“I'll have what she's having.”

Have you ever seen the movie, “When Harry Met Sally”? There's a scene in the movie, and if you've seen it, you may or may not agree that it's one of the most iconic scenes in film ever. Harry and Sally are sitting in a diner. They're talking about relationships and Harry says, “Well, you wouldn't necessarily fake it would you?” He means the big “O”. If you need to know what the big O is, it's… well, we won't go there. The bottom line is, Sally grabs the table and starts going, “Oh, oh, oh.” That's a big O.

At that point this lady behind them (who happens to be Rob Reiner's mother, who used to be the Meathead on All in the Family and directed the film) says, “I'll have what she's having.”

Now, this is a kind of a real long stretch to make a point but… this “I'll have what she's having” moment is kind of the secret to success. That secret is, if you can find a way to take your products or your services and make other people feel like they want to have it too, then it's much easier to convince them to purchase.

We all want to convince people to purchase, but what happens is people often try to oversell what it is that they're trying to promote.

What I want to do today is give you a series of three don'ts and three do's when it comes to promoting your products or services in a way that helps highlight the successes it has achieved.

Don't, Don't, Don't!

Number one: Don't fake it until you make it. A lot of people say, “Hey, fake it 'til you make it,” which is a great concept. Try to act bigger than you really are. But all it takes is one question that you can't answer and you could be outed. People are going to know that you're posing, that you're not really seeing the kind of successes that you're talking about.

The second don't is, “Don't put perfume on a pig.” Okay, let's face it; pigs smell bad, right? You put perfume on there, it's still going to be smelly and bad. What I mean by this is a lot of the time people will try to just sell the sizzle on the bacon when actually it's kind of tough and chewy. To avoid doing that, you want to make sure that you're getting across the true benefits of what you are promoting, not just the features to the end user.

The third is “Don't put profits above people.” If you are too busy selling, selling, selling, then you may not be meeting the needs of people you have already sold to. Guess what? If you put profits in front of people, people will talk and sooner or later that will come and catch up with you in the form of returns or people just not believing what you say.

Do, Do, Do!

Here's the three major do's.

Number one is to take note of the incremental successes that you have already achieved. In other words, as you start to keep promoting the same way, selling the same products or services, you're going to hear success stories from people using it. They're going to say, “This solved this problem in this way,” or, “Here was an unexpected positive result.” Find those incremental successes and keep adding to the message.

In other words, don't be satisfied with the status quo; use those incremental things that you learned to update the content and update the messages on a regular basis.

The second do is to treat failures as successful learning lessons. Let's face it, we all have bumps in the road. What you should do is figure out certain places where it's failed and then use that to say, “Hey, we've tried that, and this is what we have learned.”

Let's just imagine you have created a magic stain eraser that is going to erase stains from clothes. You've tried it and all of a sudden it starts to change fabric colors. That's bad, right?

Lets also say you've learned that this magic stain eraser works great on whites but it doesn't work on certain colors. Don't say, “Hey, this thing erases stains from everything.” Do say that, “This works fantastic on white clothing so use this on any white clothes you have: shirts, shoes, socks, or whatever. This is the perfect solution for what you are trying to achieve.”

The third one is to build on what's next. I like to call it success soup. You add a little bit of this, a little bit of that, and eventually, you get to a recipe (that's the way my wife makes soup). She starts out with chicken stock and she cuts up chicken and vegetables and then she starts to follow a recipe. Then she puts in a little bit of this and a little bit of that and starts to tweak the recipe. Then she tastes it and asks me, “Hm, what do you think?” She keeps adding to the mix to get it to that perfect consistency and perfect taste.

Success soup is just that. Build on what it is that you've learned along the way and keep adding those messages to everything that you're doing.

Now that we know the magic stain eraser works on white clothes, can it work on white canvas so you can actually clean the cover of a boat? What else can you do with this magic eraser that is going to make your whites much cleaner than they were before?

Now you could say, “By cleaning with the magic stain eraser first and putting it in the wash, you're going to end up with a better result in the wash.”

That's part of building upon the success. Start to think of different ways that as you incrementally make things happen for people and solve their problems. Can you build upon that to keep adding more and more to it? Maybe it solves additional problems that you never thought about. That's essentially what building on success can do.

The Success Formula

Here are three final thoughts that I would like to leave you with.

First, “Spotlight the Successes.” Every time you succeed, create a success story and keep building upon that story. Then keep adding more stories to it. The more you can show that what you're promoting is successful for other people, the more that people will say, “I want what she's having.”

If you're doing business-to-business work, make sure that you're “Prophetizing Profits.” In other words, make sure that people understand the return on investment on what you have to offer. Show them that by using this tool, or these techniques, that they're going to see the kind of results that will continue to grow.

The last piece of this is “Rent Resources.” I constantly talk about building a team around what makes you and your offerings unique. Work to your strengths but hire to your weaknesses.

An example of this is, I have a client who wants to sell a particular product but we're having a hard time creating awareness. I happen to know a guy who's fantastic at setting up Amazon stores. I could probably go learn how to do that myself, but doesn't it make more sense to hire somebody who's already successfully done it? Someone who could do it faster, better, and actually educate me and the client along the way?

Rely on other people's knowledge, and be willing to invest in order to improve what you're promoting to help you sell it faster and better.

Final Thoughts

The end result of all of this is to get your audience to say “I want what she's having.” The true secret of success is pretty straightforward and simple.

• First, you have to identify what the problem is for your client.
• Next, you have to offer a solution.
• Finally, you have to show that you can do it faster, better or cheaper than other options in the marketplace.

The best way to do that is by telling stories of success from you and your clients.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this. Comment below and share your thoughts, ideas or questions about showing the concepts presented. Have you had to overcome any of the presented concepts? What worked and what did not live up to expectations? Do you have any ideas or advice you could share?

To learn more about this and other topics on Internet Marketing, visit our podcast website at http://www.baconpodcast.com/podcasts/