ASA 42 | Selling Speed

 

In this episode, Alex Mandossian talks about reminiscing about the future and how Samuel Morse, a fearless visionary, used this skill to create something revolutionary. Samuel Morse was the entrepreneur credited with inventing the telegraph, the first system of instant long-distance communication, who was neither a scientist nor an engineer. He succeeded in developing innovations where others failed. It wasn’t by any special talent or education but by determination and by following his own ideas. Replacement always outperforms improvement.

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Listen to the Podcast Here:

Reminiscing About The Future …

In this episode, you’ll learn three key insights that I believe are critical to making you a highly skilled ethical influencer. You’ll discover why replacement will always outperform improvement in any marketing you do. You’ll also learn how selling speed is the most rejection-free presentation you’ll ever make. You’ll also learn why discovering a win for your target audience will win you more sales.

The entrepreneur credited with inventing the telegraph, the first system of instant long-distance communication, was neither a scientist nor an engineer. He succeeded in developing innovations where others failed. It wasn’t by any special talent or education but by determination and by following his own ideas. He had a saying that he would reminisce about the past. Reminiscing is like nostalgia.

Samuel Morse And Morse Code

It’s recounting and thinking about what’s happened in the past and then triggering and connecting it to the future. The future will prove the past if you know how to reminisce about the future. This man was Samuel Morse. He was a fearless visionary who had the unique ability and talent of being able to reminisce about the future. It was on a voyage by ship, returning back from Europe in 1832.

Morse met several scientists who were discussing the latest discoveries in electromagnetism. Namely, that a magnet could make an electric current and have it flow through a wire. These days that’s no big deal but back then, that was a huge deal. Morse asked a question. He said, “What if human intelligence could be instantaneously transmitted by electricity to any distance?” That’s a big idea.

Although this idea had struck the minds of others, Samuel Morse came up with the unique feature that made his telegraph communication a breakthrough and more functional than anyone else’s. He coined this feature and he called it Morse Code. Look up Morse code on Google and you’ll see what it is. It’s not about voice transmission. It’s a sequence of taps that goes through wire without the voice.

Morse code consisted of simple patterns of dots and dashes for each letter in the alphabet. It was simple. The only thing each sender and receiver needed in any telegraph message was an on and off key. This is binary, it’s either on or off. Once you learn this language, you could communicate instantaneously through electric current going through a wire. This is before the telephone, but it allowed two minds to communicate with each other. It was a miracle. It’s fascinating to me.

After six years of experimenting and solving technical problems as they arose, Morse and his partners demonstrated their invention to President Martin Van Buren. He’s one of the US Presidents. They also presented to other members of Congress. Congress is the body of people who make law in the United States. This is where All Selling Aside comes in because he was making a sales presentation to the highest levels of the United States.

[bctt tweet=”Mistakes are great, the more you make them, the smarter you get.” username=”AlexMandossian”]

It would trickle down and take root by impressing and persuading through seeding and storytelling with the most influential people in the United States. In 1844, twelve years after Samuel Morse had first begun his telecommunication experiment. That’s a long time. He didn’t give up, he kept going. He didn’t procrastinate. He wasn’t a perfectionist. He just kept going. In previous episodes, I’ve mentioned the three reasons why entrepreneurs fail in sales, business and life.

They don’t get started, that’s procrastination. They don’t finish, that’s perfectionism. They don’t keep going, that’s the power of momentum, and the faith, hope and vision in your idea. I don’t believe that most people can appreciate that third reason of failure. The reason of momentum to keep things going. You know it has the ability to take root, to be received and embraced by the population.

Twelve years after Samuel Morse had started his first experiment, the US Congress authorized the necessary funding. They were no venture capital firms back then in the 1800s. He got the funding to develop the world’s first telegraph line because this is expensive. It takes wire going from one place to another. He didn’t have the funds to do it. He impressed the people who could create the laws and generate funds from the US government in order for this communication breakthrough to take root.

It ran between Washington, DC and Baltimore. It’s not thousands of miles, it’s a few hundred miles. Nevertheless, it’s significant. Washington, DC, the capital of the United States to Baltimore. That was the first Morse Code wire where electrically, instantaneously a message can be transferred from one brain to another. From one household to another, from one government building to another building.

On one eventful day in Baltimore that same year, Morse gave his initial telegraph communication demonstration in front of a group of Washington, DC politicians. This guy is a genius. Politicians are known to be corrupt. However, when you have a big idea, you can get them to rally around you and make your idea work. You don’t have to go after politicians in your business if you’re a coach, consultant, or service professional.

They’re probably influencers in associations who are the big people and the big influencers. The bellwethers, as they’re called. They can influence your idea going into the execution stage. That’s what Morse did. Morse was not only an inventor. He was also an entrepreneur and a showman like P.T. Barnum. You don’t have to be an extrovert and have that kind of quality in your personality. You must be able to take the risk and look bad in public because chances are you will.

When people say, “Alex, what’s the secret of your success?” My response is, “I’m more willing to look bad in public than other people who study with me or people who don’t study with me.” Think about that. “Mistakes are great, the more you make the smarter you get,” said Buckminster Fuller.

ASA 42 | Selling Speed

Selling Speed: When you sell speed, you’ve gathered evidence that can get people from point A to point B faster, better, and easier than anyone else. Speed is expensive.

 

What Samuel Morse knew with absolute certainty was how to maximize impact and how to maximize the value of that impact by presenting it to people who were important, VIPs, in this case, politicians and the President of the United States. This is before Alexander Graham Bell who invented the telephone communication. What Morse chose was the topic of nominating Henry Clay for President. He’s talking to politicians and the topic is about politics. The guy is a genius.

Minutes after the final vote was cast, an hour before the fastest train could ever transmit that message from Washington, DC to Baltimore, Morse publicly revealed how his new telegraph device could change the future of communication.

Selling Speed

Morse knew that selling speed is almost rejection-free in a presentation. When you sell speed like you know something other people don’t know, you’ve gathered evidence that can get people from point A to point B faster, better and easier than anyone else, then you’re selling speed.

Speed is expensive. Anything I teach is available on Google. Anything I teach has been available through other people’s experiences. It’s in gathering and curating these lessons. These are free, 25 years of experience and mistakes, sales and marketing know-how delivered in 25-minute chunks. That’s what you’re learning from All Selling Aside episode 42, Reminiscing About the Future. I’m selling speed.

I’m telling a story. I’m showing you how reminiscing through the nostalgia of a great invention which is obsolete these days, through Samuel F.B. Morse. He sold speed and he knew how to do it. I’m sure he was rejected many times. He did move forward and he did prosper. Morse publicly revealed that his new telegraph device could change the future of communication. It was faster than the pony express, which was a way to deliver mail.

It was faster than the fastest train. He said it was instantaneous, but it probably took a few milliseconds to receive the message and to decode it. Samuel Morse’s speedy method of communication and information exchange by wire was the beginning of the multibillion-dollar communications network. It has since transformed the modern workplace. Before voice transmission, there was Morse code.

He developed a language just like Steve Jobs developed iTunes so that the iPod could carry a thousand songs in your pocket. What did the iPod do? It replaced the Sony Walkman where you had to carry a bunch of CDs in a backpack. Replacement always outperforms improvement. These weren’t faster horses for the pony express in delivering mail. These were not faster trains. This was a replacement of the previous method of delivering a message.

[bctt tweet=”Originality is the most dangerous word in marketing and advertising campaigns.” username=”AlexMandossian”]

Even carrier pigeons, homing pigeons, it replaced them. Perry Belcher is a good friend of mine. He was once a student many years ago, now he’s my teacher and a world-class copywriter. He’s one of the co-founders of Digital Marketer with Ryan Deiss. I watched him talk one time at a two-day intensive and he said, “Replacement always outperforms improvement.” I want you to think about that when you’re making an offer.

If what you’re doing replaces all the improvements people could imagine, that’s much more valuable. People are drawn to that. If you’re selling speed, you won’t be rejected as often. Make a big and dramatic point that that’s what you’re selling. Remember, you’re not selling what you think you’re selling. If you go to a carwash, they’re not selling wiping bugs and dirt from your car. They’re selling self-esteem. What emotion are you selling?

Speed means advantage. It means peace of mind. It means more certainty. It means you get information faster than anyone else. If you can prove that and make it part of your offer, rejections will not be something that you’ll face. Ideally, if you can discover a win for your target audience or prospect. In this case, it was the US government to help fund the wiring for Morse Code. He developed the code like iTunes with Steve Jobs.

It was a new way to replace what was being used to deliver messages. You’ll win more sales if you discover the big win for your prospect in advance. It requires a little bit of mining which is my word for research. As we look at personal communications, what Morse did is he was the internet of the 1800s. Many hobbyists and people in the Military still use Morse Code. I’m going to learn Morse Code.

I’m going to make it a hobby of mine to learn it because you can communicate easier with Morse Code visually even or with a flashlight. It has been done with many people at sea who were stranded. The voice only carries so far. Imagine not even having a wire but having a flashlight and using Morse Code only with light, such as SOS which is save our ship. That’s the easiest Morse Code to learn. That’s the story of Samuel F.B. Morse inventing the telegraph because of Morse Code.

Curiosity, Language, Fearlessness

I want to focus on the power of curiosity, which Einstein talked a lot about when he was living. Morse asked the question, “What if intelligence could be instantaneously transmitted by electricity at any distance?” The what-if question is the innovative question. It doesn’t have to be original. Original doesn’t mean it’s a replacement. You’re not being original. You already have a target audience who wants something. In this case, communication.

It’s not originality that we’re looking at here. It’s not something that people are not familiar with. “Originality is the most dangerous word in advertising,” said Rosser Reeves who created the Unique Selling Proposition or USP. If you’re focusing on being an inventor and not an innovator which replaces an improvement, chances are that the public in your lifetime will not be embracing what you have to offer.

[bctt tweet=”Speak the language of your target audience and get them to get behind your idea.” username=”AlexMandossian”]

For example, the fax machine was invented in the 1860s. I remember the fax machine coming out in the 1980s. Why? Because it was original. There was no network setup. It would’ve been a good idea if the inventor of the fax machine, who was a Scotsman, got together with Samuel Morse because the same wires were being used.

Let’s take a look at language. Speak in terms of your target audience and get them to get behind your idea. Morse went to politicians because they could gather and fund the wiring going from Washington, DC to Baltimore, which was the first transfer of Morse code. Eventually, it went throughout the country in the United States. Speak in terms of what your target audience can relate to. Whatever industry you’re in there’s marketing speak, there’s industry speak.

It’s not in terms of your prospect, it’s in terms of your colleagues. If you’re saying things that your prospects don’t understand then there won’t be clients. You will separate yourself because they won’t feel the level of intimacy of speaking their language. This is a big mistake that many of my students make. Another thing is fearlessness. History is filled with innovators, with people who came up with things that replaced improvements.

Steve Jobs comes to mind with the iPhone, iPod, tablet, and iPad. J.K. Rowling innovated a whole story in a sequence that keeps living on with the Harry Potter series. Elon Musk started with PayPal but taking the Tesla automobile and wanting to go to Mars. He’s an interesting guy in what he believes was going to happen here on earth if you read his biography. I don’t believe he’s in the automobile business. He’s in the longer-lasting battery business.

Imagine if the battery on your laptop could last two weeks and it’s on all day. Imagine if the battery in your mobile phone or smartphone lasted a month. It’s possible. That’s the business that ultimately Elon Musk is in. Bill Gates puts a computer on every desk and every home in the United States. That was his vision. He used an operating system that he borrowed a.k.a. stole from Steve Jobs.

I remember Windows 95 was so reminiscent and nostalgic compared to the Apple products that were coming out. Love him or loathe him, he is a great innovator and fearless. Charles Kettering is also someone who comes to mind in the automotive business, the shipbuilding business, building dams and also in health care. These guys did not invent things, they replaced things. They innovated.

They didn’t just improve. They replaced because replacement will outperform improvements in marketing every time. There’s the question of speed. Everyone will make $1 million in their lifetime. You will, I will and all the students I know will. The key is not to take 10 to 50 years. The key is to do it in one year. Wealth favors speed and money buys speed. Anything that you attend where you pay for, whether it’s a workshop or a how-to course, you’re buying speed.

ASA 42 | Selling Speed

Selling Speed: If you hate to sell, it doesn’t matter because you’re ultimately selling speed. You want your prospect and then the client to get from point A to point B faster.

 

You want to learn it faster because you’re putting and pinning your hope that the person you’re buying it from has done it before. They can teach you how to do it faster than they did. If it took me seven years to make my first $1 million, but three years later, I made $1 million in less than half an hour. You see that there’s that momentum and the speed of advancing once you know how to do something. Those are the people you follow.

Guerilla Business Online

I have a course called Guerrilla Business Online. I usually sell it from the stage at a five-day event called Guerrilla Business Intensive. Thanks to my good friend T. Harv Eker who created the stage curriculum. My other two friends Richard Tan and Veronica Tan run success resources. They are my event managing host. I fly all over the world teaching this five-day event. The offer I make is called Guerilla Business Online at the Guerrilla Business Intensive. Do you see how the two relate?

I’m selling speed. Whatever you do online is much faster than what you do offline. Guerilla Business Online is the fastest, easiest and most economical way to dramatically increase your wealth and profits without spending a single penny on marketing or advertising cost. Isn’t that a simple headline? Isn’t that something that would lure people in no matter what business they’re in, offline or even if they’re online?

If you want to take a look at our intake, which is the first step to get a discovery session with one of our coaches, we have a coaching program around it. Getting the course is not enough. I’ve learned that over the years. People are not at the level of personal initiative that we want them to be. Even I’m not. I have three coaches and I belong to two Masterminds that costs me over $55,000 a year. It’s worth every penny because money will buy speed in business.

Have a look at MarketingOnline.com/intake. Do it if you’re only serious about accelerating your path to success. You probably are not making the money you deserve. You probably have a lot of uncertainties and not ascending the hill or mountain of prosperity as fast as you deserve. You probably don’t know what tools you need at the lowest cash out laid to make that a possibility. We can teach you.

It costs money. The range is between $5,000 and $30,000. The $30,000 value is no longer available because we’re full. It’s going to be between $5,000 and $15,000. Be prepared for that if you want to continue with us. The purpose of this episode is not to sell the intake but to show you that it pays to buy speed.

Quick Review Of The Episode

Here’s a quick review. Why replacement will always outperform improvement in marketing? I hope it’s clear to you and I hope it makes sense. I’ve known that for years. It wasn’t until I heard Perry Belcher say it from the stage where it struck me like a crystal arrow through my forehead. Number two, you learned how selling speed. In your business, whatever business you’re in, coach, consultant service professional, it doesn’t matter.

[bctt tweet=”Replacement will outperform improvements in marketing every time.” username=”AlexMandossian”]

If you hate to sell, it doesn’t matter because you’re ultimately selling speed. You want your prospect and then the client to get from point A to point B faster. That is the best way to lower rejection in your presentations. Finally, why discovering a win for your target audience or prospect will win you more sales. If you know what’s a win for them and you do that by asking. You do it by inquiring. You do that by finding out why people didn’t buy. You didn’t know their win.

Those are the things you learned and remember that these insights will only work for you if you decide to work them. Please make sure to execute what you’ve learned in this All Selling Aside episode. If you do, your future will be bigger and brighter and you can create it on your own terms. That’s our review and speaking of reviews, I want you to go to AllSellingAside.com/iTunes. I want you to type in your biggest takeaway or a-ha moment you experienced in this episode.

If you haven’t done this already, then it’ll mean much to me if you write your review. It doesn’t say take away or a-ha in iTunes. It says, “iTunes reviews.” When you do it, you’ll be asked to rate the episode and I hope I’ve earned five stars from you. Will you do that for me? The more reviews I get, the more likely it is for me to organically climb the iTunes shows to the top 100 and top 50. I believe that anyone who hates to sell deserves to follow this show.

It’s free and they can avoid the mistakes I’ve made in the past years. Go ahead and declare your one big takeaway in the iTunes review section and visit AllSellingAside.com/iTunes. It’ll take three minutes out of your day. What you declare could provide you a lifetime of learning. A declaration is different than an affirmation, a declaration is public.

I have one final gift for you in honor of this 42nd episode of All Selling Aside. It’s a complementary way to access my video eCourse, which everyone else pays $197. The reason you’re getting it at no cost is because you’re following the show. This isn’t an ethical bribe of sorts. You’ll learn how to identify your target market, which a lot of people have a problem with. You’ll learn how to create an irresistible message.

You don’t have a traffic problem if you have a website. You have an offer problem. What you’re offering is not clear enough to attract the people that you want. I learned that from my good friend Ryan Deiss. You’ll also learn how to capitalize. It means making money on the most lucrative media sources available to you. The medium that you’re communicating with is not the message. Someone smart said that years ago. I don’t believe that.

I think the message is the message. The market is the market and the media is the media. Do whatever it takes to join me in the next episode because our topic will be about The Power of Compassion. It is about selling. It’s not about personal development. I encourage you to invite a friend or bring a study buddy. It’s for you and for them.

When you hold each other accountable and maybe you have a bunch of index cards, if you’ve already given me a review on iTunes of some of the big takeaways and big lessons you’ve learned. You’ll be a better salesperson. You’ll be a better ethical influencer. You’ll be a better coach or consultant or service professional whatever trade or industry you’re in. I can’t wait to connect with you then because it’s my favorite story of all time. I can’t wait for our paths to cross.

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