A direct, to-the-point, guide on how to sell. Yes, it covers more than just selling but this is the main point of the book. It has some good tips and examples, not just to do with actual selling techniques but it addresses our beliefs and mindsets first.
In brief:
- Make sure your product/service is great
- Focus on the customer and ensure you’re giving them exactly what they want
- Be bold in selling, the more you sell, the more value you can create
Your move: The underdog’s guide to building your business – Ramit Sethi (highlights)
But when you start your own business, there’s no limit to how much you can earn.
But the biggest failures aren’t things you did. They’re things you didn’t do.
And I still read books and get advice from people whose businesses are a fraction of the size of my own. Here’s why: First, you want to stay sharp. Second, you can always learn something from everyone, no matter what they do. And third, the bigger your business gets, the more impactful a single insight can be.
Rule #1: People Pay Me for the Value I Create
When you can connect and really solve their problems, the price is a mere triviality.
Rule #2: The More Money I Make, the More Value I Can Create
Rule #3: Money Is a Marker That I’m Doing the Right Thing
This may be the most important idea in business. If you only take one thing away from this book, it should be this: Create something that people WANT to buy.
Step 1: Start with business ideas that suck
Step 2: Ask yourself these 4 questions
1. What do I already pay for?
2. What skills do I have?
3. What do my friends say I’m great at?
4. What do I do on Saturday morning?
Step 3: Use the Demand Matrix to guarantee your success
Few customers-many customers
High price-low price
Actually listening is the critical differentiator between a successful business with happy customers… and everyone else.
Dig Into Their Hopes, Fears, and Dreams
In our experience, business is the most fun (and most profitable) when you focus on helping great people get better.
Mindset shift #1: There’s no such thing as a “natural” entrepreneur
Robert Herjavec, “It takes 10-15 years of hard work to become an overnight success.”
Steve Jobs once said, “Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you.”
Mindset shift #2: Mistakes are good
Focus more on being decisive and less on trying to make the “right” decision. You’ll never know until you try, and if you’re wrong, you can always try again.
Mindset shift #3: Focus on giving, not getting
Successful entrepreneurs don’t focus on themselves —they focus on helping others.
In fact, I believe in doing less —and doing it better.
In a world full of websites and e-books and apps, the moment you look and sound like everyone else, you’re dead.
When we let ourselves and our businesses become vanilla, when we try to appeal to everyone, we instantly become a commodity.
Focus on Your Customers, Not Your Competition
There are a million different ways to approach any topic. The key is: Instead of focusing on the competition, focus on your audience. Who is your audience, and what do they want that they are not being served right now?
Charles Duhigg says one of the best ways to stand out is by “indulging in your obsessive compulsive disorder.” “People who are successful are people who are not ashamed to say, I am super passionate and interested in X and I’m going to indulge that.
Be different to be better. Don’t be different for the sake of being different.
People Value What They Pay For
If you are solving a problem that’s important to people, AND if you have the credibility so that they believe you can solve it, then price becomes a mere triviality.
Process: reader visits your site, subscribes to your list, opens your emails, visits your sales page, buys your product.
Focus On What Matters. Ignore Everything Else
If you want to sell with confidence, before you do anything else, you need to understand your customers like they are good friends. The reason is, you already know how to sell to your friends. You sell them on what TV show to watch next and what restaurant they absolutely need to try.
To sell, you need to know four key things about your customers: their hopes, dreams, pain points, and fears.
The key is to hook readers from the start with a surprising or interesting statement. Then throughout your story, speak to readers in their language, and address their hopes, dreams, and fears.
With sales pages talk about the why rather than the how.
Dorm room Ramit: Everything Needs to be Perfect CEO Ramit: Live to Fight Another Day
Dorm Room Ramit: A Popular Blog is a Business CEO Ramit: A Profitable Blog is a Business
Dorm Room Ramit: Be Good at Everything CEO Ramit: Be World Class at a Few Things
Dorm Room Ramit: I Don’t Want to Hire a Big Team CEO Ramit: I Want to Reach Millions of People
Dorm Room Ramit: I’ll Only Follow “Timeless Principles” CEO Ramit: What Got You Here Won’t Get You There
Here are the key concepts that helped me grow my business past the $ 100,000 revenue/ year game, to the $ 1,000,000 game, and beyond.
Playing to win. Benchmarking yourself against people in the next league, not the one you’re in.
When to go all in.
Commit to professionalism.
Professionalism:
Number 1: Being 100% prepared
Number 2: Being proactive
Number 3: Teach them to revere your work
“In other words, when you ask for a busy person’s time for mentorship or advice, show that (1) You’re serious and you’ve gone as far as you can by yourself, and (2) You’ve taken concrete steps to address whatever your needs are, and show how you can benefit them and their project.”
One of the things he shared was: If you want to befriend a really busy, famous person, the first thing you do is you DON’T ASK THEM FOR ANYTHING.
Mental Toughness: How to Master Setbacks, Failure, and even Success
What’s the difference between the 2 people? One difference: Realizing that almost anything can be figured out.
Another powerful reframe my students use: “It’s not a failure. It’s a test.”
If fear of failure is paralyzing you, then I strongly recommend you set a tiny, realistic goal for the day.
She said: “Ramit, nobody cares what you did. They only care what you’re doing.”
Focus on what you can control, ignore what you cannot.
Increase profitability example: 1. Focus on your customer, talk about them not the product. 2. Offer upsells. 3. Sell soon and often.
If you offer 2 options rather than 1 it gets the customer thinking ‘which one is right for me’ not ‘should I buy this’.