What information product or class have you bought recently that you would highly recommend? Quick! Name one!
If that was hard, you are not alone.
Internet marketing is in a bit of a slump lately, from what my sources say. Product launches aren’t doing as well as expected and even “big names” are having trouble selling seats in programs. Marissa Bracke had a great guest post about “launch fatigue” on Productive Flourishing recently where she explained how not to be a relentless infomercial.
No one likes to be treated like they have a hunting target painted on them. Or offered the same rehash over and over again dressed in another “mastermind-this” or “platinum-that” wrapper.
Besides that people tire of being blasted with a firehose of indistinguishable offers, we are also sensing the fatigue of the sellers. And I think it can be boiled down to one thing:
Are you selling or serving?
I picture some of the internet marketers sitting around thinking, “Hmmm, what can I sell?” or even “Who can I sell?” instead of “How can I best serve… my friends… my loyal readers… my prior customers… the people who trust me?”
Where is the value if you’re selling instead of serving?
Unfortunately, buyers can’t solve this problem. Their only choice is to ignore the noise or leave the channels altogether. Avoid Facebook. Barely check in on Twitter. Unsubscribe from the mailing list, quickly delete, or shove it under the bed with a mail filter that means you’ll never get back to reading the pitch at all.
Only sellers can solve this problem – and they have to stop being sellers and be servers instead.
How do you know when you’re serving? You feel it. You listen to what people need. You engage in conversations with an open frame of reference. You craft thoughtful, responsive offers that are worthy of extraordinary guarantees. You create instead of recycle. You commit to it.
Is it more work? Yes. But it will be more creatively satisfying work.
Is it worth your time? Only if you want to build a body of work that demonstrates growth.
Most importantly, is it worth the time and work that you are asking your clients to commit? If that’s not a yes, go back to your center and find that core of service. Or have a lot more conversations to learn what people truly need.
Your authentic service is what the people who trust you are counting on. And that will require very little selling.
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{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
First, I’d recommend anything you do.
Second, can I just say ‘amen sistah!’ ha
There’s so much of the same approach with so much similar content, it’s all noise to me anymore. (Which is another reason I took a few weeks to take a total and complete ’social media break’.
)
Even people I trust have a hard time ’selling me’ anymore. And as I look back, I honestly now distrust many as I learned how their businesses really got going online, how they ‘really’ came to make money, and really feel like a little bit of a sucker for taking the courses in the first place. But that’s just me. (And there are plenty still coming along taking those same courses and trying the same thing.)
In the meantime, what I was doing in the corporate world was something I believed in so much and I knew exactly how it ’served companies and their people’ well, I did very little selling and was pretty much booked solid. (And it turns out, almost no one online even knew I was doing it. ha!)
Thanks for the great post!
Love!
deb
@Deb: I love those example of very little selling… and booked solid. *That* is my goal.
Laurie Foley´s last blog ..Are You Selling or Serving?
So many people are focused on what will get more sales and not so much on what their customers really need.
I’ve been releasing a few small business guides for web designers. I decided before I did them that the success would not be how many got sold, but in how many people found them useful. So far, they’ve exceeded my expectations and at least once a week someone tells me they tried the suggestions in the guides and they worked for them. I couldn’t be more pleased with the outcome.
And, the sales are better than I expected too, which I like to hope was a happy side effect of serving a specific need. So yes, I couldn’t agree more.
Naomi Niles´s last blog ..New Guide for Designers: A Smoother Process
@Naomi: How great to hear that they guides are doing well! I bought one and thought it was outstanding: beautiful design, focused information, and truly satisfying to use. Like a delicious meal – just enough and didn’t feel stuffed!
Laurie Foley´s last blog ..Are You Selling or Serving?
Aw, shucks. Now I’m all blushing, hee hee! Thanks, Laurie. So glad you liked it.
Naomi Niles´s last blog ..New Guide for Designers: A Smoother Process
A core part of my message, which you’ve picked up and elaborated on in a very articulate way, was that too much focus on the launch can erode the connections and conversations with our audiences. And for some, that doesn’t seem to be a concern: they want sales, and whether the sales come at the expense of audience trust or connection is irrelevant, as long as the sales do come.
But I think there is a significant segment of people who genuinely believe in the business model that finds as its core a connection to the audience. And it is in that connection to the audience that the creative fires get stoked when we ponder how we can serve (or as Jonathan Fields often asks via Twitter, “Who can I help today?”). Whether our art is in writing or teaching or crafting a tangible item, refocusing on that urge to help, to serve and to foster our connections nourishes the art and in so doing nourishes our business. Granted, it may be on a long-range timeline, but for those who thrive on the actual relationships built with their customers and audience, the long-range timeline is what matters.
Flashes in the pan are many and relatively easy. Sustainable businesses (in the connection-focused model) require a longer-term view of things, and a core value of serving, not just selling.
Great post & great addition to the conversation!
Marissa Bracke´s last blog ..Riding the Entrepreneurial Coaster: Eyes Open & Exhale
@Marissa – Thanks so much for dropping by after being my inspiration! You hit it: SUSTAINABLE. I don’t want to be a carpetbagger, nor do I want to do business with them. Creating relationships is key. It takes time and attention.
Laurie Foley´s last blog ..Are You Selling or Serving?
Laurie,
Another fabulous post. Sometimes I get pessimistic because everywhere you turn so many people are just trying to sell you on giving them your time, so they can sell you on a seminar, so they can sell you on a workshop, and in the end they leave you with a one-size-fits-all approach that doesn’t fit. Ugh! It makes it hard to find the good ones (like you) through the clutter, and sadly it makes it hard to trust the good ones when you do find them.
I applaud your call to the sell-sell-sellers to stop and think about who they serve and how they can truly make people’s businesses and lives better. I believe it is possible at every level and size of business, but you can’t lose sight of the care and the heart that underlies the business relationship.
On a separate note you’ve got me thinking about the nature of satisfaction. What leads us to feel truly satisfied? Surely we need to vest something authentic, something of ourselves and reflective of our values in something for its success to be truly satisfying, don’t we?
David Cohen´s last blog ..Safety Last: Mission Statements that Motivate
@David – I love how your comments always move the conversation further along. What I wonder is why wouldn’t people be authentic and reflect their values in what they provide? Maybe they’re still trying to follow someone else’s formula and that’s not a recipe for satisfaction in my experience.
I love that about me too
Seriously, I think there are at least two answers to your question: 1) sadly, some people are intentionally inauthentic, mostly, I would conjecture, they do it for naughty reasons; and 2) a whole bunch of other people get caught up in “should” thinking or, as Fabeku might put it, in other people’s stories (http://www.sankofasong.com/blog/not-their-stories-either/). Their motives might be pure, but they are stuck trying to measure themselves to someone else’s yardstick – a parent, a boss, an industry standard, a projected idea of another’s success. And when I say they, I really mean we – I don’t think any of us completely escape that self-limiting self-critique, but as we grow we learn to get better at spotting it and dodging, better at finding our flow, better at carrying around our own dang ruler and trusting our own self-measure.
David Cohen´s last blog ..So say what you’re trying to say.
yes you are right, a person can’t ignore customers service these days, its so crucial to be overlooked, thanks for the post
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