All Posts by Johna11

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.

Have You Heard the MLM Lies?

By Johna11 | heart-centered , heart-centered , Sales and Marketing

First, let me say that I like MLM or multi-level marketing programs in general. Usually they sell really good products. Second, most are honorable and honest. However, some MLM lies show up when it comes to sponsoring and recruiting.

This week I was called by a woman I’d met at a seminar in March. She did a good job of refreshing my memory as to whom she is and how we met. She also got me engaged by asking questions about how the program I signed up for is going for me. Then she told me what’s going on in her world. That lead to her talking about a really incredible program for getting rich. She wanted to send me a CD that I can watch.

Three MLM Lies

Initially she was going to rely on the CD to explain the program benefits. I tried repeatedly to tell her that no matter how good it is, I’m not going to get into it right now. When I explained that I have to stay focused on my present business, she started on the three hard sell MLM lies I’ve heard from network marketers for years.

1. Everyone’s a prospect – this came up when I ask who her idea customers are.
2. It won’t take any extra time. It’s effortless. You just bring it up in a normal conversation. (In this case, I could do it in two hours a week.)
3. There’s nothing to learn. (In response to my comment that I don’t have the time.  I think it is based on the company providing videos and websites for your prospects.)

The funny thing is that as a new distributor or representative, you tend to believe this nonsense and spout it when you talk to other people. In my experience, the up-line distributor tells them that it won’t take any effort because it’s the easiest way to get your new people started. It’s not the most effective approach, though, to selling your products or services. Nevertheless, if enough newbies talk to all of their friends and families, a few will luck into someone who actually wants what they are selling. The rest of your people will get discouraged and quit so you just recruit someone new.

Everyone Isn’t a Prospect

Unless you’re selling water in the desert where there’s no public source of water, you need to understand your idea customer profile. It enables you to be efficient in your recruiting. You may still want to speak with everyone you know – but you will do it conversationally asking questions to see if there is a need or want that your program can help fill.

Hard sell salespeople focus primarily on their own needs so they can’t hear the repeat nos. While I agree that you don’t stop “selling” at the first no, until you find what your prospects want and need, you shouldn’t even be selling yet. You should be asking questions and listening.

Heart centered Multi-level Marketers Listen

If you are a heart centered, soft sell salesperson or marketer, you care about your prospects first, knowing that the sales will follow when you truly can help them get what they need to fix their problem or fulfill their desire. I have heart centered, soft sell friends in multi-level marketing who’ve approached me about their products. When I explained that I need to stay focused on my current business until it’s strong enough for me to add something else, they listen and wait until the time is right for me.

Multi-level marketing is a wonderful way to get started in your own part-time business. You can avoid getting suckered in by the MLM lies if you learn the basics about sales and marketing. You know from your own life, you’re not a prospect for every product on the market. So why did you get involved in this business? Start building an ideal customer profile as it will make it easier to find people who really will excel in business with you.

For more information on what an ideal customer profile is about check out my previous blog posts. One in particular I hope you will enjoy is “Focus Your Marketing on Your Ideal Customer.”

Trusting a Salesperson Is Tough; Liking Is Easy

By Johna11 | Sales and Marketing , Trust

My wife and I love the Los Angeles County Fair. It’s larger than many, if not most, state fairs. Variety and energy abound there. We especially enjoy browsing through the commercial buildings. In one of them, we stopped to check out the mattress display of a major Southern California mattress store chain. We appreciated the experience and expertise of our salesman. Moreover, because he was warmly friendly and not obviously pushy, we liked him right away. Trusting was tougher.

How he lost our trust

He promised to extend the fair pricing beyond the fair because we made it clear we were not in the position to invest $4400 in a new bed at this time. We appreciated this. However, then he sided with us as the buyers and shared a tip to save us some future money on one of the items in the package we were considering. In the last year before the end of the ten year warranty, he said we should find something wrong with the product so he could replace it under warranty.

While we each reacted immediately, we didn’t talk about it until the next day. It bothered both of us because it was dishonest. I know that a lot of people think there is nothing wrong with cheating on a warranty. And such a suggestion implies the salesperson is on our side, right? Wrong. Lying about a product’s failure so as to take advantage of the warranty is theft. It’s subtle, yet it’s a form of stealing.

Ironically, when you tell prospects how to take advantage of their employers or of the manufacturers – I’m not talking about discounts that are clearly stated in writing – you undermine your credibility. In other words, you prove what prospects already thought: you’re just another salesperson who can’t be trusted.

Trust, hard to earn, easy to toss away

Getting people to like you isn’t hard. Getting people to trust you enough you can help customers buy is tough. And the easiest thing to do is to lose that trust. Most often, you won’t be able repair the damage. Odds are you won’t even know that losing their trust cost you the sale. Prove you’re likable, knowable, and trust-able to find selling fun, fulfilling and mutually rewarding.

If No One Cares, It’s Not a Unique Selling Proposition

By Johna11 | Sales and Marketing , Unique Selling Proposition

Have you heard marketers tell you that you need a unique selling proposition or UPS? They’re right – provided you understand what they’re really saying. Usually when we talk about unique selling propositions, the emphasis is on unique. That is, and should be, the primary point. However, at the same time, we often ignore the word selling as being vital to the USP. The really important consideration is that if no one cares, it’s not a unique selling proposition.

It either contributes to being able to make the sale or it’s just a unique proposition, which for business purposes is useless. As the saying goes, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder” – just so with unique selling propositions. Remember here that the customers are the ones who determine value.

Wasting money on things customers don’t value

I had a client a few years ago at a small town auto dealership. He loved pin striping so he paid to have his used cars pin striped feeling that it added value. As I pointed out to him, I have never bought a car in my life because it had pin striping. I did once take pin striping as a“discount.” I’ve never since then had it done to any other car. The recommendation I made to him was to stop this practice unless the customer wants it done. This savings was worth several thousand dollars over just 12 months.

How to find what’s important as a selling proposition

So how do you tell if you really have a unique selling proposition? Ask prospects what’s important to them. Ask past customers what they recall about why they bought. Typically, it’s the things that we have an emotional reaction to which we can remember a couple months later.

If you don’t yet have customers, put yourself in their shoes. What is really important to them? Then when you talk with prospects listen to and watch their responses as you discuss what you think is the unique selling proposition. Should you get no response or it’s lukewarm, keep looking because that wasn’t a unique selling proposition.

Example of perceived value

I have several purchases I recall fondly years later, one forty years later. I can tell you what was important about them. Two of them were clothing purchases. I enjoyed these purchases because I got outstanding service combined with great product knowledge, which they used to give me tips that helped me dress better and feel more secure in my choices. Furthermore, they guided me with patient suggestions instead of pressure.

So when you are trying to identify your unique selling proposition, check with your best customers and your prospects. What was or is important to them? Bring up what you think is great to see if they feel the same way about it. If no one cares, it’s not a unique selling proposition.

HostGator Shines as a Host for WordPress Blogs

By Johna11 | Blogging , Internet Marketing

I just invested over a week uploading backed up files, testing to be sure the uploaded Help Customers Buy blog worked on a different domain name before I moved my helpcustomersbuy.com domain to HostGator. This process was so complicated because of some problems with my backups. My last good back up was May 22nd so if worse came to worse, I’d lose all of the blog posts between then and my last one July 22nd, Thank you Tech Support! My previous post was about the tech support at both HostGator and Alan at Yahoo!

Problems in my blog at Yahoo! complicated getting a current backup. That’s history now. However, moving from one hosting company to another is not for the faint hearted. There were lots of lessons along the way. For one, Continue reading