In my post of 7-6-08 titled “What Are the Real Values of the Soft Sell Point of View — Interdependence” which you can read below if you haven’t already, I wrote: 

“. . . we all exist within the interdependent nature of being alive in this universe. Nothing stands alone. Life IS relationship.”

And . . .

“We need each other, not just to get what we need to stay alive, we need each other to co-create the way we go about that getting.”

Two days ago, my friend and colleague, Robert Ware, (Melbourne, Australia) sent this passage from  The European Dream, written by Jeremy Rifkin. 

“For Europeans, freedom is not found in autonomy but in embeddedness. To be free is to have access to a myriad of interdependent relationships with others. The more communities one has access to, the more options and choices one has for living a full and meaningful life. With relationships comes inclusivity and with inclusivity, comes security.”

Let’s look at two points from Rifkin that bear on Soft Sell marketing:

1) Interdependence: which, for him, is experienced as being embedded, an integral part of a larger whole; and

2) The notion of inclusivity: which I understand to mean—taking into consideration, to contain, to have within, or to hold within.

Both are central to why Soft Sell is about marketing with consciousness and conscience.

== =>>> Marketing with Consciousness <<< ===

Marketing with consciousness implies your awareness that you are not alone. In fact, it is impossible for you to be alone. Life is relationship. You are, as we all are, embedded—each one of us making up our part of the whole.

As I said: “We need each other, not just to get what we need to stay alive, we need each other to co-create the way we go about that getting.”

So when you are in the middle of a transaction, how aware are you of the larger whole? How much weight do you give to the fact that you and your buyer are co-creating the process and the result as you go along, and that you need each other to make that happen?

I don’t mean these as challenge questions, but as a way to bring focus to the fundamental truth that life is a co-creation. You are not separate from it nor is it separate from you. We are not separate from each other.

That’s why Judith and I say that you and your buyer are not independent operators but are a partnership, joined together, consciously and unconsciously, to create an end result— a unique result that can only come to be from the way both of you participate with each other.

At a conscious level, your buyer has selected to do business with you out of all the other marketers.

At an unconscious level, some may say an energetic level, you have selected your buyer as well.

How?

Through your marketing style and methodology you made your product or service clearly visible, clearly identifiable, standing out from all others as the right solution for your buyer’s needs.

You have sent out that signal and your buyer felt it. You recognize one another as being right for each other. How else would your buyer find you let alone choose you?

=== >>> A Brief Look at Autonomy <<< ===

Rifkin also says that “freedom is not found in autonomy.” How can that be? Isn’t autonomy at the core of the American worldview?

Yes it is. But like everything else in life, autonomy can be understood across many and varied levels.

 Dictionary.com defines autonomy (autonomous) as:

** self-determination

** personal independence

** subject to its own laws only

** not subject to control from outside

** existing and functioning as an independent organism

This is a superficial, strictly intellectual conception of autonomy—a necessary level of the evolution of consciousness. But there is more.

Because nothing stands alone and life is relationship, we cannot help but need each other to co-create the lives we live with one another.

So, taking a deeper look at how we all live together, a new understanding is emerging, a new experience at the core of a new world view.

=== >>> Marketing with Conscience <<< ===

Marketing with conscience has to do with inclusivity and that has to do with the internal dimension of marketing—holding your buyer in your own psyche.

This is not as esoteric as it may sound.

For starters, your buyer exists in your mind before your first contact, because you can’t imagine let alone begin a marketing campaign unless you have at least some idea of who your buyer is, or at least who you think your buyer is.

In other words, you contain your buyer within as a fundamental marketing fact and principle.

Furthermore, you can’t imagine creating and producing a product unless you have some idea of what your buyer needs and is looking for.

So, in a very real way, you hold your buyer within as your buyer holds you within—all well before the first contact.

Now, the point here with regard to Soft Sell marketing is—just who do you imagine you buyer to be? I’ve written about this before. Because this is where your conscience comes into play—the heart-centered aspect of your marketing.

Do you see your buyer as a fellow human or as a wallet to be opened for your benefit?

Do you respect your buyer’s dignity or is he/she a thing to be manipulated for your benefit?

How seriously do you take into consideration the value of your product or service and it’s impact—financial, psychological, and spiritual—on your buyer’s long term well being? Or is getting the sale a short-term issue?

When you include your conscience in marketing and selling, the responsibility you have to the relationship with your buyer becomes deeper and richer.

Deeper because your connection goes beyond merely the external side of a sale and touches into the real , day-to-day living of both you and your buyer.

Richer because you will create long-tem customers who return because they respect and connect with you as well. 

=== >>> Heart-Centered Integrity <<< ===

Finally, competition is an implicit consequence of the notion of autonomy—the idea of every man for himself, and “ya gotta look out for number one.”

When you’re aware of the interdependent nature if life on earth, and how we all need each other, the value of cooperation rises to the surface.

Soft Sell Marketing, as an endeavor of consciousness and conscience, establishes the ground for an authentic, sincere, caring, and profitable relationship between you and your buyer—a relationship you can enter into and have no need to compromise, much less sell out your heart-centered personal and professional integrity.

Because It’s All in the Connection,

Jim

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This entry was posted on Sunday, July 13th, 2008 at 4:49 pm and is filed under Bridging Heart and Marketing. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.