How to Sell Anything: The Underlying Architecture of Every Successful Sale
Learn the proven framework to turn leads into customers: grab attention, tap into their pain points, match your product to their needs, and inspire immediate action.
Learn the proven framework to turn leads into customers: grab attention, tap into their pain points, match your product to their needs, and inspire immediate action.
Early in my career, I sold a wide range of products — from mouthguards to ad packages to software. One of the best things about selling a huge range of products is that you start to understand the principles of how to sell.
What motivates someone to buy a mouthguard is different from a piece of software, but the principles that motivate someone to take action are the same.
Rather than focusing on scripts and tricks, mastering the principles of motivation holds the key to driving action — and is what separates good marketing and sales, from great.
One of the best mediums to study the power of the underlying architecture of sales is direct-response marketing (e.g., infomercials). Infomercials are wacky and weird, but they’re also incredibly effective. In 2022, infomercials drove over $250 billion in sales in the US alone. And, the most effective campaigns all have one thing in common: they leverage the same four principles that drive action.
Let’s break down what makes these so effective, and what principles you can apply in your own day-to-day — whether you’re hopping on sales calls or framing up a marketing plan.
Without attention, nothing you say matters. No one is listening.
Attention is a function of two things: credibility and value.
Take academic papers, for example. They’re credible and backed by rigorous research and peer reviews. But for the average person they lack value. Jargon-filled language and hyper-specific topics make them inaccessible and uninteresting to most readers outside that niche field.
On the flip side, value without credibility doesn’t work either. Think about an enticing crypto investment opportunity that appears on WhatsApp from someone you don’t know. It might dangle life-changing returns — huge if true — but coming from an unknown source, the opportunity lacks any credibility and is dismissed immediately.
You need to demonstrate both credibility and value to earn someone's attention. To examine this principle in the wild, let’s start by taking a look at the first-ever infomercial, which also happens to be one of my favorite products: the Vitamix Blender.
Before the video even starts, the speaker is established as an “author–lecturer food specialist.” His professional attire and authoritative tone signal he’s someone worth listening to.
With credibility in place, he immediately shifts into establishing value by emphasizing, "I'm here to talk to you on the most vital subject that concerns you and your family..." stressing the importance of health. He even goes so far as to imply that without a Vitamix, you will lose your health — and by extension, your very life could be at risk!
This framing might be extreme. But it effectively captures attention.
Fundamentally, pain drives action.
Josh Linkner highlights this principle beautifully in his article: Sell Aspirin, Not Vitamins. He writes, "Vitamins are 'nice to have.' They are healthy and good for you, but they don't solve an immediate problem. Aspirin, on the other hand, is a 'must have.' When you're in pain, you need immediate relief." Linkner further emphasizes, "The most successful companies, products, and services solve real problems. They cure pain. They are aspirin, not vitamins."
To illustrate this idea further, let's consider the challenge of selling an iPhone to my grandmother:
Feature: "This iPhone has a 2532 x 1170 pixel display."
If I don’t know what a pixel really is, I’m damn sure my grandma doesn't.
Benefit: "When you FaceTime, it will feel like your grandson is sitting across the table."
Getting warmer. My grandma could spend hours sitting at the table telling stories. This is an experience she knows and loves.
Pain Relief: "With this phone, you'll be able to see and talk to your grandson like he’s sitting across the table — even when you can't travel to visit him in person."
This statement addresses a deep emotional need: the fear of losing precious moments with loved ones. It transforms the iPhone from a gadget into a solution for a personal, heartfelt problem.
Once you’ve earned attention, the best thing that a salesperson can do is ask questions — and listen! — to understand what problems are most painful in the customer’s life. Great questions and better listening allow you to magnify the customer’s most pressing problem, so you can present your solution as a critical remedy.
Direct-response marketers don't have the benefit of asking questions to find pain, so they have to preemptively identify and address problems in their marketing. Below, we see a creative and fun example of the legendary Vince Offer — inventor of ShamWow — creating a problem in an extraordinarily clever way to drum up pain.
In this commercial, Vince deliberately spills cola on the carpet, saying, "There's your mildew, that's going to stain..." This clever tactic instantly creates a relatable problem. By dramatizing a common household event, he is tapping into the fear of ruining your carpet, and the frustration around spills that are difficult to clean. He’s effectively positioned the product as solving a real, tangible pain.
Great salespeople know the key to creating value and motivating action is to focus on pain, and never espouse the product's benefits without tying them to how they will solve a specific problem.
Dig deep into their pain and tailor your solution to solve those problems, making your product or service not just desirable, but essential.
Your solution is only valuable to the extent it solves their problem.
Street vendors only display umbrellas when dark clouds fill the sky. Nothing about the umbrellas (solution) changed with the turn in weather. The umbrellas are the same size, same design, and the same color. But their value skyrockets the moment rain begins. When customers are experiencing the immediate problem of getting wet, the umbrella transforms from an overlooked object to an essential solution. The value lies not in the product's features, but in its ability to solve a specific and urgent problem.
The Purple Mattress infomercial brilliantly demonstrates the principle of matching specific solutions to specific problems.
The host opens by emphasizing painful and frustrating sleep issues like pressure points, overheating, and partner sleep disturbance. As the commercial progresses, she connects these sleep issues to tailored solutions.
Got back pain from your mattress that’s too hard?
That’s why we created the Smart Comfort Grid – foam that flexes to relieve pressure points, while supporting your spine!
Get too hot while sleeping?
We’re the only one with an open-grid design that promotes airflow while sleeping!
Tired of constantly waking up from your partner’s tossing and turning?
That’s why we built movement isolation into our mattress!
Beyond showcasing what the product is capable of, repeatedly harping on the pains that stem from your current mattress magnifies the pain of not having a bed with Purple’s features. Purple directly links each specific feature to the pain point that it’s designed to solve. No feature is presented alone. Each is tied to how it can solve a specific problem.
Motivation dissipates with time — you need to give an immediate call to action to keep momentum.
A great example of this principle in action is seen in the classic OxiClean infomercials, featuring the iconic Billy Mays. Throughout the commercial, Mays repeatedly urges viewers to "Call now!" and emphasizes a limited-time offer only available for those who take fast action. Phrases like "If you call right now" and "Order in the next 20 minutes" prompt immediate action.
When it comes to more complex next steps, the best calls to action don't leave details in question, they establish a concrete plan. The customer should have clarity on what to do next, when they will do it, and most importantly, why they will do it.
The impact of this concept at work is demonstrated in ‘Get Out The Vote’ campaigns. Research has shown that helping voters make a specific plan significantly increases voter turnout.
For example, when voters were asked over the phone to take a pledge to vote, followed by a series of questions that mentally guided them through the process of voting, they voted at a rate 4 percentage points higher than people who did not receive a call asking about their voting plan.
This principle is known as ‘implementation intentions’ in behavioral science. Studies have found that prompting people to form concrete plans for when and how they will complete an intended action dramatically increases follow-through rates. Following our voting example, these questions can be as simple as, "Where are you planning to vote? What time of day works best for you to vote? How will you get to the polling station?"
Providing an immediate call to action that details clear next steps helps customers form a concrete plan, maintains momentum, and dramatically improves follow-through.
Businesses create value by solving problems.
Great engineers do this by building products to solve problems, but it’s not enough to have a solution – the customer needs to take action to use it.
Most businesses fail not because they lack an impactful product, but because they fail to make people care enough to use it.
The mission of marketing and sales leaders is to drive revenue by connecting people to solutions and motivating them to take action.
Revenue isn’t created by building a solution and highlighting the features, or even espousing the benefits. Action is driven through a systematic approach where you earn the customer’s attention, drill into their pain, directly show how you can solve it, and give a precise call to action.
By understanding the architecture of effective customer acquisition, you create a framework to identify and assess the right approach in every situation — and the art of sales becomes an applied science.
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