How Does That Make You Feel

“How does that make you feel?”

Said my friend (We’ll call him John) when he was doing an improvised, non-official therapy session with my other friend (We’ll call him Ruben) a few days ago.

Without going into too much detail, they were discussing Ruben’s recent end to his romantic relationship.

I was doing nothing more than just observing and showing moral support. Listening to how John handled the conversation, and he asked a lot of questions.

“How do you feel about that?”

Why do you think this happened?”

“Do you think you made the right decision?”

That’s all he did.

Ask questions, give a little bit of advice, lay out all the possibilities. But in the end, it was Ruben who made the final decision, whether or not he should continue the relationship, or let it end.

I’ll admit, John did a much better job than I did. When Ruben was talking to me about it, I immediately jumped the gun and said,

“Just tell your ex two words: It’s over.”

There’s always next time for me to do a better job.

But anyways, this situation kind of reminds me of the concept of selling. Like one of my former mentors taught me,

“Our job is to just educate the potential customer. Teach them everything they need to know. After we’ve done our job, whatever answer they give us, whether it’s a yes or no, is perfectly OK.”

There’s no hard pitching involved.

No unnecessary pressure.

Just leading the potential customer to make an educated decision.

And that’s exactly how I teach people to write emails. Even though I sell something in every email, I never pressure you buy whatever it is I’m selling. I simply leave a link letting you know it’s available to you if you choose to buy.

And if you write emails in that way for your own email list, they'll appreciate you for not attempting to pressure sell them. Eventually they’ll trust you and when the time is right, they’ll be happy to buy from you.