This article was last updated on the 28th of April 2015 by Patrick Carpen.
As I mentioned earlier, marketing may very well be the “holy grail” of money making. People who understand how to move products from suppliers to consumers, and the chains in-between…in a fast and efficient manner, will ultimately rake in the big bucks.
Sometimes, you may need a decent amount of capital to start out your career as a marketer of some sort; but you need more than just that. Marketing calls for so many skills and talents and that’s why not everyone takes up or succeeds in marketing.
To be a successful marketer you need to be charming, confident, persistent, resilient, intelligent, flexible, creative, innovative…and the list goes on. You need to be able to talk to people in a way that sells you out as a pretty decent guy. And this brings us to the importance of both smiling and making eye contact.
Related: The Importance of Maintaining Eye Contact.
You need to sell yourself first, then the product. I’ve learned the hard way, that sometimes in life, no matter how great your product, service or opportunity is, people may not buy it unless they first bought into your package; that is, unless they “like you”.
And this makes me remember Silvana, in Campo Verde, Mato Grosso, Brazil, when we were starting off the Wizard School. She gave me a sweet lecture on “personal marketing”. She said “Patrick…get your hair well groomed, your face well shaven, your clothes neat and clean…. Eat with your mouth closed always, talk politely and with a smile….” Of course, one look at Silvana would tell you that she knows “personal marketing” inside-out.
Silvana knew of course, that no matter how high a quality her learning materials or teachers were, we were going to scare prospects off if we don’t come across as really really decent, and polite people!
But on the other hand, no matter how decent, polite and attractive you are; and no matter how great your product or service is, there will be times when you hit a dead end. And for some marketers, this dampens the spirit, and causes quite a number of them to drop out, pause from their work or leave the trade completely. But this shouldn’t be. And this brings us to the importance of “being able to handle rejection with charm”.
The other day I asked an acquaintance of mine, Nikki, if she would like to buy a few copies of the new book I had just released. She smiled and said “not now”. I replied with a sense of humor “don’t worry, you’re still just as beautiful”. Just as my friend Digi told me “in the dating scenes, you don’t let one rejection destroy your confidence as a man”, so in the marketing arena, you don’t let one rejection destroy your confidence as a marketer.
Of course, being the exceptionally good looking guy that I am, I hardly ever get turned down in the dating scenes, but in the marketing scenes, it does happen occasionally. And whether it’s in the dating scenes or the marketing arena, I respond with the same level of charm: one that causes the prospect to start having second thoughts right away. But then again, I move on so quickly, they don’t have time to think about it.
Like with everything else in life, no matter how great or relevant your product is, there will be times you will hit a dead end: people who just don’t see eye to eye with you, or for whatever reasons, aren’t in the mood for you or your product. It’s not your fault. It’s not theirs. It’s just something that happens from time to time.
Pay a compliment, blow a whistle, wish them a good day and move on until you find the real deal.
Related: How I Started The Yogurt Business On A Shoestring Budget
Related: Going Green – Combining My Passion For Cycling With My Love For Marketing
