718 Registrations for Soft Sell Panel Calls – A Quantum Leap
ByThis past Wednesday and Thursday nights we held two panel calls with the Speakers for our next Bridging Heart & Marketing conference (September 12 -14 ).
We know there is a far-reaching and deep hunger for information about the Soft Sell approach to sales and marketing and we are enormously pleased and very excited to be proven right.
718 people registered to attend the two calls! And we did an Ask Campaign (basically a survey asking what people wanted to know about Soft Sell marketing), and we received 765 questions with only a few duplications.
In discussing this huge turn-out and what it means, Judith and I were talking this morning about how Soft Sell isn’t a marketing revolution. It’s a marketing evolution.
One way we know is that of the 718 registered, 84% are women. Nowhere, at any of the Internet marketing conferences we’ve attended, were women any more that maybe 20% of the audience and on the rare occasion there might be one (1) woman speaking from the stage.
At Bridging Heart & Marketing II the percentage of speakers is 50/50 male and female and so far approximately 80% of those registered are women.
During our Q & A Speaker Panel calls, we all answered different sets of questions over the two nights so we could get in as many different questions as possible. For example:
** What Is Soft Sell Marketing?
** What are the three most important marketing strategies you can use to connect heart-to-heart with your customers?
** What approach should a soft topic (or soft sell) marketer take when designing their website and shopping cart system?
** How to approach strangers in a way that allows them to trust you and want to listen to you without being turned off immediately, thinking that “All she wants to do is sell me something?”
** How do you show your passion and spirituality without appearing phoney or “out of this world” to customers?
And many more.
And we can now say without any hesitation that Soft Sell Internet Marketing is the way of the future.
That’s not an overstatement — it’s a plain fact.
And Congratulations to you for being an important part of it.
So, if you weren’t on the Q & A Panel Calls, we encourage you to listen to the recordings which you can get at:
http://www.bridgingheartandmarketing.com/ask/audioreplay.php
(And please send that link to your friends so they can listen as well – )
Then, once you’ve tasted what “Bridging Heart and Marketing II” is all about
It’ll be time for you to join us in person.
Yes, join us in Manhattan Beach, CA at The Ayres Hotel September 12 – 14 for “Bridging Heart and Marketing II” — truly the ONLY Internet marketing conference designed and dedicated specifically to you — the Soft Sell Marketer.
When you’re there you can:
1) Introduce yourself to this magical and growing community so you can network for fun and profit
2) Meet fellow care-giving, Soft Sell marketers who will be glad to meet and support you, and
3) Receive first-class sales and marketing training from Soft Sell Marketers who are successful AND spiritual.
Just go to:
http://www.bridgingheartandmarketing.com
Check out the Faculty and the Fun, Get Registered, and we’ll see you in Manhattan Beach.
Because It’s All in the Connection,
Judith & Jim
BTW – be sure to bring your bathing suit because there’s a fre.e trolley to and from the beach.
Thank you to both of you for following your inner impulses.
And discovering a whole new approach to marketing.
My husband and I heard you first at Alex Mandossian’s teleseminars.
We thoroughly agree and received great encouragement during
these recent calls for our own style of customer relations
which as you so well put it:
“Because it Is all in the Connection”
And most assuredly the future of marketing.
May you flourish and prosper!!
Kathleen,
Thank you for your support. And yes, it’s all in the connection. Not just through a list, but through a heart-based, human-to-human connection with those on your list.
And it is our pleasure to have been the source of encouragement, because we all have to recognize, acknowledge, and support one another in this Soft Sell evolution of marketing.
So, thanks for your encouragement in turn.
Jim
http://www.bridgingheartandmarketing.com
I have been torn between 2 worlds. I have always wanted my own business. My hobby is studying internet marketing, I have spent thousands, am a good student but fail. Why? because my passion is not writing a dog training ebook or selling another’s product, it is helping people in trouble.
I am an addictions therapist, helping people is my passion, but for many reasons it does not fit well into classic internet marketing models. Many strategies and potential products would be unethical and dangerous.
I have developed my own first product. I am now ready to market it but have been looking for a comfortable sales approach.
I believe your seminar is exactly the ‘bridge’ between these 2 worlds. I have researched your speakers thoroughly and am very excited and confident I will get solutions.
Bill Urell
PS I find your demographics interesting. When I returned to college in my 40’s to switch careers, I was filled with trepidation. I entered my very first class at university, the first day…35 women and me, …the only male. I figured things sure had changed in 30 years. Very scary, but I got through somehow.lol
I agree that Soft Sell Marketing is more evolution than revolution. Effective marketing over the long term has always been about relationships, trust and value. The typical approach designed to shock the reader or otherwise grab her attention may accomplish that, but a sale won’t happen if the reader doesn’t feel some level of trust in the marketer. Unless that sale results in measurable value for the buyer, there won’t be another one. No amount of hype can compensate for a poor relationship, mistrust or failure to deliver value.
For that reason I believe Soft Sell Marketing is a much more viable approach for the long term and I’m glad there are folks like you out there spreading that word. Keep up the great work!
I agree with you… it isn’t so much a revolution as an awakening and acknowledging that people respond to a less intrusive and gentle approach than the hard selling smack between the eyes approach.
Most people prefer to be treated as a unique person with real needs and concerns… rather than an opportunity to bring out their credit card!
Congratulations to you both! I love your work!
Jeanne
Hi
I’m very impressed about how content rich, supportive and inspiring the teleclass was created to be, and I’m glad I can share it with others through your new link.
I’m curious about one thing: As your approach is clearly spiritual – in the broad sense of the word – how come you call it soft marketing and not spiritual marketing or heart marketing or conscious marketing or something along these lines?
Many greetings -
Halina
Jeanne,
Your term “awakening” is completley apt — an awakening to how marketing and selling has been traditionally accepted. That acceptance immersed everyone in an attitude of non-critical asumption that “that’s just the way things are.”
As though hard sell marketing and selling reflect the nature of reality.
That’s not the case, or at least, it need not be.
People respond best when we are recognized and respected for being, as you write, persons “with real needs and concerns,” rather than manipulated into believing manufactured needs and concerns which has been a large part of the technology of traditional advertising, marketing, and selling.
Jim
http://www.bridgingheartandmarketing.com
Bill,
Thank you for taking our conference seriously and researching the speakers we’ve gathered for “Bridging Heart & Marketing II” — http://www.bridgingheartandmarketing.com —
They are all successful marketers and heart-centered business people as well. They care about the relationships with their customers AND they care about the bottom line.
We look forward to meeting you in person and watching as you bridge your heart and your business.
Because It’s All in the Connection,
Jim
PS — Please tell those you know who would be interested about this blog. We want to initiate a large conversation about these issues.
John,
Thanks for your words.
When there is no relationship than it becomes a true numbers game, because there is nothing else.
And that means “pursuit” marketing, which is exhausting for both the marketer and buyer, because it’s desperate and terribly needy. It’s an expression of scarcity and lack of trust and then we wonder why selling gets such a bad rap.
Because It’s All in the Connection,
Jim
Halina,
We chose Soft Sell marketing because we want to make it as inclusive as we can. “Spiritual,” “Heart” (which we sometimes use), and “Conscious” (which sounds a but academic to a lot of people) can all fit within Soft Sell.
By no means is Soft Sell not spiritual, heart-based, or conscious. In fact, the more conscious it becomes the better and deeper the connection, because it is through consciousness that the spirit and heart can be expressed.
Because It’s All in the Connection,
Jim
BTW — please tell those you know who would be interested in this blog. We want to initiate a large conversation about these issues.
Hey Guys,
Great job! I’m really excited for you.
Regarding this being an evolution rather than a revolution – I see the difference this way. When something goes through revolution – it is pain before growth. This can occur in countries as well as people’s personal lives.
HOwever, if someone chooses to grow – i.e. learn what they need to from others – it can be evolution.
Choosing evoluntionary growth takes insight and foresight, and although it can be difficult – it is often a lot less painful than going through the pain of a revolution.
So, I’d encourage people to go to your conference so that they can choose to grow through evolution, rather than waiting for life to push them into a personal revolution so that they will get the lessons they need.
Best,
Kenny
Kenny,
Yes, insight and foresight, and a liitle sight in the rear view mirror — that last is called transcendance —
We leave behind what isn’t working and take forward what does.
But , alas, even evolution is going to be painful. Growth is never pain free. But the pain of evolution is, at least, worth the going forward.
And . . . thank you so much for your support re: our conference.
Jim
http://www.bridgingheartandmarketing.com