All Posts by John Aberle

Email Marketing Terminology Tripped Me Up

By John Aberle | Internet Marketing , sales , Sales Calls

It seems with Internet marketing there is always something to learn. Earlier this week I got 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. I forgot that MailChimp sets up campaigns and autoresponder emails under separate tabs. Other than when the get sent, everything about setting up an autoresponder email and a campaign email is the same. I found that most of my lessons I had, in fact, already set up on the autoresponder, having only missed #7.

The lesson – double check your terminology

So what was the lesson here? It was a reminder of the problem with communications Continue reading

Silence Shows Respect after Asking a Question

By John Aberle | heart-centered , Sales Calls , Soft Sell

In the early years of attending sales training seminars, one of the dramatic effects sales trainers, especially with a large audience would try for would be to tell us, “When you ask a question,” then they would pause for a moment and follow that by yelling, “SHUT UP!” They would continue with this cliché, “He who speaks first loses.”

If you’ve read any of my blog posts about heart-centered, soft sell sales, by now you should recognize that as a hard sell attitude. It’s all about control and a win-lose philosophy of sales. Nevertheless, today, I’m going to tell you something similar but from a different perspective.

Be quiet or shut up – what’s the difference?

When you ask a question, be quiet until your prospect or customer answers. So other than the fact that I chose to avoid saying, “shut up,” what’s the difference? The difference is respect.

It’s respectful to allow the other person time to think about what you asked. I know when someone asks me a question, I need to think about the answer for a few minutes. If you interrupt me while I’m thinking, obviously the question wasn’t important so I’ll pass on it. That meeting may then be over.

In this respect, you did lose, twice. Continue reading

Using "Yes But" for Objections Can Harm Your Relationships

By John Aberle | heart-centered , Objections , Sales Calls , Soft Sell

This habit of speech is one of the hardest I can think of to break. It’s natural when we feel attacked to defend ourselves. The problem is that we can harm a relationship we’ve worked hard to build. There’s something about saying “yes, but …” that undermines trust and liking someone.

Never Give a Compliment Followed by a But

Years ago I learned to never give a compliment then follow it with “but ….”  In the mind of the person receiving the compliment, the “but” cancels out everything positive you said before it. In sales and marketing, whether heart-centered, soft sell sales or hard sell, you can do the same thing, particularly when handling objections.

Learn to Separate Your Identity from Your Product or Service

For most salespeople, objections feel like an attack, like someone is saying there’s something wrong with you – even though it’s the product or service that seems to be falling short, it’s common to take them personally, to become defensive. As a result, we try a little empathy. That’s the “yes” part of our statement. We get in trouble with our person-to-person connections when we follow our statement of understanding with a ”but …” to show our prospects or customers that while they made a good point, they are still wrong.

If You React Defensively, You Lose

Continue reading

The Most Important Question on a Sales Call

By John Aberle | heart-centered , Sales Calls , Soft Sell

There’s one question that has served me extremely well in over six years as a small business consultant. It’s the same question that heart-centered, soft sell salespeople and marketers need to ask their customers and prospective customers. The most important question is, “Why?”

Sales scripts seek to control the sales call.

I’ve had salespeople and small business owners ask me about writing a script. I have used them successfully 18 years ago when it was a required part of the job. I didn’t like them then, and I really dislike them now. Other than to memorize an opening question to get you started so you can avoid being tongue-tied, scripts are designed to control the flow of questions so as to control the prospect.

That’s a hard sell approach to sales because it only cares about one thing, getting the prospect’s money. While I did well, I only lasted a short time at the job because I began to really question whether our product did what we said it did — despite the stack of testimonial letters the company gave me from around the country.

Heart-centered salespeople seek to see their customers’ viewpoints.

Following that experience, I returned to talking with prospects. Heart-centered, soft sell sales and marketing focus first on the customer’s needs and wants. While people may quickly tell you what they think they want, it’s very important to dig deeper to understand why. Nobody wants to look stupid so Continue reading

How to Fit in with Your Prospects

By John Aberle | Prospecting , Sales and Marketing , Soft Sell

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.

The First Step Is to Decide Who Your Ideal Prospects Are

To really help yourself get established in your sales and marketing efforts, study up on your ideal customers’ market or industry.  While you may have several different ideal customer profiles, pick one that you are most interested in, one which has a sizable potential for sales. Becoming an expert in an industry takes time and effort so be smart about your choice. Remember, your ideal prospects are companies like your best customers because they are most likely to have needs like those you are solving already.

Next, Learn about Their Industry or Market

Once you choose where you want to initially focus, start reading up as much as you can about it. Naturally, the Internet has a wealth of information on almost everything imaginable. The problem is that not all of it is accurate or true so you need to read broadly. A great source of information is to get a subscription to industry publications, most of which are free to people in that industry, including vendors. Also, get involved in one of the trade associations – one to which the people you want to contact actually attend.

Your Goals for this Research

There are at least three purposes to your doing this research and getting involved in a low key way: Continue reading

Failure as Key to Success in Sales & Marketing

By John Aberle | Sales Training , Visualization

My baby granddaughter reminded me of an important point

This past week, I watched a video of our youngest granddaughter that Ian posted on Facebook. He captured her as she made her first efforts to stand. What a treat! She was so proud of herself and excited as she wobbled trying to learn balance. She had a good grip on the pole she’d used to pull herself up. She’d let go with only one hand just pleased as could be. Naturally, daddy heaped praise on her too.

All success in life starts with failures

I often think about the parallel in sales and marketing to infants learning to stand, walk and talk. It fascinates me that infants are risk takers. Survival demands it. When we learn to stand and then to walk, we spend more time falling than we do standing or walking. The exciting thing is that everyone praises these early efforts. The same goes for learning to talk. Have you ever strove to understand a toddler’s gibberish? They try so hard to communicate. They’re so sincere and committed. Yet the process normally takes months, even years to become clear enough that people can understand anything more than the most basic images.

Yet somewhere along the line we forget that all life’s activity takes failure to succeed at new skills. This is true especially true in sales and marketing. Continue reading

What Sales Line Will You Buy into Related to the U.S. Census?

By John Aberle | fraud , Sales and Marketing

The creativity of scammers never ceases to amaze me. You would think that applying it to selling legitimate products and services would net them comfortable livings without the risk of jail. But I suspect that part of the thrill for scammers is to prove how clever they are and that they can get away with it. Using heart-centered, soft sell sales and marketing would just be too tame for them.

I’m writing this blog post because a friend of mine, Tom Lenzo, a business & technology consultant in Pasadena California, recently sent me an email he received from the FBI about the census and possible scammers taking advantage of another opportunity to misrepresent themselves so as to get your money.

Here is the gist of the FBI reminder plus tips from the Better Business Bureau:

Preparation for the 2010 Census is well underway nationwide. April 1, 2010 is “Census Day” however there is lots of preparation and marketing that needs to be done between now and then to ensure that EVERYONE IS COUNTED. This is the first in a series of messages that we will send to remind you to do your part to ensure your household, and your community, is counted. Check out www.census.gov for schedules, timelines, partnership and more. Remember, the 2010 Census form will be the shortest in history with just 10 questions.

Regarding the Census, the Better Business Bureau (BBB) recommends the following:Continue reading

The Way to Win a Customer's Repeat Business

By John Aberle | customer service , Sales and Marketing , Soft Sell

One would think that the way to win a customer's repeat business is intuitively obvious. For instance, at the January 8, 2008 Pasadena Art of Small Business Survival workshop, Glenn Rowe broke the audience into five groups to discuss customer satisfaction. 

Business owners and managers often seem to forget what it's like to be a customer

The fascinating thing to me was that everyone seemed to agree on what makes up good customer service as well as what bad service looks and feels like. Excellent customer service is intuitively obvious to virtually everyone – when they are customers. Often, though, business owners and managers seem to forget everything they know when they are now responsible for profits and efficiency.

Use heart-centered, soft sell approach to resolve problems with customers

The wonderful thing about heart-centered, soft sell sales and marketing is that they naturally focus on what needs to be done to give customers exceptional service. Your attention simply needs to be on what your customer really wants and needs. When it comes to bad service, faulty products or missed delivery dates, the customer first wants someone to care. You show this by listening, asking questions to understand, and doing something to repair the situation.

This example shows how important it is to follow up with an upset customer

In a Yelp.com review of Slater’s 50/50, David L. revealed how Scott Slater handled an earlier negative review he gave Slater’s 50/50. When he read David L’s December 20, 2009 review, Slater took responsibility to discuss the problem. As a result, on December 26th, this same customer wrote another review, this time giving Slater’s four stars (out of five possible) and retracting his last one, all because “Mr. Scott Slater himself messaged me with my concerns and addressed them accordingly.  With that alone made me want to come back and try their food again.  Which I did.. a few days ago.”

By showing you care, you win back an upset customer as a loyal fan

Whether you apply a heart-centered, soft sell approach or not to your sales and marketing, the way to win a customers’ repeat business is to ensure an exceptional experience. Surprisingly, just like Scott Slater did with his Slater’s 50/50 customer, you can turn a negative experience into a positive by fixing the problem as best as possible as quickly as possible. Excellent customer service means using empathy and listening closely, asking questions as needed to learn what this negative experience means to them – and how can you make them happier? Finally, take action.

Take time today to say thank you to someone who’s provided you exceptional service.

 

Your blog as the hub of your Internet marketing

By John Aberle | Blogging , Internet Marketing

Although many Internet marketers recommend making your blog the hub of your Internet marketing, I know of no brick and mortar companies that would go that far. Nevertheless, maintaining a blog is one of the most powerful tools you can use to promote your business. After all, a static website merely gives you an address. Now you need to attract visitors. Probably the most popular dream of most businesses with websites is to find themselves on the first page of the generic search for their most important keywords because it costs them nothing.

Frequent updates get you better placement in generic search results

To do that, though, takes effort and understanding how search engines rank websites. One of the primary things search engines want to find is frequent updates. Due to the nature of blogs which typically get new articles posted to them weekly or even daily in some cases, the search engines return more frequently to blogs to check on updates. Additionally, blogs are easy to add to or to fix while websites often take a webmaster to make changes. Besides, once uploaded, most people forget about their websites so the sites never get updated.

Slater’s 50/50 blog is presently just another unchanging page

Continuing to use Slater’s 50/50 to demonstrate a real business, in this article, I’m looking at their blog. As Scott Slater is a very sharp marketer, I’m surprised to find his current blog is simply a place holder which he does with a “Blog” tab on the nav bar (navigation bar). Unfortunately, the blog appears to be ignored. Continue reading

The Hidden Things on Your Websites Search Engines Look for

By John Aberle | Internet Marketing , Website Design

What you don’t see on the website still affects you

Although the first impression is critical when it comes to websites, there’s more to an effective website than meets the eye. For marketing purposes, what you don’t see can have a major impact on the ability of your site to be found by people who want the products and services you provide. It would be like locating your business on a busy highway then erecting a wall between your company and the road so nobody could see it as you drove by.

So what can you do to help your website be found? This critique will focus on Internet marketing. Typically, good graphic designers lack the marketing background to maximize the effectiveness of your site for you.

Obviously there are a lot of Internet marketing activities you can do to have your website found, including pay-per-click advertising and social networking. You can also use traditional marketing, such as mailing postcards and purchasing newspaper inserts. This article focuses instead on the things you can do in your website design to become more attractive to the Internet search engines.

Meta tags and alternate text

Although it takes a programmer or web designer to explain the differences and purposes of meta tags versus alternate text, from a marketing viewpoint, the important thing is that these are areas visible in the source code of your website that the search engine’s software, called spiders because they “crawl” the “web” looking for information they need to catalog the sites on the Internet.

Some of the things which the spiders see that we normally don’t are the following:Continue reading