Selling air

Well a cloud anyway. Selling what you can’t touch, feel or see. Can you develop this skill? I’m sure you already have it. Do you believe it?

Let’s say I have a pen in my hand and I’m trying to sell it to you. So I might explain what it does, tell you why it is better than your current writing instrument. I might demo it, write a sentence or two. Do you understand what it is, why you need it, how it works? Could you, and would you buy it? So selling a tangible item is straight forward.

Now I have to sell you a hosted pen. I can’t show it to you. I can’t demo it, I can tell you about it, but is that enough? Will you buy it? I’m selling you something you know and understand. You have a writing instrument now. You know what it does, how it works, its problems. 

So the surest way to sell an intangible item is to relate it to a tangible one. Compare and contrast it to what they know. Don’t try to make them understand something virtual and relate it to what they know. Talk about what they know and expand it to encompass the virtual.