I Love This Guy's Presentation

I love this guy! What do I like about him? He presents well, he has a nice easygoing style and I trust him. The tenuous link between him and Sitepoint, which is what this site is supposed to be about, is that his video was linked to in the Market Watch newsletter that Sitepoint send out periodically. If you ain't gettin' any, subscribe to Market Watch here. I recommend it.

Watching the video, you might not at first identify that it's a sales pitch. But it is. Anyway, here are the elements of his sales presentation that I like:

Use Of Emotion

You can see emotion in the expressions on his face and you can hear it in his voice. What's so good about emotion? It connects you with him on a personal level. You can identify with him. It engages you and raises your interest in what he has to say. If you're selling something, you need the buyer to at least be interested! It also emphasizes his human quality. Nobody wants to listen to a robot. Humans are far more interesting. At least the ones I know.

Enhanced Credibility

This guy is an affable everyday Joe. He messes up his words and gets his figures (momentarily) wrong. He's just like you and me! Wouldn't you rather trust someone who was just like us, than a polished salesman trained in the art of NLP and mind control who would sell us things because it was his job to? He's obviously ad libbing and this makes him seem more genuine than if he was reading from a script. I believe what he says. More belief = more sales.

Note that there's a difference between messing up occasionally to foster an informal style, and messing up too much and appearing amateurish. This guy portrayed his human qualities through a little pausing, hesitancy and getting numbers wrong momentarily, but maintained his professionalism throughout.

Nicely paced, laid back style

Ryan has a really nice style. Its pace suits me, and his manner is nice and laid back. Pushy, aggressive salespeople often don't get the result they want. Ryan's manner resonates with me though. As an aside, in hypnosis there are permissive techniques (like Ryan's sales pitch) and then there are authoritarian techniques (where the operator commands the subject - think aggressive salesman). The interesting thing to note is that permissive techniques don't work on everybody and authoritarian techniques do work on some people. So just as I'm quite enamoured with this video, it may be that it'll turn other people off.

Use Of Environment

Did you notice the strategically placed laptop in the background? This is obviously a fruit of his labours in the area of buying and selling websites. Subtle, because he doesn't deliberately draw your attention to it, but you can bet your life he made sure it was in shot. Nobody likes a poverty stricken salesman, but this guy is obviously successful because you can see his laptop in the background. And that isn't even the one he's using to make the video - it's an extra luxury. On a subconscious level you've seen the laptop and have associated this display of wealth with the act of buying and selling websites on Sitepoint. If you join the site flipping team, you too could have an extra laptop! It's a winning proposition.

Selling Indirectly

Here's the clever bit. You thought he was selling Sitepoint and all its treasures. Ok, I thought he was. Actually he's overtly selling Sitepoint, but covertly selling his affiliate link (see the link in his youtube description). Whilst watching the video, you're impressed to learn that Sitepoint is the place to make money by selling your website. But what's stopping you (and what stops many site owners) selling your site? It gets no traffic. Enter the affiliate link that will solve all your traffic problems.  You can get your site earning $1,000 per month - if you click the link.

This video really whets the appetite of the entrepreneur inside all of us. We see this video and we want to make money on Sitepoint. It sounds so easy - apart from that darned traffc bit. Please offer me a quick and easy solution to this problem you have so clearly described

Good Quality Video

Not only is the visual and audio quality good, but Ryan uses all the technology at his disposal to good effect. There is in screen video so you can see him talking and see his cursor moving on the screen at the same time. He zooms in on interesting parts of the screen and even moves his little talkie video box around the screen so that you can better see what he's doing with the mouse. This helps him get his point across and also keeps all those ADHD sufferers riveted.

Sell In Increments

Like all good salesmen, he sells you in steps. He doesn't say "I want you to click on the link and buy the product". Instead, he says "I want you to click on the link and watch the video". Where's the harm in watching a lil' ol' video? Selling in small increments in this way is much easier than going for the 'target' sale in one go. Once you're watching the video, you're a little nearer to buying the product. This is why I daren't watch that video!

In summary, I loved this presentation. I thought Ryan did a really good job and I bet he's made tidy sums from click happy entrepreneurs. At the time of writing, there have been 1,793 views of this video. I wonder what the click through rate is. I suspect it's pretty high.

Disclaimer

Please understand that although it might appear that I'm making fun, I'm nothing but impressed with Ryan's performance. I wish I could present like that.