Monthly Archives: November 2010

Gratitude Sets the Right Attitude

By John Aberle | Gratitude , heart-centered , Sales and Marketing

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you have as wonderful a Thanksgiving as I expect to have. This is my favorite holiday of the year because the theme is so simple. As I mentioned in my title, “Gratitude sets the right attitude.”

In sales and marketing as well as in life, being happy starts with being grateful. It’s amazing how often it’s the negative experiences that teach us some important lesson, provided we are ready to listen to our inner voice. Sometimes just waiting out the apparently negative experience shows us that things really did work out better.

I recently tweeted about Jay Leno’s guest Garth Brooks singing “Unanswered Prayers.” This song is about the blessings life can give us when things don’t go as we want them to. In selling and marketing, this is so often true. If you can rise above your frustration enough to look for the lesson or the kernel of opportunity hiding in the painful event, you may find your magic bean. Don’t undervalue empathy. It’s the humbling experiences of life that make it easier for us to relate to the pains and desires of our prospects.

Thank Your Higher Power, by Whatever Name, for Life

So, for me, Thanksgiving comes down to gratitude to our Higher Power, God, Holy Spirit, Universe, The Force or whatever you call that energy which is greater than we individually are. I especially enjoy spending the day with family and sharing an abundance of delicious food, especially turkey and fixings as well as Thanksgiving’s special desserts. Dorothy even makes special pumpkin pies I can eat with Coffee-Mate instead of milk. We’ll play games afterward, including a family favorite, “Pass the Trash.”

Gratitude for My Blog’s Readers and My Community

I treasure you who read my blogs and, especially those of you who go on to join my mailing list for with you I will build a community of business people who care about selling and marketing with heart. I started this my first blog, HelpCustomersBuy.com, on November 26th, 2008 with a post for Thanksgiving. This Thanksgiving message is my 141st article on heart centered, soft sell sales and marketing. My other company blogs are so much newer, but I cranked them up this year too: AberleEnterprises.com and Aberle Consulting. Thank you for reading.

I’m also thankful to Examiner.com for the opportunity to become a freelance restaurant reviewer as the Anaheim Restaurant Examiner. On September 30th, I celebrated my first year. I posted my 52nd article on Examiner.com on November 19th, 2010 with “Big Thunder Ranch serves up fabulous BBQ in a Western ranch setting.”

I am fortunate in having so many friends and loving family. I hope that you too enjoy this holiday filled with gratitude for your blessings, lessons, and gifts of this past year. If you want to be happy, remember, gratitude sets the right attitude.

If you care about selling and marketing with heart but haven’t joined my community yet, I really encourage you to sign up for Aberle Consulting list. You’ll find the box in the upper right corner of this site. Right now, I’m giving away an ecourse: 9 Steps to Finding Prospects Who Want What You Provide eBook and 9 separate lessons.

Heart Centered Selling’s not for Wimps

By Johna11 | heart-centered , Sales and Marketing

You need strength, courage and self-discipline to resist the temptations urging you to push for a close too soon. That’s why heart centered selling’s not for wimps.  The rewards, though, are strong bonds with customers.

Heart centered sales and marketing put your prospects’ and your customers’ needs before your own. It takes love for your customers, the kind of love that makes finding out about their needs more important than springing your products and services on them too soon. It’s the kind of love that asks questions, listens to the answers, probes with more questions until you develop real understanding.

It’s the kind of love that demonstrates caring.  Customers feel a connection. They come to know, like and trust you.  From this, you will gain sales, referrals, and friendships. Because they feel the sincerity of your concern, you are welcome and valued.

At the same time, heart centered, soft sell sales requires the strength to protect your efforts. Some people who are more comfortable with aggressive types of sales so they like fighting images here. As much of selling is a head trip, you can defeat yourself before you ever make a sales call if you focus on the negatives and the “I can’t” statements. For this reason, I work with an inner level as well as with outer activity.

There are several things you can do to protect your sales efforts without getting into your prospect’s space and interfering with their right to make a decision.

• Use visualizations to imagine their concerns and to shield your efforts from competitors’ attcks.
• Give prospects and customers freedom to make their own choices. Otherwise, they will feel crowded. Causing a prospect to sense you are a stalker getting in their space is one of the best ways I can think of for a salesperson to be his or her own worst enemy.
• The best technique is to use a heart centered sales and marketing approach. You’ll be different and so stand out because most people won’t take the time to get to really know and understand them. Three ways to show you care and love your customers are as follow:

• o    You need strength, courage and self-discipline to resist the temptations urging you to push for a close too soon. That’s why heart centered selling’s not for wimps, but the rewards are worth it.
• o    Paint a word picture of the benefits they will enjoy when they use your products and services. Help them see and feel the new, better condition of their lives after buying from you.

Heart centered selling’s not for wimps because it takes strength, courage and self-discipline put getting to know and understand your customers first. You also have to be prepared to protect your sales efforts while giving your prospects and customers their space. Three ways to do this are to use visualizations to imagine their interests and to mentally protect yourself from competitive attacks; give them space to make their own decisions; and use heart centered, soft sell sales techniques to focus everything on what they feel they need and want. When you help customers buy, you’ll find selling fun, fulfilling and mutually rewarding.