Selling with Passion: The Code Cracker

By Walt F.J. Goodridge

Special to the Saipan Tribune
Originally published: Wednesday, Feb 20, 2008


The only way to take control of your life, raise your standard of living and move beyond merely surviving is to create your own unique product or service that you offer to increasing numbers of people in exchange for the things of value that you desire. This simple formula applies to countries as well as people. A self-sufficient economy has its own products or services of value to export to the world. Similarly, a self-sufficient individual has something of value to exchange in the global marketplace. That thing of value is based on your natural talent, skill, or interest—in other words, your passion!


The following is an excerpt from the book Turn Your Passion Into Profit by Walt Goodridge:

Not finding the right audience? Website not selling? Brochure not producing results? Ad copy not pulling prospects? Sales pitch not wowing them? Prospects not turning into customers? Customers not turning into repeat buyers? Whatever selling challenge you have can be solved by applying one or more of the Code Cracker principles. They represent the most powerful secrets I've learned about selling that have helped me crack codes in just about every venture I or my clients have launched. They include techniques, strategies, mindsets, perspectives and truths about human nature that are critical to everyone who wants to turn their passion into profit.

Effective marketing is nothing more than communicating an idea from within the right mindset. In order to have the right mindset, you need to know who you're speaking to, what they want to hear, and you have to know the words to use to say it to them. Here then, are the Mindset secrets which can help you sell effectively.

MINDSET: Put People First

People don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care. Make customer service an important part of your business and treat your customers, suppliers and employees well. Do whatever it takes to make a good impression with everyone who does business with you. Sometimes it means refunding the money of an angry customer, even if he or she is in the wrong. Sometimes it means shipping out a product overnight at your expense even though it means you make no money on the sale.

One unhappy customer can do more to damage your reputation than ten happy customers will do to improve it. Are you sending a message to customers that you're in it just for the money? Put people first.

MINDSET: There's a process to selling: Get Attention, Spark Interest, Elicit Desire, Move to Action (AIDA)


In sales workshops, people are taught to take their prospective customers through a four-step process known as AIDA in order to make a sale. A.I.D.A. stands for Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action. Whether you're selling in person, by mail, over the Internet, or by phone, the process is the same.

The first step in making a sale is to get your customer's attention. If you're dealing with them personally, you probably already have their attention. If you're placing an ad, your headline will be what grabs their attention. The next step is to arouse their interest. To do this, you may ask a leading question-a question that makes them think and which requires an answer. The quicker and more often you can get your customer to say the word “yes” either out loud or to themselves, the closer you are to making a sale. Ask: “Would your life be different if you had all the money in the world?” “Are you interested in feeling healthy?” “Do you like to have fun?” “Want to lose weight?” “Need more cash?” Chances are good that you'll get a yes to those questions.

The next step is to build on that interest and turn it into desire. Here's where you need to appeal to their emotions by showing how your product or service fulfills their wants and needs and helps them avoid their dislikes. (Remember the Value Tree) Finally, move your customer to action by overcoming any objections they may have, then asking for the sale.

MINDSET: Get Excited


Enthusiasm sells. When you talk about your passion you need to get excited if you want to sell more. I'm often asked, “What if I'm not the type of person who gets excited?” My answer: “Get excited, anyway!”

Plain and simple. If speaking excitedly is not something you are comfortable doing, then get uncomfortable. If it's just not you, then become it. It all starts with you. Even if you hire someone to be a cheerleader for you and your product, you need to communicate your excitement to them, or they won't get excited about it either.

People respond to excitement. As one sales expert says, “people are more impressed by the height of your enthusiasm than the depth of your knowledge.” Set yourself on fire and people will come and watch you burn! (And hopefully they'll buy something from you while you sizzle!)

In my workshops and private sessions, I have attendees stand up and practice selling their passion with passion to the audience. It's an effective way to have people step outside of their comfort zones.

I'll also add that you should be nice, smile, greet people, treat others the way they want to be treated, remember peoples' names, and birthdays, deliver what you promise and be honest in all your dealings--and do it all with excitement!

MINDSET: Always have a plan B (or C, D, E, F and G)

NEVER, ever let any ONE person be the only key to your success. As I always say to people who get discouraged by rejection, “no one person has the key to EVERY door that leads to success.” Just because one distributor won't carry your product doesn't mean you're doomed. Just because the most powerful newspaper in the country doesn't write a story about your novel, doesn't mean it'll never be read, UNLESS you believe it.

There is ALWAYS a way to get things done. When you make your plans, think positively and expect success, but always ask yourself, “what will I do if this plan doesn't work? What's my Plan B?” Even if it means selling your product yourself on the Internet, or out of the back of a van, there's a way. Find a way, even if it means having someone else talk to the same distributor about your product. “Plan B Thinking” means that no one will ever stand in the way of your success. As Bob Marley says, “When one door is closed, another is open!”

MINDSET: People buy based on Emotion, not Logic

People make emotional decisions. Every decision, from whom we marry, what clothes we wear, to what color and model car we buy, is made emotionally. Although we may have a host of logical reasons to convince ourselves that we made the best decision, the truth is the decision itself is usually emotionally motivated. Advertisers have known this for years. That's why they can sell cigarettes without ever showing a picture of one. That's why food ads often show more images of smiling faces than lists of ingredients. That's why athletes and performers are paid tremendous sums of money to endorse products. People identify positive emotions with their favorite celebrities, and will, by association, have positive emotions with the products those stars are linked with.

Your mission, therefore, is to create positive emotional associations in your customers' minds to the product or service you are selling.

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For more on the Code Cracker, check out Turn Your Passion Into Profit at www.passionprofit.com!

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Until next time, remember, success is a journey, not a destination!-Walt



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