<p><strong>perry marshall says:</strong></p>

<p>Why is Solitary Confinement the most dreaded prison punishment of all?</p>

<p>Because loneliness is the most dreaded feeling of all.</p>

<p>Online marketing is a lonely business, for all the same reasons.&nbsp; <br />So… why do many people still prefer hiding behind a computer to being face to face?</p>

<p>I don’t know what the answer is for you, but I can tell you what it was for me.&nbsp; </p>

<p>Nearly a decade ago when I first started selling online, the thing I liked most about it was that I didn’t have to face rejection.&nbsp; I’d spent the previous five years pounding the phone and pounding pavement (including selling vacuum cleaners door to door - man was that fun!) and most of it was notoriously unsuccessful.&nbsp; There was honestly only so much more than I could take before my head started to cave in.</p>

<p>So here I am, it’s late 1997, I’ve changed jobs and now ….</p>

<p>….most prospects are coming to me via the Internet.&nbsp; I only have to talk to the interested ones, I don’t have to push, nobody feels pressured, and sales start </p>

<p>coming easily.&nbsp; It was such a relief, such a delight, it would be no exaggeration to say it felt like a healing process.&nbsp; </p>

<p>slowly my confidence began to build.&nbsp; In fact, a few months later I started traveling to go see customers, I enjoyed it, and came home with purchase orders.</p>

<p>Fast forward to 2006, and observe that in the last 10 years the direction of business has almost completely reversed: Instead of the sales people hunting down the customers, the customers are finding the sales people.&nbsp; They’re searching constantly.&nbsp; <br />(Did you know that Google gets 3,000 searches every second,<br />24/7/365?)</p>

<p>And the sales people are still hiding from the customers.&nbsp; <br />Because customers’ #1 complaint is that nobody will talk to them.</p>

<p>Why won’t anybody talk to them?</p>

<p>Well, sometimes it’s because we’re afraid.&nbsp; Afraid of confrontation, afraid of rejection, afraid of wasting time.</p>

<p>But there are practical reasons too.&nbsp; Bryan Todd put it like this: <br />&quot;I love interaction with people. I can do it any time. It’s just that as Internet marketers we’re busy, we want to create systems that work, we want people to come to us rather than vice versa, and we don’t want to waste time with angry people, tire kickers, or folks who have no respect for the value of our time.&quot;</p>

<p>It’s only been in the last few months that I’ve finally started to realize what’s at the root of this Solitary Confinement problem.&nbsp; </p>

<p>The problem is this:</p>

<p>Most online marketers do not like the feeling of being hammered by sales people.&nbsp; We like people who help us by solving our problems.&nbsp; We prefer people to give us space and let us make our own decisions.&nbsp; We don’t want pressure, we want expertise and assistance.</p>

<p>Ari Galper teaches a Mindset for selling that honors this.&nbsp; <br />The premise of the mindset is:</p>

<p>1.&nbsp; Diffuse pressure</p>

<p>2.&nbsp; Get to the truth</p>

<p>3.&nbsp; Become a problem solver</p>

<p>Oddly enough it turns out that the best way to sell is to treat people exactly the way you like to be treated when you’re buying.&nbsp; You help them solves your problem, you give them their space and let them make their own decisions.&nbsp; <br />You provide expertise and assistance.</p>

<p>-You never assume that the person you’re talking to is the right fit for your product.</p>

<p>-You never assume that your sales copy does a clear enough job of explaining things.</p>

<p>-You never assume that the products you currently sell do a good enough job of solving their problem.</p>

<p>When we do online chats with people, we don’t ask them to buy.&nbsp; We give them the information they need to make a decision for themselves, and we get a better qualified, more receptive customer.&nbsp; It’s counter-intuitive, yet it feels so natural.</p>

<p>Freely conversing with customers is such a wonderful alternative to Solitary Confinement.&nbsp; Not only is it a whole lot less lonely, it uncovers obstacles in your sales process that you never knew about.&nbsp; For me and Bryan, it’s been a revelation.</p>

<p>On September 6 Ari and I are starting Unlock The Internet Game, where Ari will teach the entire process that multiplied his sales 20X in 18 months, with only 2X the traffic.&nbsp; That’s a 10X improvement in effectiveness.&nbsp; Such results are not unheard of when you really connect with your customers:</p>

<p><a href=”http://www.unlocktheinternetgame.com/” target=”_blank”>http://www.UnlockTheInternetGame.com</a></p>

<p>Can’t wait…</p>

<p>perry marshall</p>