SALES 101

I was at a great event this past week.

The motto of this event is "Cooperation NOT Competition". What a great way to do business!

How many times do you go to a networking event and come home with a stack of cards that people basically threw at you? Recently this happened to me, I was at an event and an architect thrust her card at me and said, "Hi, I'm Beverly(not her real name) and I am a Real Estate Agent, here is my card, so if you know anyone let me know".

Wow. That was an ineffective sales pitch. Really, I just took her card and it is sitting here on my desk as I type this right now. I don't even know what to say to her to follow up and I AM AN EXPERT AT THIS. I know nothing about her and she knows nothing about me, there is no sense in that. How can we help each other grow our businesses using this model?

We can't!

I could feel her desperation, I could see her nervousness and really I could tell she didn't really know how to sell herself.

That is the problem with this model of competition, you have to sell yourself.

I believe that "Sales" is about building relationships and in order to do that you have to ask questions that lead you to the real answers. You can't solve a problem if you don't know what it is, right?

Why not give this "new model" a try at your next networking event. Walk up to someone and ask them, "Hi, My name is Carolyn (use your own name), what are you doing and how can I help you"? I bet you will get a warm response and this will be the beginning of a great relationship. This is the building block to sales!

Write to me and tell me about your responses and the quality of connections that you make. I bet they will be pretty great!

Good luck out there. Keep in touch and don't forget to visit my website to learn more about building relationships, the core of Essential Selling. www.essentialselling.com

Email me your stories and I can put them in my next newsletter! carolyn@essentialselling.com

HERE'S MY DEFINITION OF ATTRACTION MARKETING

Attraction Marketing is a term that you can find all over the internet!

This is the “new” model for network marketing, MLM’s and other businesses. Everyone is using the term and everyone is doing it so that they can become “the hunted and not the hunter”! This is a great concept. It works for certain businesses and certain products and services. The stars line up correctly and you make your passive millions.

I have a little bit of a different take on attraction marketing. If you aren’t on the top of the search engines, coming up in the first 5 places on Google or Yahoo, I don’t know how well attraction marketing will work for you. But let’s put that aside, because that only takes money and a good writer.

Let’s say you do get people coming to your website. Now what? Do they just buy your product? Or are they browsing? What if they have questions? Are you going to answer all their questions via email? How are you going to build the relationship?

Is your e-zine, newsletter, or email campaign going to be the one that will stand out from all the rest? Why? What is it about your correspondence that makes it better than the person that sent their e-zine five minutes before you sent yours?

I am not trying to be negative, this is just my opinion. In this frantic “attraction-marketing-market” it doesn’t matter how well written your e-zine is or how funny or cute, because the only thing that will differentiate you from all your competition is YOU!

This is what I mean about Attraction Marketing. If you want to attract someone to you then you need to be strong and confident in your communication and at some point your communication will need to be live.

Many of the people who have built their internet empires started somewhere and rumor has it that they started with talking to a lot of people; both, in person and on the phone. The people who have built their empires on the internet had to start somewhere. Just a little note, when they did start, there were a lot less people doing what they were doing, that is why they teach it now!

I am not saying that you shouldn’t utilize all the tools in your tool box and one tool is attraction marketing.

It is time for so much more. It is time for focus. It is time for direction. It is time to stand out and know your worth, your value, the benefits you can offer and how to build relationships! At some point you will need to pick up the phone, either to follow up or reach out. So, think about it. Are you ready for that? Are you ready to stand out amongst your competition as the one that offers the personal touch? Are you ready, as an expert, to offer the professionalism to follow up and reach out?

My definition of attraction marketing is this: If you reach out and know why you are reaching out and the value you offer someone and you have the knowledge to back it all up as an expert, you will naturally attract your customers to you. People will be drawn to you and even if they don’t work with you immediately, they will eventually! Or they might just refer someone to you!

Just my two cents and a different spin on attraction marketing to about.

Learn more: carolyn@essntialselling.com Stay tuned for my updated website...