The Royal Penis Is Clean Your Highness

Let me tell you a little about myself.

Let's say I'm in my early 40's.

So I grew up watching one of (in my opinion) the funniest comedians of our generation.

Eddie Murphy.

Love him or hate him, let me explain how his character in the hit 1998 movie Coming to America, relates to business and sales. Hence the title of this article.

Even after so many years of that movie coming out, I still giggle thinking about it.

If you remember, Eddie Murphy played Akeem. He was a prince and heir to the throne of the (fictitious) African country - Zamunda.

Akeem and his cousin Semmi, played by Arsenio Hall, come to America in an act of rebellion. Akeem goes against the wishes of his parents and is desperately seeking companionship and love.

Knowing that revealing his true identity could attract the "wrong" type of girl, he tries his best to keep his real identity a secret.

AND...wait for it, he wants a woman who will accept him for his personality - NOT the fact that he is a prince. The guy even has his face on his country's money.

Keep the gold digger comments to yourself.

Akeem eventually wins the heart of a beautiful girl - Lisa. But then she finds out that Akeem was hiding the fact that he is a prince and heir to the throne of his country.

This leads me to share with you...

Business Rule # 1 - Always swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God.

In the last scene of the movie, Akeem was lucky that Lisa forgave him and took his hand in marriage. They then rode off into the sunset and lived happily ever after.

And you know what?

You'd think most businesses would know better than to try and pull that crap today.

Prospects, and buyers have so many other options to buy from, they'll forget you before you even get a word out.

In a lot of ways, it's the same with selling.

There has to be hundreds of books on Amazon, spewing advice about sales sales tricks and tactics.

Call me a simpleton, but I think a lot of it is B.S. And most, at best overcomplicate the whole process.

While you can certainly manipulate people into buying, it's a terrible way to run a long term business or to get someone to buy from you over and over. That's a real customer.

Some one who buys once from you is a buyer.

Same issue with using tricks.

You don't need tricks if you have a solid understanding of the way humans think, behave and make buying decisions.

Even if you manage to trick someone once. After that, the chances of them buying from you again, where the real revenue - is almost nil.

Of course with everybody and their uncle on social media, it's only a matter of minutes before the entire world finds out.

For myself and anyone else that writes copy, the same rules should apply.

The last thing you want is to be called out for telling a half truth or bending the facts too far.

Bottom line, be straight with your customers, especially in your written sales pieces.

Don't be afraid to share details about either yourself or your product or service that might usually be less than favourable.

You might be surprised at the response and your sales will likely increase as well.

Mike Prasad