Monthly Archives: May 2010

Hard Sell Intervention Ad Disrespects Customers

By John Aberle | heart-centered , Sales and Marketing , Soft Sell

There’s a marketing struggle for survival going on amongst the traditional, generally hard sell marketers. They are finding it harder to grab people’s attention and offer something new and exciting. The latest hard sell ad is a television commercial in which a discount fashion store chain shows friends conducting an intervention to save another friend from over spending on the fashions she could get for less at Marshalls / TJ Maxx. This attitude shows disrespect for customers’ judgment.

Hard sell reveals I’m right; you’re wrong attitude

You may feel that I am making a big deal out of nothing; it’s simply advertising and a humorous effort at that. Obviously, I disagree. The Marshalls / TJ Maxx TV commercial shows an attitude that is prevalent in hard sell sales and marketing: I have the right to decide for you that you need to buy my product. Because I know better than you do, I can use guilt, pressure or other manipulations to control your actions.

Some people with spiritual training recognize this for what it is, Continue reading

Appeal to Prospectors Instead of Prospects

By John Aberle | heart-centered , Sales and Marketing , Soft Sell

Months ago I first heard Judith & Jim, founders of the Soft Sell Marketers Association, talk about using the term “prospector” instead of “prospect.” Although I wrote last summer about heart-centered, soft sell salespeople and marketers needing to pay attention to terminology, such as using “broadcast” instead of “blast” (“Choose More Powerfully Attractive Words“), I resisted changing this phrase I’ve used for decades. Then, the other day I was listening to a Soft Sell Marketers Association teleseminar I’d downloaded. It was a session late last year called “Keywords with Rick Hubbard.”

Prospectors are already searching

Rick pointed out that Jim’s use of the term prospector gave him one word to explain a concept he’d struggled to describe for years. Instead of striving to find prospects, put your attention on attracting people who want your solution to either fix something or to fulfill some desire.

Suddenly, a light came on for me too! This is the very angle I’ve taken with my eBook and lessons on 9 Steps to Finding Prospects Who Want What You Provide. (It is currently my free bonus for signing up for my mailing list.) When you appeal to people who already want to buy the help you offer, you need far less time and effort than you do to create demand in people who don’t yet see they need it.

Use heart-centered, soft sell skills to connect with prospectors

Your heart-centered, soft sell sales and marketing efforts connect with “prospectors.” Your knowledgeable questions showContinue reading

Be Enthusiastic – If You Don’t Care, Who Else Will?

By John Aberle | heart-centered , Sales and Marketing , Soft Sell

One of the strongest tools I’ve had in sales is enthusiasm. Enthusiasm sells more than any other skill that I’ve seen. The point is, as the salesperson, “If you don’t care, who else will?”

This doesn’t require you to be really outgoing and dynamic in expression. If it’s a natural part of your personality to be energetically expressive, then that’s how you authentically show your enthusiasm. But if you have a more restrained personality, don’t try to act expressively enthusiastic. People will recognize it as fake, which will undermine your credibility. Just be yourself. Show your belief and excitement about your products and services as you would normally and naturally. Subdued enthusiasm is still enthusiasm. When you speak with conviction and confidence, you will be believable.

Your Voice Tone and Energy May Tell a Different Story than Your Words

Prospective customers want to know that you believe in what you are selling them. If you speak without enthusiasm, Continue reading

Passion in Sales Will See You Through

By John Aberle | Sales and Marketing , Sales Motivation

Selling is one of the toughest jobs I know, especially for heart-centered, soft sell salespeople and marketers. Selling can also be one of the one most exciting, rewarding, and fulfilling jobs I know, especially for heart-centered, soft sell salespeople and marketers. For me, it depended on what I was selling and how much I believed in the value my products and services delivered to my customers. When I was excited about the benefits of my products and services, I could be passionate and really enthusiastic about sharing with my potential buyers. But for me to have passion in my sales, I had to believe what I sold would improve their lives. And passion was important to seeing me through the rejections and the dull and unpleasant activities required in sales.

Among the most rewarding sales calls were those when I took the time to find out what the clients felt their problems were and what they were looking for before I started selling. When I knew what they wanted, it was easy to share, explain and demonstrate how my solutions would help them achieve their dreams or solve their problems. In other words, I would feel passionate about what I was doing.

I can think of few things more energy draining, and spirit-killing than going to work at a job I hate. I speak from experience. While I loved the Air Force and stayed in for 9.5 years, not counting my time as a cadet, I put myself into a dead end career field as an electronic warfare officer. For six years, I tried to find a way out and into management and command. I finally left the Air Force on January 1, 1979. My first sales job was in radio advertising in Riverside, California. While I lost the security of my military salary and benefits, I loved helping customers buy.

Questions to Help Find Passion for Your Sales and Marketing

So how do you find passion for what you do? Continue reading

How You Gain from Giving Testimonials

By John Aberle | Sales and Marketing , Sales Training

The other day as I was preparing for my meeting with a client, I was looking at the testimonials on their website and realized for the first time, the irony of giving testimonials.  I used to think that asking for testimonials was one-sided.  In other words, if I asked you for testimonial of the work I’ve done, then you didn’t really get anything out of it other than the satisfaction of showing your appreciation for work well done. I didn’t realize that the giver of the testimonial actually benefits too.

First Benefit of Giving Testimonials: Publicity for You

The first benefit you get from giving me a testimonial is that you get free publicity wherever I use it.  Provided I attract a lot of readers to my blog or do a lot of mailings, you stand to gain a lot of recognition.

Reveal Your Values without Being Obvious

Interestingly, while working with clients on ways to fine tune their marketing and sales activities today, I realized a second, more significant benefit about giving testimonials: when you give a testimonial, you have an opportunity to indirectly state what you believe.  The mere fact you are giving a testimonial points back at the values you hold as important.  For instance, I Continue reading