How To Sell Ice To An Eskimo

There are many sales sayings that are thrown around these days that are meant to express one’s expertise in selling, such as the ability to sell ice to an Eskimo.

It’s quite possible that you could. Perhaps you have the power of persuasion and can sell just about anything to just about anybody, but just because you are capable does not mean you’re doing any good. You will be more successful in sales if you try to simply solve someone’s problem opposed to increase your sales. You will be more successful in sales if you work for your customer opposed to for yourself.

Not too long ago I decided to take on an opportunity that very few people can say they have done in their lifetime. I sold Avenger scented cologne at ComicCon. Yes. You read that correctly. JADS International, licensed by Marvel, manufactures various colognes designed to capture the musk of each superhero in the Avengers team. Hulk has a very Earthy and woodsy musk, while Captain America smells like pure Justice.

This opportunity came along and it was such a unique opportunity, I could not pass it up. If you’re not sure what ComicCon is, it’s the largest comic book convention in the world. But since it began, it’s grown into a nerd’s haven, housing various video game debuts, fantasy role-playing games, LAN parties, and Japanese Anime, among many other things. Being a nerd at heart, I was in awe by the mobs of people dressed up in costume as their favorite super hero characters and the booths of video game LAN parties connecting 16 people to a single game of Halo. It was understood that I would be paid hourly, not on commission, so there wasn’t any direct incentive to really sell a whole lot. Once I learned about the different colognes, I would stand at the booth and people would stop by to check it out. I would explain the different scents, let them smell them for themselves, and if they wanted to buy, they would buy. If they didn’t, I let them be on their way.

Another person hired to sell cologne, however, took a very different approach. I can’t say that his tactics were “bad” because he was full of passion, but I think he may have been more successful at selling cologne if his passion would have been focused differently.

For the most part, I was lackadaisical during the convention. I was being paid an hourly wage and made zero commission for bottles sold, so let’s face it, I was not very motivated to sell. I ate chocolate chip granola bars. I took pictures of all the strange things I encountered. I began to daydream in Korean because the booth next to us played Gangnam Style on repeat for 8 hours straight. I wouldn’t have even noticed this other guy’s tactics at all if he hadn’t been so competitive about sales. He was loud and boisterous and celebrated every sale he brought in. When I jokingly said he was lucky we weren’t having a sales competition, he demanded that we have one.

Oh Geez… So after demanding a sales competition, the owner of the booth agreed that for the last two hours of the convention, the booth would sell a special deal, and whoever sold the most special deals would get a cash bonus!

So the starting gun fired and he was off! He stood up straight and passionately announced our product to the convention floor. He called over every person walking by. He sprayed them with cologne. He did everything short of ripping their wallets out of their pants to try and get them to buy and he was actually selling some! The problem was that he was wasting a lot of time and energy on people that had no desire for the product.

Now, I don’t consider myself a fantastic sales person. I simply like to help people. And I’ve found that if you focus your energy on helping people, they tend to be receptive of you. I didn’t hoot. I didn’t holler. I would just calmly start conversation with people passing by and kindly greet the people that walked up on their own. I’d chat with people for a couple minutes, learn what they liked about the cologne, focused on them, connected the product to what they liked and then simply ask if they wanted to buy some (Because sales rarely happen unless you ask for the sale!). And I was selling some too!

There was one shy young lady who came up to the booth and wanted to smell one of the scents. She didn’t speak much, but as I do with most people, I began asking her questions just trying to spark conversation. We talked for a good 15 minutes and then she left taking nothing with her but a smile on her face. Some would consider that a failure to sell, but I hadn’t failed at all. I sold her on my personal brand.

In the end, I sold over 3 times as much as the other guy had sold. I got to leave the convention with a nice cash bonus in my pocket (and a couple free bottles of cologne!).

Of course, every business welcomes more sales, but when you simply sell a product to someone, the value they receive is only in the value they see in the product. Sales should be about connecting the right people to the right product. If you do this, it makes the sales process more probable, more efficient, and less work! If you maintain a true focus on simply helping the person out, whether it be through your business or referring them to someone else that may be able to help them more readily, you’re now adding an additional value proposition into the mix.

You’re selling them on your brand. The idea is ultimately to be selfless and focus only to help the people around you, but it becomes a paradox. If you can’t sell them your product, but you sell them on your brand through the added value of being helpful regardless of your profit, those people can very easily become advocates of your brand. They may sell the value of your brand to their closest friends or later down the road become customers themselves. Perhaps it’s the art of being selfish through selflessness, but I like to think the main goal here is in helping people. Learn how to selflessly help those around you and success will be inevitable. And if for some reason it’s not, at least you’ll have a lot of friends!

So how do you sell ice to an Eskimo? Easy. Find an Eskimo that has a need for ice!