Selling Picks and Shovels

written by

Ray Smith

". . .I can only show you the door. You're the one that has to walk through it." -- Morpheus. "The Matrix"

What exactly is selling picks and shovels all about? And more importantly how can you use it in your business?

First, lets explain where the term originated. Back in the 1800's during the California gold rush there were thousands of people who gave up their 'normal' lives and moved West with the dreams of making a fortune digging for gold. Just like the business world of today, not very many made the fortune they were seeking.

Everyone knew that just one good find could make them rich beyond their dreams. But a funny thing happened along the way. Some people figured out there was another way to make a lot of money from the gold rush and it had nothing to do with digging or panning for gold. It had to do with selling those gold seekers the tools they needed to chase their dreams.... picks and shovels. These people who sold the picks and shovels never got the limelight or publicity but without them, those discoveries would not have been possible.

That's something you should think about. There are probably people out there who can show you tools, specifically internet marketing services, that can make you more successful than you are today.

Many times there's a lot smarter way to make money than to do what everyone else is doing, and many times having the proper tool to do the job can make the difference between success and failure. Everyday there are thousands and thousands of people searching the internet for ways to make their business more profitable, looking for ways to increase sales, decrease expenses, etc. What these people are looking for are the tools needed to accomplish their goals.

Goals which can generally be put in one of two categories: increase profits or increase sales. These owners may be smart enough to eventually figure out what they need to do, but they know two other things:

• Time is Money and they don't want to spend a lot of their time figuring out a solution to a problem that more than likely someone else has already figured out.
• They are business owners and have no desire to learn a completely new skill set that may be necessary.

Business owners are todays 'gold seekers'. If they have been in business for any length of time, they know that they have 'gold' in their existing customers. They know that selling an existing customer is a lot easier and cheaper than finding a stranger and convincing them to do business with them for the first time.

The easiest ways to increasing your profits and/or increasing your sales volume is by selling more products to those people who are already familiar with your products and your company. But how do you do that? What tools will you need and how do you use those tools? How do you build customer loyalty? How do you get them to think about your company when they need what you sell? How to you get them to think about your company when they don't even know they need what your are selling?

Most business owners know their industry well and know their products very well but may not be as knowledgeable on how to use the 'picks and shovels' of direct response marketing. How to properly structure an offer to their customers? How to write an effective headline and most importantly how to track the results of their efforts? As a business owner you don't need to be an expert in direct response advertising. You can keep digging for gold because there are lots of companies out there whose expertise is in selling the 'picks and shovels' (the tools) you need.

Let those companies who are selling the tools educate you on what tools will work best for you. Imagine using a shovel to dig for gold these days when there are huge earth moving machines that can multiply your efforts a thousand fold or more. My point here is that there are lots of tools out there, but you as a business owner need to make sure you are using the best tool to get you the best results in todays market.

It's up to the companies selling the picks and shovels to make sure they know the capabilities of each one of the tools they sell and how to properly use the tools to get the best results. As a business owner, your existing customers are a virtual gold mine and having the ability to add new customers to that list is the easiest and quickest way to profitably grow your business. There are internet marketing services and tools that will make your job much easier, if you know how to use them.

About the author: Ray Smith has built a number of companies, two of which he started from scratch and were later sold to Fortune 100 companies. He has started new companies and has bought struggling companies to turn them around and make them profitable. He offers a free 1 year course (email) on internet marketing that covers all aspects of online marketing. More information on the course can be found at TheProfitAdvisor.com. He can be contacted via the website at TheProfitAdvisor.com.