Authority Rainmaker – Page 2 – Interent Marketing Voices

Dan Pink on How to Succeed in the New Era of Selling

Selling isn’t what it used to be.
And for most of us, that’s a good thing.
Gone are the days of alpha males who are “always closing.” Today, in the new era of selling that has dawned, many of us are spending much more of our time selling than we even realize.
This is the subject of Authority Rainmaker keynote speaker Dan Pink’s latest book, To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others, and he gives us an inside look — describing the tools and traits that are required (many of which you probably have already) — in the latest episode of The Lede.
In this episode, Dan Pink and I discuss:

Tips for building a network (hint: be genuine!).
How we’ve moved from buyer beware to seller beware.
Two reasons why humility has become an essential trait for modern-day selling.
Why “Always Be Closing” has been replaced by “Attunement, Buoyancy, Clarity.”
Dispelling the myth that strong extroverts are best-suited for selling.
Why the new era of information symmetry makes expertise and conscientiousness more valuable than ever.
How the concept of “servant selling” should be applied to content marketing strategy.
How to use extrinsic motivators and intrinsic motivators at the appropriate times to achieve the desired results.

Listen to The Lede …
To listen, you can either hit the flash audio player below, or browse the links to find your preferred format …

Click here to download the mp3 | 62.5 MB | 33:55
Click here to subscribe via iTunes
Click here to listen via Stitcher
Click here for the

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Here’s How to Answer the Most Important Question in Life (and Make a Living from It)

Why bother?
Each and every morning you and I both wake up and ask ourselves that question. Some mornings we don’t even think about the question, but answer it deliberately by jumping out of bed and bolting for the office.
In these cases, we bother because we care deeply about what we do. We feel like we matter. Then there are the other mornings …
Mornings where you roll over and eye the clock. The alarm will sound within minutes, but you have no desire to get out of bed. It has been a long week — and it’s only Tuesday.
On these days — which may turn into months or even years — you hate what you do and feel like you don’t matter. That’s a terrible feeling, and you need someone to come along and tell you it doesn’t have to be that way.
Fortunately, there is someone.
And that person is Bernadette Jiwa, a branding consultant based in Perth, Australia. She’s an Amazon bestselling author and just a plain, old-fashioned storyteller — who is, by the way, speaking at Authority Rainmaker this May in Denver, Colorado.
A few weeks ago, I got the opportunity to talk to her — about her books, her blog, and her unique approach to branding. And ultimately, about how a business can satisfy customers by answering that terribly important question about life.
In this 42-minute interview you’ll discover:

Bernadette’s insightful response when I confessed why Copyblogger’s editorial department has a crush on her name.
What it

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Sally Hogshead on How You Can Unlock Your Natural Ability to Fascinate

You have a natural ability to fascinate others that you may or may not be taking full advantage of.
And getting in touch with this “fascination advantage” can pay big dividends, both in business and in your personal relationships.
Sally Hogshead is a copywriter-turned-Catalyst who teaches you how to tap into your natural ability to fascinate by giving you a better understanding of how the world sees you at your best.
Those of you who are going to Authority Rainmaker this May will get to experience Sally’s passion, energy, and innovative ideas live and in person. She is one of the keynote speakers.
And in today’s episode of The Lede, we bring you a little taste of what that will be like. (Plus a special offer to take Sally’s Fascination Advantage for free so that you can find out what your archetype is.)

In this episode, Sally Hogshead and I discuss:

How Sally went from copywriter to Catalyst.
The critical difference between being merely interesting and being fascinating.
The archenemies: distraction, competition, and commoditization (and why they damage your marketing).
What the results of the Fascination Advantage assessment really tell us about ourselves.
The importance of having an Anthem and how you construct one.
How Sally applies her own ideas at home, as a parent.

Oh, and I hope you like the new music.
Listen to The Lede …
To listen, you can either hit the flash audio player below, or browse the links to find your preferred format …

Click here to download the mp3 |

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Here’s How Master Brand Storyteller Bernadette Jiwa Writes

Not many people can claim they single-handedly created the new marketing model for the 21st century. And did it simply with a five-column graph called The Difference Map.
Well, Bernadette Jiwa can.
Which is one reason why we are so excited that she will be a featured speaker at Authority Rainmaker.
But her list of achievements doesn’t stop there. She has created brands and unique innovation strategies. The products and ideas she has touched range from football boots to a medical journal, businesses to blogs, books to Kickstarter projects, non-profits, and more.
And she does it with stories.
Mrs. Jiwa grew up in Dublin, Ireland, the capital of storytelling, and carried that gift with her from a grocery warehouse inventory counter all the way to her current life as a branding consultant living in secluded Perth, Australia, where she has managed to write — not one, but four — Amazon bestsellers in the categories of marketing and branding.
In 2012, she was named one of the top 100 branding experts to follow on Twitter. She has also shared her secrets on spreading ideas at TEDxPerth.
Seth Godin calls her “the master of making organizational change around marketing.” And she makes it a matter of principle to help professionals and businesses tap into the essence of their ideas, uncover their unique abilities, and tell the story of how that translates into value for people in a marketplace.
She’s an amazing writer who said the best business lesson she has learned in more than

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Do Lower Prices Lead to More Sales?

Let’s say you’re choosing between three photography courses covering similar topics.
The prices are stacked like this:

$200
$250
$2,000

What’s going through your mind right now?
Curiosity floods your brain. Even if you’re not sure you can afford the $2,000 course, you want to know why it’s so expensive, compared to the other photography courses.
If we were truly happy with lower prices, we would simply snap up the $200 workshop, right? We wouldn’t so much as take a glance at the rest.
But that’s not how we’re built as human beings.
Many years ago, when I consulted with a company that sold beds in a store, we’d take customers around the store. We’d show them beds that cost $1,500, $2,000, and $4,000. And then we’d ask them if they were curious about the bed that cost $4,000.
You bet they were. You would be, and so would I — we’d all be curious about the features and benefits that caused an increase of 100 percent (or more) in the price.
Price decisions are made in a vacuum or by comparison
Lower prices, alone, don’t produce more sales. We’re clear on that idea, aren’t we?
And that’s because clients make price decisions either in a vacuum or by comparison.
To start, let’s look at making price decisions in a vacuum.
Say you decide to buy a bottle of Ardbeg (yup, it’s a really nice, single-malt whisky). But wait — the price of a single bottle of 2009 Ardbeg Supernova is $550.
You aren’t asking why at this

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