narrative for different reasons, but they are all just stories. When Amazon told that story, the world wasn't dominated by online retail. When Facebook sold their story, everything wasn't interconnected. Before you read one of Stephen King's books, you don't know if you're even going to enjoy it.
You either believe the story they're telling or you don't.
If you believe their story, then of course you're going to buy from them. Why would you not? They are perfectly positioned to "win" their version of the future. If they have set up their business correctly, then they are the only conduit by which you can reach their version of the future.
At the end of the day, sales is telling a story about the future and convincing your customer it is inevitable. If they believe that, and you position yourself correctly, then you are the only logical conduit by which they can transform into the type of person who can win in that future.
What these companies don't tell you is that there are an infinite number of stories about an infinite number of futures and you don't have to believe any of them.
We "lose" at sales when we buy into another version of reality. We can't compete with Amazon if we fight them on their axis...
...but they can't beat you on yours, either. This is why I say there is no competition. There are only axes you can win on and ones you can't.
To win at sales, you can, should, and must make your own winning axis. How do you do that? I thought you would never ask.
How to make your winning axis
Your winning axis is the story you tell about your customer's future where you are the only and thus inevitable choice to get them there.
We do a much, much more advanced version of this in our Seven-Figure transformation coaching program. I'd love to chat with you about it if you have 30 minutes.
Building it requires you to work backwards. You start where your customer wants to be and work your way back to the beginning, which is where they actually are right now.
The rest of this one is for members.