How Not to Build Your Newsletter Subscriber List

When you add me to your email distribution list and then tell me how to unsubscribe you are NOT doing it for my benefit. You are being completely self centered, so don’t BS me about how you believe your information is so wonderful that I’ll love getting it and THAT’S why you added me.

When you add me to your list without asking, you force me into two things:

1. You make me invest my time to keep your marketing messages from cluttering my inbox. I must either unsubscribe, set up a spam filter to block your stuff, or delete you over and over and over. (Is me deleting you over and over and over really what you want me to remember about you?)
2. If I decide to unsubscribe, that means I’m basically telling you “I don’t want your crap.” (I know you’ll be notified when I unsubscribe – why in the world would you force me to tell you that?)

You don’t generate success by putting your own interests first. You generate success by aligning your interests with others.

Manipulation = Bullying

Ask a thousand random salespeople to raise their hands if they’re against bully behavior and a thousand hands will raise. Yet salespeople everywhere practice manipulative tactics like reversing, overcoming objections, and so forth every day.

I have news for ya, salespeople. Manipulation is bullying!

Bully - Merriam-Webster - a : a blustering browbeating person; especially : one habitually cruel to others who are weaker

If you have knowledge of how to manipulate someone, you have power. Power makes you stronger and makes prospects weaker.

When you use that power to manipulate prospects into doing what’s best for you — buying from you — instead of helping them to do what’s best for them — making smart choices even if it’s not to buy from you — then you are a bully.

And if you refuse to admit it, you’re a coward as well.

Networking Tweak

Every now and again I’ll post suggestions for how to tweak what you’re doing in small ways to both increase your professionalism and your results.

Today we’re going to talk about business cards — not yours, but that pile sitting on your desk.

The bottom line is this. Shaking hands and trading cards is only step one. If you don’t consistently take the next step of following up, you’re just wasting your time and everyone else’s.

If you have a smart phone, here’s a minor tweak you can use to make sure step two occurs.

1. Download and install the LinkedIn application CardMunch.

2. When someone hands you a card, the first chance you get use CardMunch to capture the card and submit it.

3. LinkedIn will send back the formatted contact record — they do an incredible job of being accurate.

4. Click the [Connect To] button. This will send a request to connect through LinkedIn. (You are on LinkedIn … right?)

5. Choose the option to add the contact to your phone’s database.

6. Sync your phone with your computer or whatever device has your entire contact database.

7. When the new contact accepts your LinkedIn request, message him or her with a thank you for connecting and an offer such as “If there’s anyone in my LinkedIn contact list you want to meet, ping me with an introduction request and I’ll be happy to pass it on. But please explain why so he or she knows the purpose of the connection and has enough information to respond intelligently.”

CardMunch is a GREAT tool for low-volume business-card updates, because you carry it everywhere and it has the easy LinkedIn connection option.

For that massive stack of business cards, consider sending them to one of the “scan my cards for me” services. Then stay current using CardMunch.

Gill

How Not To Apply Scarcity

I just logged on to email for the first time today and the first message I received read as follows:

Hi International,
I want to extend to you an exclusive invitation to join Chamber.com.Chamber.com is an invitation-only community connecting leaders worldwide.
+ Connect with Members in 1000+ Chambers Worldwide (like Atlanta, London, Hong Kong, etc…)
+ Market Yourself or Your Products / Services in Your Local Community
+ Attend Webinars led by NY Times Best-Selling Authors and Successful Entrepreneurs
Join now to connect, learn and grow your business or career!  Click the link below. All it takes is 30 seconds!

If exclusive is clearly NOT exclusive, then don’t say it’s exclusive.

Why?

Because you’re lying to me and you clearly believe I’m too stupid to notice.

Geeze, people. Grow a brain will ya?

After "No"

In my 30+ years of selling I’ve encountered only three basic sales models so far:

• Qualification Model: This model focuses on finding a way to close the sale. You spend your time looking for the single trigger (the qualifier) that will get the prospect to buy, then pull that trigger. This is a self-centered model, in that your goal is to close the sale at any cost. All manipulative systems use this model.
• Disqualification Model: This model focuses on learning whether the sale should close — Yes or No, either answer is fine. You spend your time looking for the showstopper (disqualifier) that will cause the prospect not to buy. This is an us-centered model, in that your goal here is to find the showstopper quickly, provided it exists, so you can both avoid wasting time. Most honest systems use this model.
• Relationship Model: This model focuses on the relationship, not the sale. Instead of trying to find a way to close the sale (qualification) or save time (disqualification), you do your very best to help the prospect make the smartest choice for his or her business, even if it means sending the prospect to your most hated competitor. The focus here is outward — on what the prospect needs. The result is you build strong relationships with every prospect you meet. (You also happen to close more sales, but that’s a byproduct, not a focus.)

Honest Selling is founded on the relationship sales model. In everything we do, we focus on building long-lasting relationships with high-level decision-makers based not on us closing deals, but on us helping our prospects to make incredibly smart choices.

But what happens when the smart choice is to say “No” to your product or service in favor of something else?

Going Past “No”

Most people see “No” as the last step in a process. You prospected and marketed your way into a sales appointment. You met with the prospect, interviewed him or her to determine goals, needs, etc. And you pointed the prospect to an alternative that fits his or her needs better than what you sell.

While this seems logical, it is totally counter productive, because sales is a never-ending process where every decision, even the ones that close doors on existing opportunities, is simply a step in the circle of selling.

I have a list of 17 specific actions you could take after a prospect says “No” — each of which could lead to another sales opportunity.

I’ll share my list at our July 17 meeting.