In May 2007, I read The Secret about the law of attraction. By then I had been aware of the power of the law of attraction for about thirty-five years. What Rhonda Bryne and most of her contributors failed to make perfectly clear is that there is more to working with the law of attraction than just thinking pretty thoughts. You need to take action. You need to show Life you’re sincere.
Today one of my life long dreams of being a freelance writer of restaurant reviews came true when Examiner.com posted my first article for them, “Review: Fresca’s Mexican Grill at Stadium Crossings in Anaheim,” http://tinyurl.com/ybk9oxv. Admittedly it’s been a minor goal but a constant one ever since I wrote my first restaurant reviews for The Talon as a cadet at the USAF Academy.
Years ago I figured out that I can attract the experience I want easier if I am in motion. So by studying then applying what you’ve learned, you give Life the proof of the strength of your desire. It’s also easier to adjust your path than to get you moving from a dead stop. So use the law of attraction by working with it. So you can make your dreams come true if you put your own effort into manifesting [...]
This past Sunday, I read the draft of my ebook, Building Trust through Questions, to my writers’ group. Despite the variety of their work experience, several members stressed that in my efforts to emphasize the importance of questions, I shouldn’t forget that the salesperson needs to know his product and the company needs good customer service. Don’t forget the facts.
They are right, of course. Successful salespeople grab all the product training they can get. They ask questions to really understand how the products and services work and why they are important to your customers. They don’t forget the facts. Soft sell sales isn’t just about the customer’s situation, which you must understand before doing any selling. It’s also about helping him or her to solve a problem or fulfill a desire. That means you need to know first about your products and services and secondly about the benefits they deliver so that you can, in fact, be a trusted [...]
About twenty years ago, I attended a sales training class that has ever since stood out as the classic example of hard sell. This former vacuum cleaner salesman taught us how he sold 90% of the homes in this small town in Nevada or Arizona. He told us to just develop a series of questions that everybody would answer yes to. Each yes was like a degree on a thermometer. Eventually you had so many yeses that the temperature reached a point where — that’s right — where they couldn’t say no. Degree by degree he built his closing momentum.
I left that training really disappointed that I’d wasted my money. Talk about manipulation. Long before I heard Judith & Jim talk about soft sell marketing and their Soft Sell Marketers Association, I was a soft sell salesperson and soft sell marketer. The irony is that when you use the soft sell approach and ask questions to better understand your prospects’ situation, you don’t need to memorize checklists of questions or drill yourself on clever, irresistible closes. You gain freedom to be yourself, to actually have fun relating with your prospects as people. Soft sell sales and marketing build relationships and make connections. [...]
Stop wasting your time, effort, and money trying to sell to the whole world. It takes discipline to train yourself to narrow your efforts to your best effect. I too have to discipline myself: soft sell sales and soft sell marketing appeal mostly to small business owners and people who care about developing long term relationships. Yet we find it tempting to be available to anyone and everyone who might want to buy our products. We don’t want to miss out on any sale. The whole world is our oyster. Not so.
The people who thrive are those who identify their niche and tightly focus on what they do that appeals to that specific group. That’s why I strongly encourage everyone in soft sell sales and soft sell marketing to determine your ideal customer profile. Prospects who match that have the greatest likelihood of wanting and feeling they need your products and services because such problems are common to people and companies like your best customers. Help customers buy because it works for them. You’ll find your sales more fun and the results mutually [...]
Think about it. Do you cringe when you meet a salesperson? Why? Is it because you expect to be bombarded by all sorts of information you really don’t care about? But what happens when he or she actually asks about a problem or desire you are facing? Do you notice how you gradually start to come alive, to become interested in finding out if this could be the solution you’ve been looking for?
The key to soft sell sales and soft sell marketing is to only talk about the benefits your products and services offer that your ideal prospect cares about. Remember, everyone, consciously or unconsciously, is always wondering WIIFM — “What’s in it for me?” When you maintain your focus on their interests, using your understanding of your ideal customer profile to guide your questions, you build relationships. Take it slowly enough to fully understand what they are looking for before moving to the solutions. In this way, you help customers buy resulting in sales that are fun and mutually rewarding. That’s heady [...]
1/04/09 – In the chapter on “The 10,000-Hour Rule,” in his book, Outliers: The Story of Success, Gladwell makes the point that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to achieve world-class performance, whether it’s with the violin, the piano, or programming – provided, of course, that you even have the basic aptitude to excel at that activity. To become a master salesperson, likewise, takes persistent practice. It takes passion to discipline yourself to pursue the knowledge and skills needed to get in 10,000 hours of persistent [...]
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In May 2007, I read The Secret about the law of attraction. By then I had been aware of the power of the law of attraction for about thirty-five years. What Rhonda Bryne and most of her contributors failed to make perfectly clear is that there is more to working with the law of attraction than just thinking pretty thoughts. You need to take action. You need to show Life you’re sincere.
Today one of my life long dreams of being a freelance writer of restaurant reviews came true when Examiner.com posted my first article for them, “Review: Fresca’s Mexican Grill at Stadium Crossings in Anaheim,” http://tinyurl.com/ybk9oxv. Admittedly it’s been a minor goal but a constant one ever since I wrote my first restaurant reviews for The Talon as a cadet at the USAF Academy.
Years ago I figured out that I can attract the experience I want easier if I am in motion. So by studying then applying what you’ve learned, you give Life the proof of the strength of your desire. It’s also easier to adjust your path than to get you moving from a dead stop. So use the law of attraction by working with it. So you can make your dreams come true if you put your own effort into manifesting [...]