How to Sell Without Sounding Like a Used Car Salesman

by Matt McWilliams | Jan 3, 2022 | Affiliate Marketing, Podcast

When you promote affiliate offers (or anything for that matter), do you have a unique “voice” you use? When you start selling, do you suddenly turn into a used car salesman? If so, it’s killing your brand…and your sales. Today, I’ll share how to sell without sounding like a used car salesman.

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My Top 10 Lessons of 2021 and What They Mean for YOU!

My Top 10 Mistakes of 2021 and What You Can Learn From Them

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How to Sell Without Sounding Like a Used Car Salesman

When you promote affiliate offers or anything for that matter, do you have a unique voice that you use when you start selling? Do you suddenly turn into a used car salesman? If so, it’s killing your brand and it’s killing your sales today. I’ll show you how to sell without sounding like a used car salesman.

serve your tribe and enjoy all the benefits of affiliate marketing and having your own affiliates. You’re in the right place. Thanks for joining me today. Let’s get started.

What’s your name?

Stanley Daviski.

Hey, what a coincidence? Pretty Polanski.

How are ya?

Hey, I like that. Great shoes. Love them.

Thanks.

So Stand, you wanna buy this Buick century? Huh?” Good choice. Smart, man. You got good taste. I’ll tell you something. A lot of people have these days. Nice to see somebody finally walk on this a lot of no’s a good car and see I’ll tell ya.

So, we rent it up.

Yeah, well actually I was just looking.

Oh, Hey terrific. Terrific. That’s what we’re here for. Staying here. You can look browse, peak, touch, feel, taste, smell, do anything you want to take all the time you want. Nobody’s going to pressure anybody around here’s Dan. You know something else, Dan? I really think you want to buy this Buick.

I think you gotta buy it today. Right now. You want to know why? Because this Buick is you. The color is you look at it. This is your car Staley The Watsky is Buick. Send Sharon convertible. Now I know what you’re thinking, Stan, you’re thinking, can I afford to buy a car like this? Am I right?

Seriously stand. You can’t afford not to buy a car like this. I’m going to make it easy on you. When you add this whole thing, I’m taking any kind of inflation rate, insurance savings, gas, savings, ease and comfort. You’re gonna come at $10,000 ahead of to making this deal. Well, the is a loan of owning a Buick century. Convertible can, you can measure it in terms of dollars and cents. Am I right?

So that’s what happens when people start selling, at least a lot of times, they start using what I call the sales voice, right? I’ve made this mistake. I don’t know. Thousands of times, myself, it’s time to sell something and boom sales voice comes out.

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You know, this sales voice is the voice. You, you think that you’re supposed to use to sell something, right? It applies in spoken word. You know, you start sounding like a used car salesman. It applies in print. You know, it applies when you’re writing. It just sounds and reads different than, you know, your regular voice. Right? So to the listener, to the reader, it’s alarming. It’s obvious that something is different. Something is different here. You know? So when I use my sales voice verbally, I actually, I sound more like, you know, monster truck announcer Monday, Monday, Monday, where I sound like this guy start talking fast and blah, blah, blah. You know, and it’s not because I’m passionate. It’s because I’m driving. You know, I’m trying to sell. Even my, my writing takes on a new tone. I stopped using humor. I write in a different format than normal. I use words and I think I’m supposed to use to sell. So I use these words that I think I’m supposed to use.

And that, that makes me no longer myself, always backfires, always 100% of the time, backfires, not only do I not make the sale. So that hurts me in the short term. Do I need the sale per se? No. Do I want the sale? Of course, but longterm, I lose trust. I lose likability. I get off brand.

Those are three things that can kill your business. Your longterm. If you get off brand, people don’t know like, who are you anymore? And I’ve talked before and I shared, you know, the eight kind of archetypes for your brand, right? The hesitant hero, the reluctant, you know, rebel, you know, I shared those, right?

The master Maestro. And I shared these different archetypes. And I said, you know, you have to be consistent that it’s not, which of those archetypes you, you pick, I don’t care. If you decide that one day, you’re going to be the hesitant hero. You’re going to be the Harry Potter. You’re going to be Frodo. I don’t care if that’s the one you pick just don’t be Frodo one day and then Katniss Everdeen another.

And then don’t be, you know, Ferris Bueller on another day, don’t be Indiana Jones. And then trying to be Yoda. You can’t be Frodo and Gandalf. And Samwise Gamgee if you know, Lord of the ranger, you can’t be all of them. You’ve got to pick one. And the problem is like, sometimes we’re Frodo with our content or were Ferris Bueller with their content.

And then we’re, we’re Braveheart William Wallace with our sales copy or we’re William Wallace with our regular stuff. And then we’re Ben Stein, you know, in Ferris Bueller with our sales copy. And so I see people making this all the time, you know, making this mistake, they get off-brand you also lose trust because when you get off brand, you know,

people don’t trust you. You also lose the likeability. It doesn’t matter which of those personalities you are. You don’t have to be the fairs Bueller type, or, you know, you don’t have to be funny to be likable. People might like you as more of the Gandalf type or the Yoda type. Although he was kind of funny, you know, they might like you as that, but then when you switch to a different persona, they don’t like you. If you’re normally Mary Poppins desk, right? So you’re the cordial caregiver. That’s the archetype there. You lead with love and caring. And then all of a sudden you come out and you’re abrasive. It turns people off, you lose that likeability.

And I see people make this mistake all the time with affiliate promotions, when it’s time to sell, they start using the sales voice. So first of all, why do we use the sales voice? We’ll talk about, I want to talk about why we use it. And then as we go along, I’m going to talk about how to fix it, right? But I think it’s important to understand the why. Why do you use this voice? Well, reason number one is that you try too hard. This doesn’t matter if you’re promoting your own product, a coaching program service doesn’t matter. An affiliate offer. You really want the sale. I get that. So do I, right? You really want the sale.

You know, whether it’s a hundred dollar affiliate commission, an 800, a thousand dollar affiliate commission or a $5,000 coaching program, or like for us, it could be a six figure sale with our agency. I want the sale. I want it. You know, wow. Making a hundred thousand dollars for our agency. That’s kind of a big deal.

But when you try too hard to make the sale, something changes in you, right? You lose the relaxed tone that you normally use with your friends. You begin to talk faster and you get more pushy. Your vocabulary changes. You’ve become virtually unrecognizable to the people who, who normally interact with you, who read your regular emails. If we’re talking about email copy, it’s like, who, who is this guy? Why is this email so different than every other email he sends people. Don’t like that. The sight, the sound, the feel of desperation is a major sales killer. I’m just going to repeat that desperation. I don’t care if they sense it in any way, they see it. They feel it.

They hear it. Desperation will kill your sales. So what’s the fix here? How do we not try too hard? Well, as simple as it sounds, the fix is to try less. Now, I’m not saying don’t ask for the sale. We do, but we do so in a way that is consistent with your normal voice. If you’re normally funny, continue to be funny. If you normally use, you know, a certain more relaxed vibe, use the relaxed vibe. If you are normally professorial is the word I would use. And you share a lot of research, continue to share research that leads people to a buying conclusion, right? Don’t sound desperate or needy. Even if you are, that’s the key, you just have to try less and stick to that brand. Number two, you try to be someone else.

That’s the second reason why people use a sales voice is that they try to try to sell like someone else. And you’re Jim Gaffigan, the comedian and your regular emails. And all of a sudden, when it’s time to sell your, you know, your big Bob’s auto Superstore, right? You go from endearing personal stories to being a pushy salesman. You go to being like Kurt Russell in that clip at the beginning, right? Usually this comes, this is what I see. I see other selling and you see other selling and you try to mimic them. You see the techniques and the strategies that others are using, and you try to mimic them. The problem is they might not work for you. Those strategies might not work for you. Grant Cardone. You tried to suddenly be your fierce Bueller and you’re, you know, Jim Gaffigan in your heels and then your grant Cardone and your sales stuff that doesn’t work. Grant Cardone is grant Cardone all the time. If he’s trying to get you to go download a free, a free app, he’s grant Cardone, getting you to do that. If he wants you to go listen to, you know, watch his latest video, where he doesn’t make any money, technically, you know, then he’s grant Cardone, getting you to go watch that video. And when he sells, he’s the exact same person. So the fix here, don’t try to be somebody else.

When you’re selling, be yourself, observing others is a great way to learn. Maybe you can pick a keyword or a format. I’ll give you an example. The way I format the links in my emails is one that I learned from Jeff Walker. Most of my other stuff is not like Jeff Walker, but I took one thing, one little thing that doesn’t have a dramatic impact on my brand. And I chose that and I copied it. And then the way that I do most of the lead-ins well, not most, but a good chunk of my lead ins. I got from Kim Walsh Phillips. Did I copy her whole, her whole thing, her whole format? No, but I copied a little piece of it and I liked it.

I learned a few other little tricks that I copied here and there. I wasn’t trying, I’m not trying to be someone else observing others is a great way to learn. Like I said, provided you pick and choose what you copy from them. That’s the key or the third reason why you use a sales voices that you haven’t clearly defined your brand. If you have not clearly defined your brand and it’s easy to stray off course, you don’t even have a course. How do you go from point a to point D if you don’t have the map, right? Your brand is your map. And so what happens is one day, you’re the funny storyteller guy and the next year, you’re the tough in your face motivation guy, right? You can’t be both of those with any consistency.

Even when I feel like I need to get a little bit in your face, I still use humor. So pick one theme and stick with it, you know, write out your brain statement. That’s the fix here? Yes. Have a unique personality, have a unique style, but you got to get crystal clear on what it is and stick with it.

You’ve got to be crystal clear. Are you the master Maestro? You know, are you a veteran in your industry? Just to be clear, this can evolve over time. I’ve evolved over time slowly because you know, the reality is when I first started my platform, I wasn’t the master Meister. I wasn’t the veteran. I’d only been in the industry for six years.

So the master Maestro leads with authority and power and prestige, right? That’s the Gandalf, the Yoda that we talked about, you’ve got that hesitant hero, you know, Frodo Spider-Man right. The humble origin story leads from a place of on wonder, you know, they’re just like, oh my gosh, I can’t believe I’m even in this position. That’s kind of where I started.

I started probably as a hesitant hero, but I think, I think I actually started a little bit more as the jolly journeymen, you know, the jolly journeymen, right? Only one step ahead of your followers. And what you’re doing is just simply sharing what you discover along the way, right? So Harry, Harry Potter, Dorothy, in the wizard of Oz, are examples of that. We just saw great wizard of Oz play last night, a bunch of kids, our kids are friends with. And I mean, it was unbelievable production. And I’m like, I’m literally watching this going. Dorothy’s the jolly journeymen, you know, the eager enthusiast you leave with passionate enthusiasm, Luke Skywalker, Tarzan, right?

When you think about these and I’ll share the other three in a minute, right? There’s three more of these archetypes, these kind of hero archetypes, the roles that you can play. But when I think about these things like the consistency is what’s important. If you’re the eager, enthusiastic leading with passion and enthusiasm, Luke walkers, always the eager, enthusiastic,

he doesn’t suddenly, you know, become the cordial caregiver type. Then we’ll talk about, he’s not suddenly the master Maestro. Now over time, when you get to Luke Skywalker in like star wars nine, he’s now the master Maestro. He’s not the eager enthusiast. Who’s leading with passion and enthusiasm because he’s evolved it’s 30 years later. Or so the other three,

by the way, there’s venerable visionaries. So innovation, creativity, and wonder Steve jobs in real life, Willy Wonka would be like a fictional example, the revolutionary rebel. So Katniss, Everdeen, Indiana Jones, Ferris, Bueller, you know, they’re, they’re just, I always say, they’re mad as hell at the status quo and they’re not going to take it anymore.

And then the cordial caregiver. So Mary Poppins, as I mentioned earlier, Obi-Wan Kenobi. They lead with love and generosity. They’re shepherds. They want to protect their flock. The thing is, it doesn’t matter what role you pick, pick one and stick to be clear on your role. Don’t bounce around from one role to the next role, the role your tribe’s not going to know who you are. So you can’t be the hesitant hero. And then the master Maestro, are you truly leading with all in wonder or are you the leading expert? Who already knows the answer? If you go from cordial caregiver to revolutionary rebel, if you go from Mary Poppins to Indiana Jones, your audience is going to rebel against you.

They came because you’re loving and soothing. Not because you take on the establishment. So stick to it. This means every piece of content, every message, every product fits that role. So get clear on your brand. But number four reason that people just end up using a sales voice that they learn to dadgum much. I am a big fan of learning.

I talked about this in the last episode, right? How to start 20, 22 off the right way, commit to learning. That was number eight, I think, commit to learning. And I shared that great resource about, you know, read it for me. I’m a huge fan of learning. You should read everything I put out and listened to every episode.

Make sure you subscribe. So you don’t miss an episode. Like you should watch everything I do. Okay. Do you all my free trainings buy some courses? I mean, read my book when it comes out, like all these things, but you can learn too much about this stuff. You can learn too much about sales. You can read so many blog posts and so many books take so many courses that you forget the basics of sales.

Step one, get people to know like, and trust you step to make recommendations about products to them in a way that’s actually consistent with your brand. That’s pretty much the formula when you’re constantly learning new sales tricks, though, you basically in and nothing but a big pitch, man. So I’m like, I’m gonna try this and then I’m gonna try this.

Here’s this cool thing. And then this cool thing and oh my gosh, it just becomes over overbearing stick to the basics. That’s the fix here. Stick to the basics of selling. Stop trying so many new things in a short period of time. Try one new thing. A quarter. That’d be a good compromise there, right? Maybe every couple of months.

All right. Mistake number five. The fifth reason why people sound like their used car salesman here, they’re using that sales voice. This applies only to affiliate promotions, but you copy the swipe. Copy exactly as it is for the love of all that is holy. Please don’t do this. If someone gives you swipe copy for an affiliate promotion, do not copy paste it.

Hold up your right hand, make this statement. Now I state your name. I state your name. If you’ve ever seen animal house, you get that. I state your name will not copy. Swipe, copy without taking the time to make sure it’s on brand for me. When you copy swipe copy as is, you’re giving up your ability to keep sales pitches on brand.

Swipe copy was written in someone else’s voice, not yours. When I ride swipe, copy, I write it. You know, I don’t ride swipe. Copy. I have a copywriter do it now because I don’t want it to be in my voice, but it’s in theirs. It’s not written in your voice. So the fix here use swipe copy.

As a guide, I’m going to put a link to a video in the show notes where I show how I use swipe. Copy. That’s true to my brand, right? That’s the thing you want to get the important points across. You got to get the important points across. You need to, you know, like you can’t, you can’t write your email.

And then it’s factually incorrect about like when the webinar is or w you know what the price point is, or what’s in the course or whatever it may be, but you also need to be on brand. And so I show you how to use swipe. Copy, go check out that video, just go watch it and watch how I do it. And it’s what works.

You’ll find a formula that works for you, but this is a proven formula for using swipe. Copy the right way. All right. Number six reason, you use a sales voice and how to fix it here. As you sell scared, this doesn’t sound like it would make you sound used. Car sales, many, but selling scared is the number one reason.

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Most people suck at selling anything. They sell scared. They’re scared of looking ridiculous, being rejected and losing subscribers. I don’t know. Someone’s not going to like you, you know, they’re scared of a certain two letter word that begins with an and ends with, oh, just scared. And when you sell scared, people know what instinctively, right?

Like a dog consents fear, right? Prospective customers know when you’re selling, scared, it comes through in person comes through on the phone. It comes through. Even an email copy comes through. In the way you look at people comes through in your posture and your voice in the words you choose in a metaphorical may, actually it kind of in a literal sense, really you’re transferring your fears to the potential customer. No one wants that. No one wants your fear on them, especially today. I mean, some people are weird and want that, but most people don’t. It feels weak. It feels slimy. It feels awful scary. I mean, it’s like, it’s, it’s terrifying. Nobody wants to buy from someone who’s afraid to sell.

No one wants to buy from someone who’s afraid to sell or thinks that it’s immoral. You know, they think that I shouldn’t. So I’m above that really? Like, why are you above that? It’s your product? It’s, you know, you’re recommending this. Why are you, why aren’t you so scared of selling it? So, number one, to overcome this, you got to believe in the product. It, ask yourself this question. Would I sell this service to a friend? Would I sell this product to a friend? Assuming they have a need for it? If the answer is no, don’t try to sell it to your list to your people, to your followers, believe wholeheartedly in it.

Secondly, you got to ignore the worst case scenario on this. Like the worst thing we focus on, the worst thing that could happen, right? Oh, I’m going to be embarrassed. There’s going to be rejections. I’m going to unsubscribes, right? No other aspect of life, you know, do we focus on the worst case scenario? We don’t get into like,

Hey honey, I’m going to the store. Worst cases. I die in a car crash on the way. Really? Nobody says that, Hey, you know, oh, Hey honey, I made a reservation at that restaurant that we’ve been wanting to go to for two years, it’s super fancy worst cases. We’ll get food poisoning, worst cases. The waiter will murder us.

And he’s like, no, nobody does that. So don’t focus on that. You know, third, we talked so often about this go all in last episode, I said, pick for affiliate promotions this year and go all in on them. You’ll go all out. When you sell, go all out. That means, you know, sell with confidence, right? Don’t be afraid to get in. People’s faces. You’ve needed. There’s a reason why when I go all out, I do so well. It’s because I believe in what I’m promoting. And I want to go all out. Like if something has impacted your life and you’re promoting it, why would you not go all out? In fact, not going all out would be a disservice to the people.

Fourth, stop using weak words and phrases. I hope I try. You know, if you’d like maybe probably, you know, things like that, some of the expectation that they’re going to buy that single mindset shift makes all the difference in the world. Don’t sell in hopes of someone buying, sell with the expectation that they will. Don’t ask the audience to try something, ask them to make a commitment to buying. Try is such a weak word do or do not. Is what, you know, speaking of Yoda do or do not. There is no try. So don’t ask them to check it out. If you like it, encourage them, urge them to get it. Now use encouraging action words. When you saw that that’s important, sell with authority. So with confidence cell, because you have to tell the world about what you are selling. That’s important. Like I have to tell the world about the world about this. So I’m going to let them know I’m going to spread the word about this. And then the seventh reason why you use a sales voice in your email specifically is you don’t have a consistent format.

A lot of people, format their regular emails. So the blog posts, the podcasts, the videos, they format them one way. And then they format their promo, email, their sales emails completely different. Do not do this. If you want people to click on your promotional emails, they need to look and feel just like your regular emails.

So whether you’re sending them to a blog, post, a video, a podcast episode, or a sales page, keep the format consistent. So you need a consistent template. I don’t care what that template is. Like. That’s not the point mind, for example, I tend to have a story. So, you know, Hey, the other day my daughter asked me,

you know, such and such, or, Hey, I just got back from a vacation, you know? Or I ran into an old friend from high school the other day. And I start with that story. And then I go to the lesson and then I realized, blah, blah, blah. Right? And then it suddenly occurred to me, such and such. Right? That’s when I thought about whatever. So the story, lesson, and then I apply it to the reader. I applied to the room. I’d be like, Hey, have you ever felt like that? Have you ever been in a similar situation or here’s what that means for you? And I, sometimes I just say that, and then I have a call to action. Join me today, click here to get such and such watched the full video, below. It doesn’t matter. The format is consistent. And the problem is like if you don’t have that format, then what happens is your audience immediately that’s as a promo email, this is a promo email I can already tell, can already tell. And there’s, there’s no format there. There’s no consistency.

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So number one, stop trying so hard. You know, stop number two, stop trying to be somebody else. Number three, clearly define your brand. Number four, stop learning so much. And if you are learning a lot and I do recommend learning a lot slowly rollout, the things that you’re learning, number five, do not copy the swipe. Copy. Exactly. That’s a huge mistake. Number six, stop selling scared. And number seven, come up with a consistent format for your emails. Don’t make these mistakes right? Stay on brand. Be yourself when you sell, be yourself, when you sell that’s what’s important here.

So I’d love to hear from you. I would love if you would text me to send me a text at 2 6 0 2 1 7 4 6 1 9. And let me know if you’ve ever made any of these mistakes. And I’m curious, what were the results of that? Like, I’d love to hear from you about the results of that. I have, man. I did the I’d made mistake number two, and here’s what happened, right? And then how you’re applying this, you know how you’re applying this? So again, 2 6 0 2, 1 7 4 6 1 9. Just send me a text. I’d love, love to get your feedback on this episode. Let me know how that goes with applying what you’re learning, and then make sure you hit subscribe because you do not want to miss the next episode.

I’m talking all about how to onboard affiliates the right way. So you’ve got some affiliates lined up. Now, what, how do you onboard them and actually get them just rocking and rolling. That’s what the next episodes is all about. We’re going to talk about how to get your affiliate started the right way. So come back for that. Make sure you hit subscribe.

So you don’t miss that. Make sure you check out all the links I talked about today. You know, how do you swipe copy and the other links there, and I’ll see you in the next episode.