I think I just saw the greatest sales pitch of my life this weekend at Internet Prophets Live (IPL) 2013. While there were a number of amazing speakers, including Brendon Burchard, Pat Flynn, and Mike Koenigs the one that the pitch I am referring to came from Joel Comm. A bit of disclosure here: I went to IPL  to improve my copy-writing skills. I wanted to hear the speakers sales pitches, see what ideas I could glean from what they said. The sales pitches were terrific!

For those of you who have never heard of Joel Comm, he is the co-founder of ClassicGames.com (which later became Yahoo! Games), and also the creator of the iFart app for the iPhone. Joel has written 7 books, including The Adsense SEO Guide and Ka-Ching: How to Run an Online Business that Pays and Pays (Just Purchased This On Amazon).

His presentation was humorous and informational, but I want to focus in on the pitch he made at the end.

To do this, let me set this up properly. At the start of the presentation Joel told everyone he was writing a new book, and we would never guess who the co-author would be. A bit of curiosity to make us salivate and listen closely to his presentation.

Skipping ahead to the end of his presentation, he asked us if we still wanted to know the name of his new guest writer.  Everyone said yes.

With a pause for dramatic effect, Joel said that the guest writer was here in this room. As everyone looked around to find out who it was, someone in the crowd jumped up and said it was me. Then a few other people stood up. He then paused, and said he was looking for partners for his new book. That anyone who wanted to write the next book with him was invited to stand up. Naturally everyone in the room stood up in anticipation.

While, he went through what he was offering, and explaining how he needed 14 people who he had spots for a chance to write 5 pages on his book, and be listed on the cover of the book. Another bonus was being a guest on his podcast.

I forget exactly what else was offered at this point, because he slipped in that if anyone was interested in participating they had to come to the front of the room and get a sign up sheet. He was not going to pass it out.  Out of approximately 250 people in the room, close to 175 people approached the front of the room to be a co-author with Joel Comm on his next book. It completely blocked out his presentation, because there were so many people crowding the front of the room to get in.

My biggest regret is that I did not record this pitch on my camera. I have seen many presentations in business over the years from network marketing to internet marketing to self-development to real estate. Gurus, experts, and salesmen who would make a pitch at the front of the stage to end their presentation. Never have I seen a soft sale work so well, and drive so many of the people in the audience to participate.

And this was definitely a soft sell. There was no, “and there is more” junk that I commonly poke fun of in marketing. It was not sell, sell, sell either. It was a complete benefits-based sale. Who does not want to work with a world-class internet marketer to build their business.

Part of selling is to sell without selling. If you have ever worked telephone or door to door sales you see this. You know that getting people to buy your product comes down to know, trust, and like. His entire presentation was about this.

Add to this a close that was so chock full of value that you have no choice, but to be interested in learning more about Joel’s products. It was also a presentation that had little sales, and lots of great information. Words alone cannot express how cool of a moment this was, seeing close to 70% of a room go up at once to join his program. Definitely the greatest sales pitch I have ever seen!