Monthly Archives: April 2009

Trust by Your Customer Begins with Your Understanding

By John Aberle | Prospecting , soft sell marketing , soft sell sales

One of my favorite American Humorists is Will Rogers. Although he died in a plane crash in 1935, he is long remembered for his famous line, “I never met a man I didn’t like.” Actually, the full line was “I never met a man I didn’t like once I got to know him.” It’s the getting to know him that makes all the difference in the world, especially in sales situations.

There’s another cliché in sales and marketing that says, “Nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care.” And for me, caring becomes immensely easier when I understand something about what my prospect is dealing with. It makes them human, not numbers, people with problems I can relate to.

This is why I stress the importance of defining your ideal customer. Continue reading

Soft Sell Marketers Naturally Focus on Prospects Matching Their Ideal Customer

By John Aberle | Prospecting , Sales and Marketing

I had fun Thursday consulting with a husband and wife team, small business owners, on sales and marketing for their flow control manufacturing company. This is one of the few times, if not the first, that my CMTC (California Manufacturing Technology Consultants) client was already gathering information on the profile for their target prospects.

Ideal customers typically consist of the 20% who are responsible for 80% of your profits. Don’t get hung up over sales figures. You can go broke trying to get high sales numbers if you aren’t controlling your profits so why not just track profits to start with.

Look for whatever characteristics they have in common. You might have more than one industry. In that case, do two or more of these studies. Knowing these sketches enables you to know which types of companies — or if you work with individuals, what types of people — to really focus on. The more they are like your ideal prospect, the more likely it is that they will have similar problems to the one you are solving for your core customers.Continue reading

Trust – but Use Discrimination

By John Aberle | sales , Sales and Marketing

My friend, DeBorah Beatty, http://www.deborahbeatty.com/, just sent me a book she felt I would enjoy because she thought it sounded like me: Trust-based Selling: Using Customer Focus and Collaboration to Build Long Term Relationships by Charles H. Green. That’s what soft sell marketing and soft sell sales are all about. It’s wonderful having friends who care about you.

I decided to follow up on information she sent me with this book. This led me to an interesting blog post by Charles Green, “Is it Stupid to Be Trusting?” It’s common knowledge in sales and marketing circles that “people buy with their heart, and rationalize it with their brains.” Naturally, this can lead to problems when dealing with con artists and “slick” salespeople, which results in bitter customers who feel taken.

A couple years ago at the Los Angeles County Fair, Continue reading

What Numb3rs Demonstrated About Selling Benefits

By John Aberle | sales , Sales Training

As we were watching one of my favorite shows, Numb3rs, Friday night, I saw a fabulous demonstration of salesmanship and the use of benefit statements all in a non-sales role. In “Animal Rites,” Episode 19, Animal Rights Eco Terrorists attacked CalTech research labs and killed a professor. FBI agents David Sinclair and Liz Warner called on an animal rights group to find out where the terrorists hung out. At first, the leader did not want to give any information on fellow activists. Then Sinclair said to him, “They already killed someone, and they are hurting your cause.” After a pause, the leader told him where the people advocating violence gathered because Sinclair was right.

The point this program made so clearly is that salesmanship and benefit statements are not limited to people who sell for a living. Everyone sells, every day. It’s a natural part of life. The key to being good at it is to think from the viewpoint of your prospect or customer. The standard question that we all think about when someone is trying to sell us is, “What’s in it for me?” Sales professionals call that WIIFM.

That’s what Alimi Ballard’s character remembered when he sold the animal rights group’s leader on helping him. Continue reading

To Win Over Cynical Prospects, Use Soft Sell Sales and Marketing to Approach Them

By John Aberle | Sales and Marketing , Soft Sell

The world is changing faster than most of us can keep up. These changes affect the business world as much as any other aspect of life. And among these changes is the fact that the American consumer is cynical and distrustful of businesses. At least half a century of hard sell tactics has wounded the relationship between buyers and sellers. Self-centered salespeople have lied to prospects so often and so much, people don’t know who’s telling the truth. Ironically, they want to trust.

Soft sell marketing is starting to make a major impact on Internet marketing. From there, it is spreading to soft sell sales. These approaches are what customers want now because people want the marketer and the salesperson to build a relationship with them before asking for the order. Show you care. Provide information and advice that applies to what they feel they need and want. The current Internet mantra or fad emphasizes helping potential buyers get to “know, like, and trust” you. But these are not new concepts. Customers have always wanted to know, like, and trust their vendors.Continue reading

Little Insights on Design Improve the Effectiveness of Your Marketing

By John Aberle | Internet Marketing , Sales and Marketing

Seth Godin’s blog today asked, “Why aren’t you (really) good at graphic design?” He makes an important point for anyone in sales and marketing and anyone in Internet marketing. You can’t afford to be anything less than really good at design. Everyone these days wants to cut expenses as much as possible so businesses do most of their design in-house. And it shows. One of the reasons I love my blog site and put so much more attention on it than I do on my website is that thanks to themes I feel I have an attractive blog, which allows me to focus on the content. My website needs design help. I admit it. But it’s up. And the content is customer-focused.

Like so most small businesses I know, I’m doing what I can to control expenses and grow my consulting/coaching/speaking practice to reach the point where I have the budget to use professionals on the areas where their skills will have maximum impact.

But Seth’s article reminded me of the simple tips I received in high school Continue reading