Selling.

Selling is all about emotion not about the product. You sell every day you just choose to think about it differently.

 

Make no mistake, you are selling every day.

 

You’re probably really good at it too.

 

Who is the most effective influencer amongst your circle of friends?

 

 

Who is John, who is Paul, who is George, and who is Ringo in your group?

 

John is the best at selling.

 

 

Think about insurance for example. I don’t think there has ever been an insurance product that has blown the other competing products out of the marketplace so much as to create a market demand like Windows did for operating systems or the Apple iPod did for mobile music.

 

We know that we all need car insurance, homeowner’s insurance, life insurance, renters insurance, final expense insurance, etc. The determining factor as to which insurance company we choose to do business with always comes from 2 places; how we connect with the insurance company’s ad messaging and the salesman.

 

More succinctly, do you like the salesperson?

 

If you like him, you’ll buy from him.

 

Especially on the more complicated types of life insurance that double as investments and estate protection instruments. It’s all about the salesperson.

 

 

 

 

 

In the entertainment industry, we call this the “It Factor” or “Star Quality”.

 

 

 

If you think about it, it’s all about the salesperson in the entertainment industry too.

 

A hit song is a hit song is a hit song. Period.

 

Adele has a voice that could sell you a phone book.

 

Her singing, her gift, could sell you a phone book because if she sang the phone book she’d make you feel emotion.

 

Get it?

 

When you’re on stage performing, or when you’re writing a song, your goal is to evoke an emotion.

 

 

 

You attempt to evoke, love, lust, passion, disgust, fear, empowerment, heartbreak, redemption, empathy, sympathy, support, etc.

 

The better you are at that job, the more people will like you. The more they like you, the more they come to your shows and remember your song.

 

The more people remember your song, the more people will purchase it.

 

 

Consider this fact:  When you meet someone for the first time, they won’t really remember you or what you said so much as they will remember how you made them feel.

It’s the emotion that sticks with them. It’s the emotion that gets deposited into their emotional bank accounts.

 

Not words.

Not intentions.

Not logic.

Not products.

Not Pitch.

Not Chords.

 

Just emotion.

 

Artists that truly embrace this reality have better radio tours. They charm the rank and file of each station far better than an artist who is oblivious. Thus, they get more adds and, of course, more spins.

 

Artists who embrace this reality have huge, loyal followers on social media and make better livings than those that don’t.

 

Seth Godin has an incredible blog. Y’all should experience it, after all, more knowledge is more potential power that once applied, becomes real, lethal, personal power. In one blog he was talking about Girl Scout Cookies. He talks about how the girls are taught to memorize a complicated spiel where they introduce themselves, describe all the good work the scouts do, and how the cookies will raise money for this or that.

 

Seth goes on to craft a question that in less than 10 words doubles the sales of Girl Scout Cookies.

 

“What’s your favorite Girl Scout Cookie?”

 

 

 

This sentence evokes emotion, a memory, and instantly transforms the Girl Scout from a supplicant begging for monetary assistance to a valuable supplier of memories and emotion.

 

 

Pretty powerful stuff, huh?

 

We all seem to equate sales with some kind of supplicant experience. When we think of sales we feel in some way like a beggar asking for change at your local intersection.

 

Most artists don’t want to feel like beggars, thus, the inherent apprehension most artists have with marketing and promotion.

 

That isn’t sales. Rather, that is HORRIBLE sales.

 

 

Aren’t songs and artists trying to connect with fans just like selling Girl Scout Cookies? Either you have a mediocre song and you’re begging for people to listen to you, or you have a hit song delivered by a star quality performer, both of which evoke EMOTION and you are the valued supplier of music and memories.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s an example of emotional imagery in a song. This song is called Last First Kiss and was written by hit songwriters Brent Baxter, Jason Cox, and my artist Neill Skylar. The art of songwriting boils down to arousing emotion and imagery in as few words as possible.

 

I’ve been the whiskey on a liar’s lips

I’ve been a moonlight romance, sunrise regret.

I’ve been the suitcase left on the curb

I’ve been the desperate phone call, unreturned.

 

 

What emotion do these words make you feel?

 

Do they summon up a memory?

 

Have you been there?

 

Isn’t this what being an artist is all about?

 

Aren’t we supposed to connect with people and make them feel something?

 

Here’s my point:  Why not do this with your marketing?

 

Marketing yourself does not have to and should not feel like begging or bragging. It should evoke emotion like the songs that you write and your live performances.

 

Do you feel like you’re boasting when you write a biographical lyric?

 

Most likely not.

 

That’s probably the biggest mistake I see with artists who are marketing themselves. They either come across like beggars (some of them outright begging by informing you of how downtrodden they are in life “I’m blind in one eye and can’t see out of the other, please buy my CD because you feel sorry for me”…Ugh) or braggers (“Check me out, I’m amazing”…double Ugh)

 

When we are inundated with these messages every day, we understandably feel a bit slimy when we think of marketing ourselves.

 

 

Don’t let most artist’s atrocious marketing techniques discourage you from finding your own voice.

 

There’s another way to do it.

 

 

We can make them feel something.

 

If they feel something they will like us.

 

If they like us enough, they will listen to the music with an open mind and an open heart.

 

If they like the music, and they feel something with the music, they will buy it.

 

Selling CD’s only helps the company that makes CD’s.

 

Emotion is what will connect you with your audience and create life-long Superfans.

 

The art of conjuring passions in another is why we call you artists.

 

You do it in your art.

 

Now do it in your marketing.

 

Stay

In

Tune.

 

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