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But what goes into performing a complex sale like that? Here’s where there might be some learning from how Aaron does what he does that you can take into your sales methods. Again, your mileage may vary, but realize that these nuggets can be adapted for your interests. Now go behind the scenes on the details I didn’t explain by considering the following:

• Social proof: First, Aaron mastered the art of social proof. If you look at the Motorphilia fan page on Facebook, it is post after post of interesting cars (for enthusiasts), plus it’s a bunch of photos and posts congratulating recent customers on their cars. Aaron makes the buyer the star, but at the same time, he is subtly pointing out every sale he makes with photos and videos.

• Behind the scenes: Aaron sends photos from car auctions he and his team attend, plus he shares interesting car pictures that keep his audience happy. He also shares bits of himself on Google+ that have nothing to do with cars and Motorphilia. The more you get to know him, the more you feel like you trust him (without having ever shaken his hand across a table).

• Referrals: Because of how Aaron does his work, and because he uses social networks extensively to promote and show off the sales he’s made, the people who he sells cars to do a great job of referring business to him by talking and posting about the experience. I’ve written blog posts about Aaron. I bring him up in speeches. And now, I’ve written about him in this book. Referrals are gold for most complex sales. (You in the real estate profession just nodded, right?)

• Presence: Aaron is active on more than a few social networks. It’s serving him well in lieu of advertising because people get to know him in between their needs, plus his buyers are mostly on social networks. Because Aaron has tuned his sales methods specifically to social network users, maintaining a presence here makes sense. (Before you start saying, “But my buyers aren’t on social networks,” the Pew Internet and American Life Project reported in August 2011 that half of U.S. adults regularly use social networking sites. I don’t have stats for other countries, but it varies per country, obviously.)

There’s a lot to digest in this segment, but I think it bears consideration. Building trust to accomplish a big sale takes time, but if you’re doing difficult sales, you already have a sense of the duration of the sales cycle. If I told you that social networks are just another tool like the phone and face-to-face visits to try and land a sale, you’ll think more about how that slots into your other methods, and you’ll allot time accordingly.

If you want some further reading to complement what Aaron has accomplished, check out John Jantsch’s The Referral Engine. It’s packed with information that can benefit your attempts to emulate some of the best of what Aaron has done.

Affiliate Marketing and Google+

I’ve seen some early examples of people using Google+ for affiliate marketing (selling other people’s products for a financial reward). Most of the early examples have been the terrible spammy variety. Luckily, Google+ has lots of good tools to enable people to report spam and to block people who take this approach. But those are the “bad guys.” How can you use Google+ for affiliate marketing if you sell to a community that actually is interested in the products you sell. Consider these ideas:

• Content sells: If you promote travel gear, share good travel videos, and maybe add links to products you think would help out such a trip. In every case, be sure to disclose that what you promote is an affiliate link. (This is the law in the United States, but it’s good practice everywhere.) You can just post the link and then put the affiliate link right after the link. That makes it simple.

• Add something: My friend and PodCamp co-founder, Christopher S. Penn, used to help his company sell student loans, and the way he did it was to create the Financial Aid Podcast.