It seems with Internet marketing there is always something to learn. The past two days brought me another of those lessons. I was feeling really good about finishing my 8th lesson of the 9 lessons I’m giving people who join my community by opting onto mailing list. Then I noticed that not everyone on my list had received all of the lessons. And some lessons seemed to be missing – bummer.
So I started to make up the missing lessons. In the course of trying to create an autoresponder campaign to ensure this wouldn’t happen again, I discovered my error. So what was the lesson here? It was a reminder of the problem with communications that all salespeople and marketers experience with customers: terminology. We often use terms, expressions, and words to mean slightly different things. This is why it’s so important to ask how people mean what they just said and to periodically during the conversation repeat back in your own words what you heard or [...]
In the early years of attending sales training seminars, one of the dramatic effects sales trainers, especially with a large audience would try for would be to tell us, “When you ask a question,” then they would pause for a moment and follow that by yelling, “SHUT UP!” They would continue with this cliché, “He who speaks first loses.”
If you’ve read any of my blog posts about heart-centered, soft sell sales, by now you should recognize that as a hard sell attitude. It’s all about control and a win-lose philosophy of sales. Nevertheless, today, I’m going to tell you something similar but from a different perspective. When you ask a question, be quiet until your prospect or customer answers. It shows respect. And respect can make the difference in your [...]
This habit of speech is one of the hardest I can think of to break. It’s natural when we feel attacked to defend ourselves. The problem is that we can harm a relationship we’ve worked hard to build. There’s something about saying “yes, but …” that undermines trust and liking someone.
Years ago I learned to never give a compliment then follow it with “but ….” In the mind of the person receiving the compliment, the “but” cancels out everything positive you said before it. In sales and marketing, whether heart-centered, soft sell sales or hard sell, you can do the same thing, particularly when handling objections.
It’s common to take them personally, to become defensive. As a result, we try a little empathy. We get in trouble when we follow our statement of understanding with a ”but …” to show our prospects or customers that while they made a good point, they are still wrong.
This is when you can win the battle but lose the war. So what’s the answer? Train yourself not to react. Avoid the battle. Develop your natural curiosity about what is really being said. Use heart-centered, soft sell sales by focusing on them. Start a dialogue. Ask [...]
There’s one question that has served me extremely well in over six years as a small business consultant. It’s the same question that heart-centered, soft sell salespeople and marketers need to ask their customers and prospective customers. The most important question is, “Why?”
I’ve had salespeople and small business owners ask me about writing a script. I have used them successfully 18 years ago when it was a required part of the job. I didn’t like them then, and I really dislike them now. Other than to memorize an opening question to get you started so you can avoid being tongue-tied, scripts are designed to control the flow of questions so as to control the prospect. That’s a hard sell approach to sales because it only cares about one thing, getting the prospect’s money. After a short stint using scripts because a job required it, I returned to talking with prospects.
Heart-centered, soft sell sales and marketing focus first on the customer’s needs and wants. While people may quickly tell you what they think they want, it’s very important to dig deeper to understand why. Look for their real motivation then help your customers buy what will do the best job you can for [...]
I was listening to one of the Soft Sell Marketers Association downloads from June in which Judith & Jim mentioned how they gave a relationship teleseminar on “The Promise of Conflict” because conflict is a part of life. It dawned on me that conflict is a natural part of sales though it is something that most of us soft sell salespeople would rather avoid. If you interact with people eventually there will be conflict. If you do sales calls, I can promise that you will eventually experience conflict.
The question frankly is how will you handle the conflict? The way to successfully handle the conflict is to ask questions so as to discover what the real issue is and to grasp the other person’s viewpoint. Listen to understand. Soft Sell Sales and Marketing are about the connection with other people where they come to know like and trust you. You can’t always avoid conflict but you can manage it by managing the way you respond. By treating your prospects and customers with respect when you find a difference of opinion, you will strengthen their feelings of trust toward you. This will lead to sales that are fun, fulfilling, and mutually [...]
You’d think as an experienced soft sell salesperson and consultant, that I now longer have to deal with the fear of calling on someone. But then, I’ve read even highly successful public speakers still get jittery nerves or apprehension before giving a talk. In my case, I was going on a consulting call yesterday with a client in Glendale, California.
I was going in feeling somewhat cocky because I had done my homework on their website. I was prepared to take their marketing efforts up a notch or two until they showed me the screen of the new website. As I made further suggestions I learned most of what I said, they’d already known and were changing. What do I do now? I applied advice I heard years ago to ask Spirit, “What do I have to learn? What do I have to teach?” I’ve learned to apply this to any interaction. I stopped trying to teach first. I asked questions and listened to the other people in the meeting.
In my experience yesterday, I overcame the fear about conducting a consulting session when I put attention on them. I relaxed then and enjoyed the meeting. This is way to make your fear of making sales calls disappear too or at least of making it manageable. Prospects and clients have a reason for investing their time with you: they want help with their problems or desires, wants and needs. Focus on them and on what can you do to help make their lives a little better or more successful — you’ll be to busy to notice that you were afraid or [...]
Once you understand your best customers’ problems or desires, you next need to ask questions to get a deeper understanding. What do these problems or desires mean to them? What would their situation look like if they solved these challenges or achieved these dreams? What would their ideal situation look like? In other words, how will you know when you have gotten to their goal to either eliminate or minimize the problems from happening or to gain their wishes?
You must build a relationship of trust. Sometimes this can be done in a manner of minutes. Because you made an effort to understand their problems or goal, you can ask questions to see if what you think might be true applies to them. Next you listen to their answers. It’s in the listening that soft sell sales differs from hard sell. Hard sell people can hardly wait for the prospect to shut up so they can close. Soft sell listens to find out what is really important. Dig deeper until you understand what is really important to your prospect, then, provided you have a solution that really works, help customers buy. You’ll find you both enjoy the experience when the purchase is mutually beneficial. As one client said, “It’s a [...]
If your expressions about selling sound like a military commander planning for a battle, you probably learned from someone who taught traditional sales and marketing techniques. Their terms sound like a military engagement: overcome objections, take control of the prospect, and conduct a marketing campaign (which I still use to describe the multiple aspects of a coordinated program to find and sell to customers). Internet marketers have added a new one, squeeze pages. What a controlling sound for something as simple as inviting you to sign up for an ezine (electronic newsletter), usually in exchange for a gift. It’s no wonder business people call “old school” sales and marketing tactics hard sell.
People who believe, like I do, that selling is a spiritual service prefer farming analogies to war and fighting because, like farming, soft sell marketing sales and marketing nurture and cultivate relationships with perspective customers. Like farmers who care about their crops, soft sell marketers care about taking care of their customers.
So stop waging war with prospects. Start farming instead. Prepare the ground, plant your seeds, nurture and water them with helpful information, suggestions, and ideas. Weed out the misinformation. And prepare for a thanksgiving celebration of gratitude for an abundant [...]
Have you ever noticed how little things in life can mean so much? That’s the way it is with compliments. How you give a compliment tells whether you’re sincere or just trying to make points. For some people, it seems they’ve read a book that says if you want to be a good manager [...]
Sales are all about trust though it may not always be trust in you. In Internet marketing, the current buzz is about getting prospects to know, like and trust you. Interestingly, that’s always been true. Although there will always be exceptions, you can starve to death in sales if you relay on exceptions.
To build a relationship of trust, avoid relying on close-ended questions. These are the questions that ask for a yes or no answer. Customers want to know that you really care about their particular problem. Putting them through an interrogation that only allows them to confirm or deny each query feels like being herded down a chute to the slaughter, oops, I meant sale. But that’s what it feels like to answer a series of close-ended questions. Most prospects will bolt when they recognize this.
Instead, create a discussion to learn about them by using open-ended questions. Seek to understand them and where they are at before you suggest any of your products or services. Use short yes-or-no questions to confirm your understanding of what they’ve been saying. Then explain how what you are recommending will provide the answer they are looking for. You’ll find sales fun and mutually rewarding when you help customers [...]
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