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 [...]
Reading my friend Bob Poole’s book, Listen First – Sell Later, he reminded me about the value of getting to know your customers’ industries. This is important to all salespeople and marketers, not just to soft sell sales and marketing people. To really help yourself get established in your sales and marketing efforts, study up on your ideal customers’ market or industry. Once you choose where you want to initially focus, start reading up as much as you can about it. There are several approaches to successful research. Likewise, there are at least three purposes to your doing this research and getting involved in a low key way. [...]
I’m really excited about the changes I see in the business world. More and more businesses are realizing that the key to long term relationships is to act from a core belief that customers matter, not just their wallets. They seek to make an emotional connection with their customers, to give them a memorable experience.
Renee Miller and Bill Williams of The Miller Group put on a free webinar yesterday for the Los Angeles Region of the California SBDC. In their excellent presentation, “Connective Marketing: A Culture of Intimacy,” they presented both figures and stories to reinforce their message: marketing is changing radically. Whereas fads come and go quickly, this change will spread and become stronger because people want to make connections. They want the approach soft sell salespeople and marketers use, a way of doing business that respects prospects and involves them in developing solutions to fit them. For the soft sell salesperson, sales are fun, fulfilling and mutually [...]
Recently, while I was making tunafish salad, I had an experience that reminded me why prospects distrust sales and marketing statements. I decided to mix and match types of tuna from Bumblebee. I grabbed a Chunk Light Tuna and a Solid Tuna. What I got was flakes of tuna and chunks of tuna respectively. Not what I expected by the labels.
It’s no wonder that most Americans don’t trust marketers. Label something properly and customers buy because no matter how often we’ve been lied to we want to trust the words. This hard sell approach of “Get-the-sale-however-you-can” works until the words have been abused and misused so long that they lose their power. As soft sell marketers and soft sell salespeople, we have our work cut out for us. We have to win our customers’ trust. Yet we are up against our prospects’ cynical suspicions that we only care about getting their money out of their wallets and into ours.
Despite our national trait of skepticism towards marketing hype, you can help customers trust you by showing you genuinely care about aiding them. Trust comes from using relevant questions then listening — and responding — to their answers. Help customers buy when doing so either solves their problem or gets them their desired result. You’ll find that soft sell sales are more exciting and fulfilling than merely earning a commission because you have that emotional and spiritual connection as a [...]
This concept crystallizes for me the hard sell position when taken to an extreme. Do what it takes to get the sale because “All’s fair in love and war”; and sales, to the hard sell marketer, is war. There are winners and losers. The good ones make sure they are the winners most of the time. On the other end of the spectrum, soft sell salespeople and soft sell marketers work to achieve a win-win.
It’s time that the business world recognizes loving your customer means developing a long term relationship based on trust and mutual benefit. Business relationships are, frankly, relationships..
If you want enduring relationships in business, or in your personal life, move away from the “All’s fair” viewpoint. And leave behind the images that sales or love are warfare. Sales become spiritual service when you make that connection with your customers. Building and maintaining a relationship of trust is so much more satisfying and fulfilling on many levels, more rewarding than just a quick commission from a sale slammed home. Help customers [...]
|
Invitation to Opt-in for Free Ecourse
Testimonial for Bonus “9 Steps to Finding Prospects” “These 9 Steps to Finding Prospects Who Want What You Provide are exactly what I need at this point in the startup & growth of my business. Keep them coming.
“I now see that the Sales Consultant website I suggested you look at was slanted too much toward "what he can do", even though he claims to be a Sales guru. Last time I looked at it there was "too much to read" as well.”
Dave (last name withheld at client’s request)
Business Coach & Consultant
Testimonial – CMTC Senior Consultant I have thanked you many times for the quality of reports that you provide to my clients. I truly feel you are adding value to the SMA - Program but more to my own job as a Consultant and point of contact to our clients. I really hope you will never lose your inspiration in performing outstandingly on providing the best quality you can offer to others.
Paula Bahamón
Sr. Consultant
CMTC - Los Angeles Region
Grid Controls Testimonial Dear John:
Our meeting on Thursday, April 23rd, was an uplifting experience, and you gave us hope that we can implement the marketing techniques discussed. We were especially pleased with the simple, yet effective ideas you gave us for improving our website and broadening our marketing capabilities.
Sincerely,
Gary Richards,
President
|
Recent Comments