What Are the Real Values of the Soft Sell Point of View — Transparency
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“Transparency” is another term that’s become vogue in Internet marketing circles. A while back we attended an Internet event at which a speaker repeatedly use the word transparent: “Am I being transparent?” “This is what being transparent is all about.” “I want you to see how transparent I am.”
Shakespeare, whose insight into human motives is legendary, said it simply: “The lady doth protest too much.”
When someone is real and sincere, being so doesn’t take a lot of reiteration. Genuine transparency takes care of itself.
When someone is opaque, purposefully or unconsciously hidden, but it’s to their advantage to appear open and visible, they have a need to claim transparency in the “protest too much” sense.
So here are two questions. What is transparency? And what is its purpose?
Technically “transparency” is defined as — “having the property of allowing visibility so that bodies situated beyond or behind can be distinctly seen.”
When it comes to sales, transparency means — you can see through to the interior. The motives and the real intent of the seller are revealed and available. This can apply to the buyer as well.
And the purpose of transparency is obvious — to create trust. Transparency permits someone to make a secure judgment. In short, the buyer can trust they are not being fooled.
In dollars and cents terms, transparency insures (or at least attempts to insure) that the sale goes through and there won’t be a request for a refund.
But transparency is also all about the relationship between the buyer and seller — the partnership.
A Soft Sell transaction cannot take place between individuals who believe they are psychically independent and distant from each other, each acting in their own self-interest without regard for the consequences to the other.
A Soft Sell transaction includes a serious and sincere regard for consequences. It’s not just about getting products out the door, but also about the impact of those products on the well-being of customers.
Why? Because there is a felt understanding of the interdependence of us all — the human-to-human connection. And if we abuse that connection by employing techniques that mask, misdirect, exaggerate, or set up illusory expectations we are doing damage not just to one or a few persons, we are doing damage to us all.
By treating the customer as an object to be maneuvered or exploited relegates that customer to the status of a thing, stripping that customer, and the seller as well, of human dignity and integrity. That may work in the short term, but overall it diminishes life at large, because it presumes a separateness between us that is categorically untrue.
A Soft sell transaction takes place between subject and subject, regarding both the seller and the buyer as persons worthy of respect and consideration.
Transparency takes the heat off selling as distasteful or bad, because it’s an open transaction. No guilt. No fear. Nor remorse.
So, as you are setting up your marketing campaign, ask yourself: “How do I perceive my customer?” As a thing to be used for your own needs and gains? Or as a person whose life is as important to him/her as yours is to you.
Because It’s All in the Connection,
Judith & Jim
PS — Be sure to downlaod “How to Build Your Soft Sell Platform” by going to
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Brilliantly stated… “good sales” is not only transparent but feels good too. It’s AUTHENTIC and let’s the seller have some dignity — sleep well at night too. Bravo!
Related, I recently wrote an article discussing how social media is FORCING authenticity among ALL marketers (not just soft sellers). Your readers may find it helpful in understanding if social media/marketing offers opportunity. Yes, you CAN blog, podcast, release video, etc. etc. but SHOULD you? Why or why not?
The article can be found here:
http://xr.com/q59
All the best, Judith & Jim!
Jeff,
Exactly. Good sales benefit the seller. Not just in the traditional way of “having made money from the sale,” but, additionally, in the self-regard of having made a genuine contribution to the well being of the buyer.
And you are an example. Thank you for contributing your article.
Because It’s All in the Connection,
Judith & Jim
http://www.bridgingheartandmarketing.com/platformbonus
Frankly, I’m turned off by the word “transparent,” which implies to me a kind of simplicity. And given that we don’t all agree on what it means, it’s not such a great word to use in marketing. If I’m explaining something, then I ask “Is that clear? Did you get what I mean? Any questions?” If I’m thinking about myself or you as marketers, I ask that we be “authentic.” So we’re really talking about “clarity” and “authenticity.” A salesperson, and many are, can be both transparent and not authentic!
MaryJo
MaryJo,
First I both respect and enjoy your diverse position. It enlivens this discussion and deepens the exploration. So I thank you.
Now, I must say frankly that I disagree with you.
I’ll start by saying that one cannot be both inauthentic and transparent simultaneously. These two states of being are like matter and anti-matter. They preclude if not annihilate each other.
There are various ways one can be inauthentic. Purposefully — that is, a con — and unconsciously — that is neurotic to one degree or another.
Unconsciousness does not mean innocent. It means habituated repression or denial. So there is a level or degree of dissembling — starting with oneself and then extending out to others. Again, transparency is then cloaked if it is possible at all.
The purposefully inauthentic person is a con, and so is explicitly, and by definition, not transparent. It is his or her opacity — the calculated murkiness, the darkness, the shadow nature of the con — that undermines any possibility of authenticity.
Now, as I said in the post above, “Technically ‘transparency’ is defined as — ‘having the property of allowing visibility so that bodies situated beyond or behind can be distinctly seen.’” Granted, that is simply said but emotionally not simply done.
And we could talk about whether “transparent” is a great word or not, but what it suggests as a marketing stance cannot, in my opinion, be denied.
For sellers to allow themselves to be open and willing to reveal and stand behind their motives is a functional transparency. And it reduces the buyer’s need for self-protection.
And when the buyer does the same — because genuine transparency requires both sides to be open — then the seller doesn’t have to revert to stratagems that have been long characterized as negatively manipulative and what’s given selling such a bad reputation.
In short, there wouldn’t be the need for both sides to be concerned for preserving their own well-being, because buying and selling would be a partnered event not a paranoid event.
The questions you wrote about using are apt if they are honest. But cannot one ask those same questions while simultaneously hiding and deceiving? Of course.
Also it does not follow that clarity is necessarily authentic.
So, back to transparency. For me, transparency has everything to do with intention, the intention of both parties in a commercial exchange to treat each other as subjects — as persons – rather than as opportunities, or objects, things to be manipulated for one-sided advantage.
Jim
http://www.softtopiccopywritingsecrets.com