Telling isn’t selling.
That’s a famous line from the movie Boiler Room but they stole it.
Brian Tracey said it earlier. He probably stole it too.
Where it came from doesn’t matter much. What it means is more relevant.
You tell stories. Tell jokes. Hecklers may surface, audience participation might be requested, but it’s not a two-way street.
Telling isn’t selling, just like reading ingredients off the back of a cereal box isn’t moving any Cap’n Crunch.
It’s why Steve Jobs (the greatest salesperson of all time) sold you “1,000 songs in your pocket” rather than telling you all the technical specifications of the iPod.
His job was to explain WHY the iPod was useful. How it would change things. In as few words as possible. And if he left people wondering what exactly was in the box, what processors, what technology, that was a good thing. That was curiosity. Interest.
“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.”
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
If you want to sell an MP3 player, don’t tell them about the processor speeds and memory space. Instead, teach them to yearn for all their music, in one place. Their front pocket.
Telling is you and your product. You and your service.
Selling is about the customer. It’s about problem solving.
Telling is a monologue. A list of facts, figures, or attributes.
Selling is an investigation. A series of questions, conversations, with an eye towards the future. A systematic, repeatable approach to solving a problem.
