Recently I was corresponding with one of my favorite clients. I had suggested we add something to one of her web pages designed to make it easier for visitors to find the new products she was launching.
She’s a kind and considerate person. She looks out for the well-being of others. She’s gracious. She definitely does not want to come across as a “salesperson,” especially not a PUSHY salesperson.
No wonder. Who does?
I think mostly because she trusts me, she agreed to go along with my suggestion, but not without first sharing that it felt to her like a “sales gimmick.”
If you know anything about my point of view on selling, heart-centered marketing, or my observations and convictions about how our thoughts impact our reality (which you might if you’ve been reading my emails for a while), you can guess how I might respond to that way of looking at things.
In a nutshell, here are some of the thoughts I shared with her, and now with YOU!
“If I may be so bold, I would recommend that we don’t refer to or even think of this action we’ve taken as a ‘sales gimmick.’
We are not the proverbial Used Car Salesmen. (sorry, used car salesmen, for making assumptions about YOU!)
It’s our responsibility as marketers to make it as obvious and easy as possible for people to find and understand our services and products that could potentially help them address a genuine need.
Obvious and easy — that’s not a sales gimmick. That’s being helpful and saving them the frustration of looking for something when they only have 3 minutes to devote to the task.
I’d even go so far as saying that NOT making it obvious and easy for our potential clients is a dereliction of duty.
One of my many mottoes is:
“Don’t dangle a carrot in front of someone and then, just when they’ve become interested, bury the damn carrot in a compost pile.”
If we think of our words or strategies as sales gimmicks, we drain our own power and lessen the impact of our marketing.
It’s not like we have a flashing neon sign here.
We are not spamming anyone.
We are not trying to sell something faulty or worthless.
We are not trying to sell something to people who don’t want or need it.
We are not lying about the value of what we are selling.
We don’t have anyone shouting through a megaphone.
THOSE would be sales gimmicks.”
So, I have an idea. Take a moment to think about your own attitudes regarding SELLING for a moment.
Do those attitudes ever get in the way of you making it obvious and easy for your potential customers/clients to buy from you?
Tuck this away for future reference:
“Don’t dangle a carrot in front of someone and then, just when they’ve become interested, bury the damn carrot in a compost pile.”
Wishing you all the success you deserve.
Thanks for the lovely carrot Photo by Anita Jankovic on Unsplash and for the megaphone Photo by Patrick Fore on Unsplash, and for the roses Photo by Denise Chan on Unsplash
I love reading your articles as they make it seem like you are right here with me. There are times that I feel very isolated and I am not sure why. I have my four black cats and I may be getting a small black disabled kitten. I am afraid no one will choose this little runt of the litter. Michael had a kidney removed last August. It seems he has the same type( quite rare) of kidney cancer that my father had. This May he will have a very small tumor removed from the other kidney. This was all found quite by accident. There is more to this story, but I will elaborate when we are able to talk face to face. Caroline has become quite the musician and is playing in district and state band groups. I heard from Mr. Mark Dargan Smith just “out of the blue”, it seems he was in the USA for a short period of time time. He seems different and the same, if that is possible! More on that when I can talk face to face. Face to Face, that would be a nice title for this correspondence. If I can ever muster up enough energy I want to come visit, see your flowers and your sweet Sophia. Wishing you and your family peace and contentment. I will always love you and cherish the many memories from the past. I am hoping we can get together as a group sometime soon.