What is Wrong with Sales?
by Randall McCarley
September 11th, 2006
I don’t like the word “persuasion”. It’s buzzy right now and everyone is talking about it as a substitute for “sales” because it would seem “sales” has a dirty reputation.
I think “persuasion” sounds like the dirty trick people associate with bad sales.
And I think people expect you to sell them your stuff.
And I even give people enough credit to tell the difference between you or me and a used car salesman (unless you happen to be a car salesman).
Persuasion means:
- the act of persuading or seeking to persuade.
- the power of persuading; persuasive force.
- the state or fact of being persuaded or convinced.
- a deep conviction or belief.
- a form or system of belief, esp. religious belief: the Quaker persuasion.
- a sect, group, or faction holding or advocating a particular belief, idea, ideology, etc.: Several of the people present are of the socialist persuasion.
- Facetious kind or sort.
This basically means you are altering someone’s beliefs or manipulating them. But what if those beliefs are dangerous? Like religious fanaticism? And since we are talking about marketing, who is to say that the persuasion isn’t for stuff that’s, well… crap.
Marketing has a well-deserved big black eye on its reputation for sleazball tactics too.
Sales on the other hand means:
- The exchange of goods or services for an amount of money or its equivalent; the act of selling.
- An instance of selling.
- An opportunity for selling or being sold; demand.
- Availability for purchase: a store where pets are for sale.
- A selling of property to the highest bidder; an auction.
- A special disposal of goods at lowered prices: coats on sale this week.
- sales
- Activities involved in selling goods or services.
- Gross receipts.
Sales is work. Sales drives economy. Sales is a favor for a favor. Persuasion takes some convincing.
And that bugs me.
I’m not saying your product has to “sell itself”. Usually there is some explanation involved in the value proposition.
When I am shopping for a product, just tell me what it is, what it does, how it compares to similar products and how much it is. You may emphasize the unique characteristics and features because I expect that too. But what I need to know is will it fill my void and if the price is right.
I think what bothers me about persuasion is that it isn’t strait-forward and anyone not in marketing doesn’t really know what it is or how it works.
There is a myth that states “you can’t sell people something they don’t want to buy.”
Actually this is complete nonsense — of course you can. But it takes some persuasion.
I want my clients to know I sold them a great product. I want them to enjoy the experience and tell their colleagues about it so I can sell them great products too.
I like to close sales! And I like to tell my wife “I closed another sale dear” so she can look at me admiringly the way she does when I tell her things that lets her know the family is being provided for.
I couldn’t imagine telling her “I persuaded a guy to purchase my stuff”.
Plus when I sell stuff, people ask me about it - “What is it you do?”
I’m not going to tell them I’m a professional persuasionist. I’m a marketer and I sell stuff! Sometimes I sell stuff for me but usually I do it for you.
Marketing is about communication. Persuasion is a last desperate grasp for control (but I think I’ll save that for another post).
So, for a sale to work two parties have to get together and decide that working together is in both of their interests. Here are my interests:
- Providing for my family
- Being an example for my kids (there’s two of them)
- Making money
- Having fun
- Hiring employees
- Learning new things
And I do this by:
- Offering great service. I am easy to reach and my turn-around times are pretty fast.
- Offering a superior product. My web sites are built with the W3C standards in mind so the widest possible audience can be reached. Sites are tested for quality several ways including by multiple browsers and at different resolutions to make sure you don’t lose someone due to bad code.
- Giving knowledgeable experienced advice. I’ve been in some part of the marketing arena for 15 years. When I started the internet wasn’t even around.
- Keeping current on trends and new technology.
- Asking questions and getting help when needed. My ego won’t ruin your project.
- Looking ahead. I build sites so that they are ready for expansion as easily as possible. They are also built with search engines in mind so that they are eligible for the widest online audience.
- Saying “no” sometimes. You hire me because I know what I’m doing. If something is going to cause more harm than good or cost more than it is worth I will let you know.
- Looking for hidden opportunities. An example of this is by asking permission to send a PR out at the end of a project. This promotes both of us and whatever it is we worked on together.
- Respecting confidentiality. If you want to keep 14th Colony as your secret that’s fine - most of our clients are like that when it comes to SEO.
- Honoring your humanity. Whether working with a sole proprietor or a corporation both entities are made of humans and subject to human errors.
- Giving away little extras. I’m not here to nickel and dime you and there are many small things I add on the fly because they seem like good ideas. The devil is in the details.
So if you are:
- A business owner
- manager
- decision maker
Looking for:
- An outside perspective on your marketing.
- Someone to give you direction when it comes to your marketing and promotion.
- Someone to create a professional, polished look and feel for your collateral.
- A new web site or web site update or upgrade.
- Ways to promote your web site.
- Ways to promote your business.
- Ways to increase customer loyalty.
- Ways to convert more leads into customers.
Then 14th Colony is probably the right company for you to contact. But be warned, if you do call we just might sell you something!
Next Article: 5 questions that will save your business thousands of dollars Previous Article: Scratching his back