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Sell me this Pen... A seller's Instructionals (From a techie's POV)


djgodknows

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It is common knowledge that technical professionals seldom lack the ability to communicate proficiently unlike other professionals such as businessmen, lawyers etc.

On the other hand our brain works super efficiently (a biased opinion of course!), but our tongue offers basic functionality.

So this thread is about SALESMANSHIP from the point of a non-sales person such as myself.

There are a lot of different categories here on Fiverr, but majority of questions regarding sales on this forum are coming from service providers of the technical nature.

So let us get to the meat on the bone. Although I come from a technical background, I have been blessed with an articulate mind and tongue as well. Is that important? It sure as hell IS!! Especially when you are working in a SALES ENVIRONMENT, and not only that, the person you are offering your services to has not and never will ever meet you. So the talks about “First Impressions” go OUT the door. Do you have to have a degree to be articulate, no not really (just play a lot of scrabbles…LOL j/k!). You just need to learn to say the right words, mixed with the right emotions.

I am not going to delve deeper into articulation, then this forum topic is just going to be looking more like a biography than an informative article.

Step 1:
“Greetings”, “Hello There”, “Howdy”, even starting with “Hi”, automatically makes you personable. This is key; as all communication via seller is done electronically and you do not get a chance to make character impression. To them (the buyers), all we are, are Names & Numbers (your gig offer).

Step 2:
Ask questions and answer in Layman’s Terms! Yes, Layman’s terms, meaning breaking your technical knowledge into bite sized little baby food, so that anyone can swallow and understand what you are talking about. (Please don’t go and put your scrabble pieces in a blender and blend it to mush now!)
I’ve had plenty of complements from my sellers that I “Dummy” it down for them. This links back to step 1 again, impressions, impressions!

Step 2b:
Please stop posting your pre-written script of: “Yes, I can do this…blah blah blah… and HIRE ME because I am the best at blah blah blah…” Hey, maybe your arms are tired of posting response to 10 buyers request! 10 you say?? Oh my gawwd! So many??? LOL
I won my very first gig (only 29 days ago!), because I used a very important KEYWORD while replying to the client’s request. The keyword was: “Dreamweaver”. The client needed someone using Dreamweaver to make a website, and I happened to be the only one with a response with that word in it. Guess what, she told me she hired me out of 65 offers, just because of that. Success story? Yes, thank you, more please! LOL

Step 3:
Here I will talk a bit about down and up selling. No hate to Tier 2 or TRS’ here, but to begin with you HAVE to down sell, to build up your portfolio, BUT, don’t go overboard with it. It is NOT worth it.
In my professional life I used to earn $35/hr, here I started with making pennies to the dollar. Start by throwing bids on moderately priced items such as customers asking for a gig for $20-$45. Don’t offer $5 here, as you think you are low balling others to get the gig, but you are actually doing a few WRONG things:

  • Diluting the market value of a gig
  • You are setting yourself up for higher expectation, which is technically setting yourself up for failure.
  •   You are breaking trust of the buyer

I am not going to explain the above points, as this post was originally for selling a pen. LOL

Step 4:
Create a gig that is priced at average for its category. For e.g “Installing a WordPress plugin”, set the gig price at $10. $5 is too low, $20 is too high. So when you bid for the buyer’s request, you can adjust accordingly, and the buyer WILL visit your profile (TRUST ME!), and CAN gauge your technical ability and HONESTY (yes HONESTY!) from it.

Step 5:
Never do a “Bait and Switch”! NEVER EVER even try to do the following: a client wanted a WordPress plugin installed and some minor CSS customizations. You offer them your basic $10 fee for the gig and then once you start it, you go and ask them for more money to do the design customization, “SINCE YOUR GIG WAS ONLY FOR A SINGLE ACTION ITEM… BLAH BLAH BLAH”.
Trust me you will NOT succeed in Fiverr if you play this way folks!

Step 6:
Learn to say NO. This is in regards to your ability to complete a required gig function perfectly. I’ve had many instances where I got a response back from my Gig Offer, but it turned out that the client was completing wanting something else. I thanked them for contacting me and POLITELY said no, I could not complete the requested functions.
***BONUS: Suppose you do NOT know how to perform certain gigs, GOOGLE it and provide your Potential client with THAT information. Trust me, a single display of empathy will go a LONG WAY!! Most customers are clueless as to what they really need, or they are not even aware of ALL the options, even if you cannot help them out with the actual task, you can show them the road to it. They WILL appreciate this, and REMEMBER YOU!

Final Step (but not the least):
Up sell!(This goes out to all my Level 2 and TR Sellers!) Start with Step 4 (noted above), and add gig Extras. Never stop offering your gig Extras, they are free to create and it’s only bonus if it’s accepted!

So to conclude, to sell like a sales person, you have to PERSONABLE, with a bit of coyness and a dash of confidence. And YOU are all set to go!

So before I teach you HOW TO SELL A PEN, I am going to ask you sir/maam, “Do you HAVE a pen?”

Thanks for reading!

Ostentatiously ,

  • DJ GodKnows
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I cannot believe it. It hasn’t been even an hour and I’m already getting messages from sellers regarding assistance. I think i opened Pandora’s box.
Sadly there isn’t a way for me to make my id private.

Oh Hey Fiverr! I’ve got an idea for a new Forum Feature: Contact Privacy!!

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I’m guilty of using those quick responses. Recently, I’ve been trying to become more personable and build better relationships. I’ve noticed an increase in my repeat buyers after I started using greetings and signing off with a “Thank you”. I guess it just made me seem more friendly and approachable!

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Wow, I read that entire thing. As a tech person I completely agree I need to work on my speaking/communicating skills. This was eye opening. I especially liked the part when you described if you don’t know how to do something they ask, just turn them in the right direction.
After reading this I plan to go and change some things. Thank you so much!

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You are so correct especially about step 1 and 2.
Tech people tend to have the “curse of knowledge”, and are unable or unwilling to use language that can be understood by someone not farmilure with the terminology.
Sometimes just adding 10% more words will help.
Also being personal lets the buyer know that you are a real person, and you are the one that is actually doing the work.

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I honestly don’t know what I wanted to say. “Keep up the great work” maybe?

To me it appears we only have two kinds of sellers in this forum section: successful and non-successful sellers (yes, I’m generalizing heavily). That’s why I was speaking of this. Didn’t want to humble your effort for writing.

Seems that in the meantime there came some readers…

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Your post is great and helpful too and it will happen to you for a long time that many newbies will inbox you for help as that happens to me as well…If you do not mind your inbox full of sellers messages who need help then keep posting good content as i think forum need this…

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