When Selling Stopped Being Sales

Once, not too long ago, the world's economy was agricultural. Wealth was measured in how much land was owned and also by how many head of livestock as well as how many workers used to work the real estate and tend to the animals. (And on occasion, also fight to protect or increase the landlord's wealth. )

The economy was feudal and we can see it in the plantation owners of the Old South and later the cattle barons of the Old West of the United States. There was little industry and what there was, was local and expressed in trades such as blacksmithing, plow, cart and wheel wrighting. Dentists, barbers and general store owners just hung out their shingles and were available at regular hours for their customers.

There was no such thing as a sales force or a salesman.

Once the power of steam was harnessed and iron was tempered into steel, the economy became industrial. The population's move off the land and into cities to work in factories accelerated. Goods became plentiful - so plentiful in fact that after being produced they had to be actively sold.

And so was born the salesman. And advertising. And strategies called marketing.

As we all know the Industrial Age is just about dead in the U.S. despite those who have been so seduced and deluded by it that unimaginably huge hunks of our children's futures have been mortgaged to salvage that dinosaur.  We have been living in the Age of Information for a good number of years now, where what you know and invent, and how you deliver it are more crucial to you making your living.

In Seth Godin's brilliant book, with the tongue-in-cheek title All Marketers Are Liars, these last two models are condensed into two charts.

To be successful in the Industrial Age one had to really master the middle segment of a three-part sequence: Innovation – Production – Marketing.

The winners in the industrial arena were the manufacturers because that's where the profit was. If you could get it produced and delivered faster and cheaper and with a higher quality, you'd win.

The mantra of success was: Make more good stuff, advertise and sell it. The system rewarded people who did stuff.

In the new economy we're now competing in there's a new sequence. Or rather there is a new prominent segment of  Innovation – Production - Marketing.

Production is now the least important segment since both product and service cycles are much shorter. Manufacturing is still important of course but it's just not that hard anymore.  And being really good at it just isn't good enough anymore.

Now Innovation and Marketing are where the profits are. And so that is where the emphasis, attention and energy are now concentrated: on coming up with new ideas for products and ON THE STORYTELLING MARKETING to get people to buy them.

As Mr. Godin says, "Original ideas and Marketing through storytelling" are how to build a business today and into the foreseeable future.

NOW is when Selling, as conventionally thought of, as traditionally necessary in the industrial age, stopped being Sales and has become 'Storytelling Selling'.

It is storytelling that gets people to buy now. It is educating consumers that makes them great and loyal customers and business partners. And that can only be done through relationships based on thorough Q&A and listening.

And although Mr. Godin doesn't say it this is why the future belongs to Multi-Level Marketing.

The reason most people who sell goods and services – and in many cases an opportunity -  are struggling today is that they see themselves peddling a commodity. They are stuck on the old model where offering a berry juice with questionable promises or providing a travel service cheaper is their one and only focus.

This fundamental mistake explains much of the frustration and struggle of distributors across the industry in even good Multi-Level Marketing companies.

Successful MLMers realize that their businesses succeed because they have a great opportunity and a remarkable product, of course, but also because they are not selling in the conventional sense.

Successful MLMers are marketing by using great storytelling in business relationships they took the time to build.

To learn more about 'selling without selling' visit Harry Browne's site http://harrybrowne.org where you can purchase his brilliant book The Secret of Selling ~ Anything. It is simply indispensible if you are marketing anything.

To learn more about how this all applies to MLM get a FREE copy of Success in 10 Steps here http://most-valuable-networking-help.info