The TV Analogy and Your Fast Sales Growth – Great for Leadership Too!

I love the TV analogy and it’s one of the reasons;

• Many business owners and marketers fail to sell.
• They fail to sell often.
• Fail to sell new products and services.
• Fail to get people on board with new brands, new tech or programmes in the work place.
• Even why people fail to get staff on board with hybrid working!

Let me explain…

You want a new TV. You don’t realise it but you’ve pretty much chosen your TV before you enter the store, why? Because there they all are in all their glory (I’m listening to Jurassic park’s theme tune, so think big music, gazing over a vast sea of Black TV Tech….)

You know little about TV’s and are unaware of the psychology of sales so you look at the line up and have no clue. The first one is super cheap. How can you know this, you’ve not bought a TV in years?

It’s super cheap because you unconsciously looked at the next one which is £300 more! So this one must be cheap right?

And cheap means crap. Why do you think no one uses the word cheap in marketing? Have you ever thought about that?

Think of the word cheap and when you use it? It is used as an offensive term against people to make them sound miserly or tightfisted with their money. It is used on products to make them sound worth less. Remember that whether you are reading this because you’ve a small business to grow, a marketing team to inspire or a member of staff that always has a reason why they aren’t doing it the way you asked them to. EVERY WORD HAS A MEANING TO US.

The way you perceive the world is impacted on by the experiences you’ve had and the values you have so in business when every word matters, you need to make your words match to your audiences words and meanings.

If you value holidays and not TV’s then the sales assistant trying to sell you a £5000 TV is not going to sell it and they’ve failed to pick up on the key messages that would make that sale fasterso they get on to selling a £5k TV to someone that wants it.

I hardly watch TV so trying to tell me it’s like being in the same room as that tiger, or that it’s a cinema experience in your own home, is not going to connect with me at all. Sell me a cheap £300 one that I only dust and I can spend the rest on a holiday thank you very much!

So let’s get back to our array of TV’s, you instantly dismissed the first one because the basis for comparison came into play. Now you go to the far end and see the £8000 TV and think “Wow, what’s it made of? Gold????” You just want an average middle of the road, lasts 10 years so I don’t have to look at a sea of black screens for ten years, TV.

So you now ignore one end and the other. You don’t realise this but we all do this all the time. Before we even make the decision to buy we’ve already decided our price point. Ever wondered why prices tend to end in .99?

Because our ability to do the maths we learnt when we were 8 years old goes out the window as our brains take over. We don’t see the .99! Our brains look and think oh look it’s in this price bracket. We know £9.99 is £10 but in our heads it’s still in the 1 penny to £9.99 bracket. So it’s fitting our prebuilt in belief on what we will pay. If it was £10 it would be breaking through to the next price bracket which weren’t going to go to.

Think of anything. A car, a holiday, a mortgage. We know our limit, we know what we will push it to and what is a no go. That’s what a .99 does to you!

Mandie Holgate, so don’t nick it!

So back to those TV’s. In your head you aren’t seeing £500 you are seeing a 4, so although it’s £499. your mind is with the 4! Clever right?

So you go for the £499 right?

Well no because this is were savvy marketers, communicators and leaders really shine.
Now we are really get into your own mind!

Will you buy the £499 picture?

Do you take lots of lovely pictures in your lounge, showing off your log fire, Goldendoodle and your big fluffy socks? Why do those things matter to which one you will buy?

A savvy sales person checks you out as they talk to you. Not in the wow they are good looking way (sorry) but in the, do they wear branded clothes? What make are their shoes? Are their sunglasses designer or £10 supermarket ones? Because if you are all branded up, now the brand of TV matters.

Yes it’s a tiny logo on the front, but the “Keeping up with the Joneses” mentality whereby you do what your neighbours / friends / colleagues do because you want to look like you’ve made it, successful, happily married with perfect kids, care about the planet, travel the world, go getter and a perfect life matters to you.

(This is just an example. We are all so unique and while this matters to some it doesn’t to all. A good example is Apple and Android, my nephews were horrified when I pointed out that their love of Apple and their hatred of my Samsung S23+ was foolish since Apple have been using Android tech and have agreed to have Samsung make their screens into the future. Funny right? But ask an Android lover about Apple and you get the same style of tirade and proof or reasoning as you would from the Apple lover. We can become fiercely loyal to brands.)

Big brands don’t just market to get you to buy, they market to get you to stay!

Mine too, quote me but don’t nick it, thank you.

Watch the ads instead of racing through them and you will see what I mean. I noticed a taxi in the heart of rural Essex with a slogan along the lines of “Londoners know Pepsi is better” Think what they are doing there? How they want to make Londoners feel superior. how they want Londoners to feel like they are in on the know and us foolish coastal Essex villagers have no clue.

So that logo now matters. Not just for what others will say about your new TV, but also about the lifestyle you have. If I’m buying a TV I would ask 2 questions that are not related to any TV!

1. Do they pay UK taxes?
2. Do they treat their staff fairly?

And I’ve started to add, What are their green credentials? I’ve just knocked Japan off my go to dream holiday list for 2024 because they are allowing nuclear junk to be thrown into the sea. I will not invest any of my money in a country or company that doesn’t honour people and our planet. Notice how my parameters to ensure a sale are massively different to many?

That logo also tells a story. Think of an electrical company. Some you trust and others you don’t. Had a good experience with a Lifes Good product? We have lots of LG products, why? Because I liked the brand name and then we had products that lasted ages and for me that matters. I want things to last so I’m not part of the problem updating things every 2 years for the latest and ensuring landfills are bigger and our planet more screwed.

So now you are in the middle and it’s got even easier because in seconds your brain did all of the above and some other things (I’m not going to give you everything that ensures a sale for free. I will for the Insiders, but not here). So now you finally look at the panel that says it’s got this speaker and that capabilities and those smart features, etc etc and you get wooed and wowed. At this stage it gets harder to make a decision. But your android or apple love helps. And then you start to think of logicistal aspects and practicalities and bingo you now have your TV choice (I’m now on the Bug’s life end theme tune where they overcome the evil grasshoppers and live happily ever after – perfect timing or what?)

So the next time you need to get someone on board with something look at that person, really look at them. Where do they shop? Do they not have time to care about the planet because they don’t trust the news and it’s probably not a big deal anyway? Do they love holidays more than tech? Do they love the planet more than designer brands? Ask tons of questions. If you have taken my Find my Target Audience And Get Them Buying Course, we go into massive depth on the psychology of sales. Once you know what’s going on you can replicate it and make a lot of sales and a lot of money!

All of this your brain does at some level in every conversation. The same skills I’ve shared here I can use to get served first in a crowded bar and I’m not the prettiest or youngest any more so it’s not that. I can get teenagers that aren’t even mine to do the right thing and believe in themselves in seconds. I can get good service when “The computer says no”. Why?

Because we are all doing this process all the time in everything. Cool and scary in equal measures right?
Now you can use this knowledge in your sales process. You don’t need to have the sexist fastest website (although that would be nice) you don’t need a billion followers (trust me you really don’t, marketing trends into 2025 suggest we are moving to nano and micro influencers over the big guns. So your 2000 followers is perfect – along as you are doing the right things on engagement, relevance, information and passion for that subject you need to understand how we communicate, what influences us and what makes us take action. And trust me we will justify our decisions (and purchases) with stats and facts, but behind every fact is an emotion.

Everything we buy is rooted in emotion and the way we want that thing to make us feel.

Mandie Holgate, communication is key to sales, sustainable growth, happy teams and happy not overworked bosses!

I thank Dino Tartaglia for this article. He simply asked on this fine morning “Do you want to make more money but don’t know how?”

I’d replied that I had had the massive challenge of making double my income in a third of the time when my husband was very ill with heart failure, a stroke, a blood clot and Thyroid cancer. Literally thousands of hospital calls, appointments and procedures, and surgeries. All while looking after my own health (Lupus) and achieved it with bells on. I even wrote a book with a foreword from the CEO of Lifehack! So thank you Dino. Dino loved the article, well allowed his name to be associated with it and added

“The reason you’re not selling enough is because you don’t understand how (and why) people buy. Fix that, and all your income dramas will evaporate.”

Dino Tartaglia, Awesome Sales Expert and Insider. No I’m not on commision here either!

I hope I’ve inspired you dear reader and I’m honoured to say Dino has joined the Insiders. It’s an amazing community of business owners, professionals, charities, public sector staff and people who have heard me speak or read my books and like hanging out, learning and sharing their knowledge with awesome people. I’m not precious about being the only coach and speaker and expert on growing businesses and their employees, so it’s wonderful to welcome another amazing expert like you Dino.

Not in yet? Well here’s the thing (and my coach hates this!) it’s cheap!

It really is just £20 a month. And the reason why I won’t budge on the price? Well that’s an article for another day. Trust me, I love you, your business and team as much as you do. Join the Insiders as a very low cost way to find out how I can help you as the boss and leader, train your staff and look after your sustainable business growth. Join here. No hard sell, it works and is open to men and women all around the world!