How To Make A Million Dollars

When I was in college, I took a summer job managing my own franchise of a nationwide painting business in northern Delaware. It seemed like a great opportunity to not only make money but to hone some leadership skills, as I would be in charge of marketing the business, selling the jobs, and hiring subcontractors to actually do the work. The 'training weekend' that followed was quite exciting, as the company brought in success story after success story. One particular speaker said something that has stuck with me to this day. He said, "You only need to improve an existing product by 10% to make a million dollars." I don't know the credibility of such a statement, but it intuitively makes sense. Looking back on it, I did well monetarily and gained much wisdom through the experience, however I am also quite sour towards the company for a multitude of reasons. One of which was the realization that their desire was to lure young, energetic college students in with the promise of success, and in turn exploit them to make themselves more money.

Back to the point. Since that experience, I am incredibly sensitive towards people 'selling me' and recognize immediately when a salesperson is only interested in lining their pocket and not the customer's satisfaction. Being that when I'm not working I'm usually laying on my couch sleeping or watching TV, I've seen my fair share of infomercials this year. My favorite has to be for a product called Lypozyme, just for the sheer ridiculous assertions the company makes. It got me to think, "If your product is bogus, whats necessary to get people to buy it anyway?"

1. Give yourself a legit name.
If you're going to sell anything, you have to appear legit. How about the Obesity Research Institute... straight cash money.

2. Have a good looking person do the selling.
What infomercial have you seen that chooses a hobo to sell their product? None. In most cases its a beautiful and well-dressed woman, but sometimes a shirtless Abercrombie model with the personality of drywall graces the screen. Furthermore, its a fact that people trust you more if you're beautiful. Don't get mad at me, its science.

3. Offer the consumer statistics, no matter how ridiculous.
If you're going to buy a bogus product, you want to have a little fact on your side, so when your significant other says, "Why the heck did you spend money on that?!" you can respond, "But baby 78% people get ripped with this supplement!"

4. Make sure you mention it requires no effort.
This goes without saying, but we are one lazy society. If I don't have to do jack to have the body of Brad Pitt in Fight Club - done; sign me up.

5. The Free Trial
This is an absolute must. Its like asking somebody if they want free cheesecake - who is going to say no? Rhetorical question, because yes I want free cheesecake! Really, what doesn't come with a free trial these days? Life, thats what. Yeah this post just got real folks.