Selling your soul?
Originally answered on Quora here.
What are some good ways to sell one’s soul?
I can’t say I’ve structured a system for a sale like this before, but fundamentally I think this is not unlike any other sale.
We first need to define the value proposition. What exactly are you selling? What value does it have to the buyer? I understand the benefit to you in selling your soul - you get cash you get to use indiscriminately (because you have no soul). But what does the buyer get in return?
If we can't define that, chances are we're going to have a tough time selling it or we're going to need to discount it steeply. And who wants to sell their soul at "Blue Light Special" rates? So, this comes first.
Once we've clearly defined what your value proposition is, I think we look at who our target market is. Who exactly wants to buy your soul? I don't know much about your soul right now, but the market for it varies depending on your life experience.
The market for a soul that's been volunteering to help children in need is vastly different than the market for one that's been selling them illegal drugs. I won’t ask here where you are on this spectrum here, but may want to start taking inventory of the “features.”
Now we need to undergo an exercise to determine the price. This is also why the first two steps are necessary. We can't get Ferrari prices with a scooter product.
With some more detail on the value prop and our buyer, we can set a reasonable price range. Keep in mind, the price has nothing to do with your needs. Sure, you want to sell your soul to [pay off debt, pay off a bookie, pay off your sick mother's home], but the buyer doesn't care. Price follows value.
One side note on price, I'd recommend looking at some different models here. For example, there's no requirement to sell your soul outright. I'm a big fan of recurring revenue, so perhaps we can evaluate some monthly rates that, if canceled, allow you to get your soul back and keep the cash up to that point.
We'll determine that and now we're ready to market. Where do our buyers hang out? Obviously, the exercises up to this point will have a big impact here as well. One set of buyer demographics brings us to Neiman Marcus as a channel, the other to Pawn Stars. I don't know what kind of life you've lived up to this point, but we have plenty of latitude to find the right channel to create awareness. But this is where we start the lead generation process.
Then we'll get busy working these leads and convert to a sale. Converting this sale is unique because it's a one-off, so there isn't any need for scalability. With that in mind, I can offer up one of my sales superstars to broker the deal, but it won't be cheap. We're looking at 20-35% of the transaction value, but you don't want to trust this to just anyone.
Once the deal gets done, we'll have to assess logistics, namely delivery and support. I can’t help here - I’m not an “ops guy” but I do have people on my team that can. It's probably worth some time to assess what kind of assurance we are offering the buyer. Does this come with a 30-day money-back guarantee? Do we have to support this with a warranty (also an up-sell opportunity)? And so on.
So, when it's all said and done, the sales system I use with other clients works pretty well here: define value prop, determine target market, establish price points, raise awareness with marketing, convert to customer, support & retain.
And if this is out of place, apologies in advance, but I'd actually offer to create this system for you pro bono. From my standpoint, if we can make this work, there's a pretty large market for me to get into. Hell, there may even be a side market for soul trading now that I think about it. (That may tell you about my soul.) If you're ready to pull the trigger, just let me know.
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