Archive for January, 2010
Jay Leno, Conan O’Brien, Jeff Zucker and Conscious Capitalism?
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You no doubt know about the flap at NBC regarding the moves made to return Jay Leno, whose show is on at 10 pm, to a later slot at 11:30. That led to Conan O’Brien’s deciding not to stay with NBC to say nothing of the staff he brought along from New York to Los Angeles.
Several days ago, Jeff Zucker, the President of NBC/Universal, during an appearance on the Charley Rose show, referring to the late night turmoil and the low ratings for both shows said:
“We made hard business decisions with no personal feelings because that’s what we’re supposed to do here.”
My first response was to agree. It’s all about the ratings. Low ratings = failure. And failure = hard business decisions.
But it’s exactly those “hard business decisions with no personal feelings” that create the aura that business is, at its heart, uninterested in people; and that business men and women are, at their core, devoid of heart.
Remember the famous line from the Godfather movies –“ It’s not personal. It’s just business.” Read More→
Respectful Buyers and Soft Sell Marketing
Posted by: | CommentsWhile we give a great deal of attention to the mindset and approach for sellers in the Soft Sell Paradigm, it’s also important to focus on the buyer’s side of the transaction. Because all too often buyers are not heart-based, not caring, not respectful buyers.
And, since Soft Sell Marketing is an evolutionary expansion, recognizing the buying-selling relationship as central to bringing consciousness into global commerce, it’s important to understand what it means to be Soft Sell Buyers! And to do that we must become more aware of how most people view their part of the sales relationship. Read More→
Paradigm Shift – Soft Sell Includes Marketer AND Customer
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Focusing on the Soft Sell paradigm shift, we’ve been writing a lot about Soft Sell marketers — conscious, heart-based, aware of their emerging sense of responsibility to their customers, as well as their responsibility to themselves in every transaction.
And we have been thinking about and articulating the principles and tactics of Soft Sell, relationship-based marketing.
But what about the Soft Sell end user— the customer? What responsibility do customers have in the Soft Sell paradigm? That’s what this post is all about. Read More→
The Heart of Marketing – #10 on Morgan James 2009 Best Seller List
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Morgan James Publishing, a leading provider of books from entrepreneurs with vital information, inspiration and guidance that readers need to be successful compiles an annual list of its best-selling entrepreneurial books based on purchases by its retail customers nationwide.
Our 6th book The Heart of Marketing – Love Your Customers and They Will Love You Back, which is our manifesto for spiritually rich relationship marketing online, otherwise known as soft sell, heart-based marketing was #10 on Morgan James Best Seller List for 2009!
The Heart of Marketing has been received with outstanding praise by many leading marketers – online and off. And since the book resulted from a survey about online marketing for service providers, this statement on the book cover from David Riklan, whose business caters to the needs of service providers, summarizes the depth and power of this new best seller.
“I really like the message embodied in “The Heart of Marketing.” Part marketing, part self growth, part spiritual expansion, this book opens the way for your much larger future while changing the way we’ve all thought about business and making money.”
David Riklan – Founder, SelfGrowth.com
For too long traditional marketing and sales training has focused on getting the sale at any cost. And that is partially responsible for the current economic tragedy that has hurt so many people around the world. And that’s what led us, as psychologists and relationship experts, to see the need for a new, evolutionary advancement in commerce – marketing inspired by consciousness, conscience, caring and commitment to community. And that’s why The Heart of Marketing is such a passion and work of love for us both.
From all over the world we receive feedback from grateful readers:
“Your book The Heart of Marketing was excellent. It’s a must have that’s for sure. Thanks for writing it!” Michelle Fredericks, Dongducheon-si, South Korea
Morgan James Publishing is an innovative book producer, encouraging entrepreneurs to expand their businesses with books that not only provide guidance and education for the readers, but are also entrepreneurial vehicles for their authors. All of Morgan James titles are available at your favorite bookseller both online and off.
For more information about The Heart of Marketing, and to see all the Bonus Gifts provided by leaders in relationship marketing online when anyone gets the book through Amazon, go to http://www.TheHeartOfMarketing.com
Hard Sell or Soft Sell – What’s the Difference?
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I came across this post today by Michel Fortin and wrote the following. You can see the original post at http://www.marketersboard.com/fry-customers-tactic/
Jim
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Michel,
Ed Dale’s example misses the point entirely. There’s no conflict between Soft Sell and Upsell. As a Soft Sell marketer my wife, Judith, and I use upsells all the time. So it’s not the technique that is hard sell. It’s how you approach the customer that makes the difference.
In your piece you use words and phrases such as:
“Leaving an insane load of cash on the table.” What is insane about money? This is a term a lot of Internet marketers use as though it somehow describes some reality.
Yes it’s an image, but it’s also very hard in it’s point of view, to say nothing of a dreary cliche.
“Force a customer.” This has nothing to do with the technique of upselling. It has everything to do with the marketer’s dominant/submissive relation to the buyer. Any technique used with that relationship at its base is going to be hard. Instead of pointing to the technique, rather point to the marketer’s cynicism and lack or respect for human beings who happen, in this case, to be customers.
Several other example are — “churn and burn,” “hit them over the head,” “almost taunting you.” Why would anyone want to do business with someone who shows so little care and connection.
You also that you “believe that (the marketer) must ask for the order,” implying that asking for the order is somehow aggressive. That’s just plain wrong-headed. Asking for the order with respect and a sense of the emotional connection between you and the buyer is not aggressive, it is respectful of the human relation as fundamental to the transaction and that is NOT soft, but conscious and discerning.
How Does Soft Sell Differ from Hard Sell?
Target Now Carries The Heart of Marketing
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Long gone are the days when people turned up their noses about the new chain store some referred to in a ersatz French pronunciation as “Tar-get”.
Now the Bull’s Eye — the logo for Target — often represents finding just what you want, at the price you want AND with the Soft Sell Marketing help you want right at Target.
And for us, it also represents Target’s online expansion into areas that they don’t specialize in their offline stores — like books — marketing books.
So we were delighted to see in a recent Google Alert for our most recent book title The Heart of Marketing — that Target now carries our #1 best seller The Heart of Marketing: Love Your Customers and They Will Love You Back (Morgan James Publishing, 2009) online!
What fun to see another new “wrinkle” in online marketing – reassuring us all that business online is continuing to expand and will continue to do so into the future – far beyond what we can imagine right now.
Take a look at http://budurl.com/thomtarget
Because It’s All in the Connection,
Judith & Jim
Guilt Free Marketing Is Good News for Online Marketing for Beginners
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Online marketing for beginners can be daunting. There’s a lot to learn.
But for most people wanting to learn online marketing, it’s not just the technology that’s an issue. It’s also the very issue of marketing and selling and doing it without guilt. Because most people coming online are service providers and they have no background in business. Instead, they are devoted to helping other people improve their lives.
So Soft Sell Marketing — in other words guilt-free marketing — goes hand-in-hand with online marketing for beginners. It’s a perfect union of values and ambition combined to nurture business growth for people who haven’t before even dabbled in the world of profit-and-loss, finance, or even paying commissions for referrals.
We’ve had so many coaches, healers, spiritual counselors, and even people like wedding consultants and home schooling curriculum experts tell us how guilty they feel when they have to even think about selling their services, much less confront the need to market what they do to get the word out there in order to grow their business online and off.
Charging for their services has usually been hard enough. And, as former psychotherapists we know that most service professionals under-value and under-charge for the transformative gifts they supply through their services to their clients. So add on to that what happens when they enter the realm of online marketing, for beginners it can be the equivalent of a moral nervous breakdown.
That’s why there’s been such a keen and growing interest in Soft Sell, Heart-based marketing, guilt-free marketing that is perfect for any spiritually-minded service provider or anyone else who wants to market from a position of spiritual integrity rather than just “get the money and run.”
A recommended resource about online marketing for beginners is our first book about Soft Sell Marketing – The Heart of Marketing.
Becasue It’s All in the Connection,
Judith & Jim
Hard Sell and Tyrannosaurus Rex
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Evolution is a very demanding task master. Either adapt to changing circumstances or follow in the footsteps of the Tyrannosaurus Rex – i.e. extinction.
The same process holds in every area of our lives. We either adapt and adopt or die — literally or effectively.
Evolution’s rule is now being felt in the area of Internet commerce.
—>>> Because customers have so much more access to information regarding the products they’re looking to purchase, and—>>> Because they can shop the worldwide Internet and have so many more outlets where they can buythe Internet has become a buyers-driven marketplace so that sellers have to be much more aware of the buyer’s needs.But it’s not just the buyer’s needs that have become prominent, but how the seller views the buyer and, as a result, how the seller treats the customer.Here’s what we mean. Read More→
Conscious Marketing – Intentions and Actions for 2010
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Well, we’ve closed out the old year . . . and a good year it was.
Now it’s time to make room in our hearts for the new one that’s already begun!
For us, and we assume for you, that means both personal and business changes. Sloughing off what didn’t work last year and opening to a more expanded vision of spiritual marketing that’s emerged in 2009, and a more focused intention (internal) and plan (external) for 2010.
It’s so important to pay attention to balance — both the internal – conscious marketing, and the external – online marketing — otherwise we can get lost in an overemphasis toward one or the other. Too much internal produces less action. And too much external leaves us feeling empty.
Balance — heart-based, soft sell marketing coupled with a profit-based business model so that both the internal and external are fulfilled. Easily said and, happily, with practice, more and more easily done.
So there are 4 dimensions: Personal and Business — each one focused Internally and Externally.
And for 2010 . . . Read More→
