“I sell shit” is a quote from the movie “Triangle of Sadness”.
The guy speaking is a millionaire. And wouldn’t you want to be a millionaire?
The best guide to selling anything, or so they say.
The marketing matters
The way you present your stuff influences how a potential buyer reacts. This is obvious for any shopping window.
But what about intellectual stuff like ideas and presentations?
This selling of information is also affected by its presentation. Even more, usually, the messenger effect takes place. We trust information more if it comes from a trusted messenger. Few people reject a good offer because they dislike the salesman. Of course, being a likable salesman bears still advantageous.
Bad apples and Watermelons
We often face a situation where the information we want to communicate is negative.
Imagine a sales reporting presentation. If sales are down by 30 %, that is not good.
You can refer to a bad apple selling strategy. From the outside, the apples look good, but from the inside, worms are already calling it their home.
In the business world, this pattern is also known as watermelon reporting. From the outside, all projects are green. Only on the inside are they bright red.
Selling shit the honest way.
There is a better strategy. Everything can be framed in perspective to a reference point.
For the sales reporting: Reporting a 30 % decrease is not as good as reporting that sales are only 70% of last year’s sales. Both mean the same thing, but 70 % sounds better.
If you work on an innovation project and meet with your investors, tell them their investment has not realized any gains, but it is not lost. The investment is still in your company. A winning investment just takes time and some more cost to turn into a profit.
The psychological reason for this approach is the loss of averseness of your emotional brain. If I told you that lost 10000 $ and got a new car, that sounds more negative than your new car cost 10000$.
There are no losses; just costs for profits
As a general approach, try to communicate every lousy outcome as the cost of something, not as a loss.
Plus points if you manage to point out that it is the cost necessary to achieve a formidable gain.