The Half Million Dollar Mattress

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My wife and I recently went shopping for a new bed, and learned something shocking along the way.

Did you know there's a mattress that sells for between $400,000 and $600,000?

Yup. Crazy, right?

It's called the Hastings Grand Vividus and looks like this...

The rapper, Drake, has one.

In the process of learning about this insanely priced bed, I also picked up a few tips on how to help people make purchase decisions more easily and effortlessly along the way.

We walked into the store, and the owner greeted us.

First thing he said was, "What are you looking for?"

I was impressed that he followed sales golden rule #1, which is ask the prospect what they want to buy.

Seems simple, but most salespeople get this wrong and jump right into whatever it is they're trying to sell.

That was brownie point #1 for this guy.

I like him already.

We knew what kind of bed we wanted, so we told him, and he immediately responded by saying...

"Awesome, that's the exact bed I and all my employees sleep on."

(Not together, of course...) 😂

Anyway, my confidence was immediately boosted as he walked my wife and I to the most expensive version of that bed.

He asked us to lie down and then began talking about all the things he'd learned about sleep quality, and in the process highlighted how the bed we were testing out met those criteria.

Notice he said nothing about the price, or even much about the bed, but spent most of the time talking about what we wanted, which was a great night's sleep.

In fact, several times throughout the presentation he'd say... "I used to think it was all about the bed, but after many years of doing this, I realized it's way more about sleep and how the bed helps you get what you want."

Man, this guy was on a roll. He realized we didn't want a bed, we wanted a great night's sleep.

This is also something great salespeople do... they focus less on "the thing" and more on what the thing will do for the prospect.

Okay, here's something else he did, which is where I learned about the $500K mattress.

In the middle of his presentation, he said, "Yeah, this bed is expensive."

"But it's not as expensive as other beds we have in the store," and he pointed over to a mattress that was $100,000, just for the mattress.

I was like, "What? $100K for a mattress?"

He said, "Yeah, we sell that one to people over in Jackson Hole."

In my opinion, the mattress was ugly and nowhere near as functional as the one we were lying on.

Sort of made me wonder if they have that mattress there just for price conditioning.

Which is where you mention something way more expensive than the thing you're selling, so that the prospect feels like they're getting a good deal on the thing they're buying.

Regardless, that $100,000 price tag was planted in my brain, and I started to think: "Well, whatever the price of this bed is, it's going to be a great deal."

We got to the very end of his presentation.

And by this time, my wife and I were both clear on what the most expensive bed included, which was the one we were lying on, versus the lower-tier models that were slightly less expensive.

It was at this point that I started to realize I would feel very bad if I bought the less expensive one.

Which was still pretty expensive.

And then later kick myself because I had spent all of this money on a bed, only to fall slightly short of getting the best one.

I kept thinking of this phrase:

"In for a penny, in for a pound."

It made me realize that most all of us want the best version of whatever we can afford.

So, whatever it is that you're selling, odds are high that you have different options people can start with.

Most people have this idea in their mind that people want the cheapest version.

But the truth is, we all want the best version.

So what this salesperson was doing for my wife and I was helping us realize what the best version actually was, without projecting onto us that we couldn't afford it.

When all was said and done, and we were fully educated...

(And I made sure my wife was okay with it, of course. 😉)

I said, "We'll take the best one."

Since this resulted in a successful sale for this sales rep, I figured it would be a good idea to think about the things he did that helped him make the sale.

1. He asked us what we wanted.
2. He helped us feel good about the price by pointing out more expensive options.
3. He helped us feel safe that the one we were buying was actually the best one, which helped us feel good about spending the extra money.
4. He educated, and at no point in time did he apply any pressure.

I love this story because it illustrates that to be successful in sales, and to even help prospects spend the most money for the best thing...

You don't have to be pushy or sleazy in any way. In fact, the opposite works better.

This mirrors my 20 years of experience building successful businesses from home.

Over the years, people have asked me, "Paul, how do you create content so that people will like you and trust you and feel good about buying things from you?"

I gave this a lot of thought, and realized it's much simpler than most people imagine. In fact, the story I just told you is a perfect example of it.

Here's my number one tip for creating great content that accomplishes the above goals:

-> Authenticity.

So what the heck is it?

That which communicates what you really think, what really happened and/or how you really feel about it all.

One of the best skills to develop in home business is learning to tell stories from your life (what really happened) in ways that allow you to express an insight (what you really thought) in a way that elicits a smile, draws a tear, etc. (how you really felt). The best of these are valuable to you and to the people receiving your communication.

Fake is when you make something up that didn't happen, or fill a communication with that which is out of harmony with the true thoughts of your mind and/or feelings of your heart.

One word comes to mind that sums this all up.

Truth.

I've heard people say "speak from your heart," "be genuine," "be authentic," "don't be fake," but this was all kind of vague and hard to pin a definition on for me.

Reflecting on my content style over the last 20 years, I think the definition above pretty much nails it.

Just tell the truth, from your heart, in a way that communicates a genuine thought, emotion, reflection, lesson, etc. to others.

• Don't make it more or less than it is.
• Be consistent with it.
• Strive to always keep your audience (the people you're trying to help) in mind when you write. ✍️

Really hard to go wrong with these as your base.

Hope this was some good food for thought to help you on your home business journey today.

Thanks for reading all the way to the end. You are awesome!

And whatever you do, always go for your dreams.