How Selling Builds Trust and Community
How Selling Builds Trust and Community
What Makes a Community?
Community begins with shared ownership of things physical or metaphysical or both. In order for a community to grow up around your business, your customers need to share ownership with you and with each other.
Inviting people into the community isn't hard. One time-honored method is to give something away. This makes it safe for someone to approach your business and evaluate your offer. If it is not a fit, the prospect can walk away with no harm done. (Remember, we're talking about a community of just-right customers.)
If your give-away is valuable to her, your prospect may hang around. If you keep giving away valuable information, eventually she becomes part of your community. Right?
Wrong.
How "Free" Gets in the Way
Community begins with shared ownership, and if all you offer is free information, how can your prospects take ownership?
They can't. The only way for customers to take ownership is to buy something from you. That means you have to sell something to them.
Until you ask your prospective customer or client to buy, you haven't given them a way to invest -- let alone to participate -- in a community of shared interests. No investment, no return on investment.
That's not just semantics. Sure, people can benefit from reading a free newsletter for years without buying a thing. But until you ask for investment, you may have admirers, but you won't have community.
The Trust Factor
There's a direct relationship between selling to your customers and gaining their trust. That's because authentic trust is the result of commitments that are made, tested, and kept. What's more, there has to be some risk involved. Without risk, the only kind of trust available to your customers can have is naive trust, the half-blind hope that since you haven't betrayed them so far, you won't betray them in the future.
The kind of trust that builds long term relationships and communities grows as individuals exchange commitments while remaining aware of the risks entailed. Will the other party come through? Can you live up to your part of the bargain? And how do you manage when something unexpected happens?
Selling Builds Trust
The way to build trust with your just-right customers is to ask them to take just such a risk. Offer them something you believe to be of value, and ask them to pay it. Then live up to your end of the bargain.
Does the idea of coming right out and selling to your customers give you the heebie-jeebies? It did me. I'm fine with marketing, but selling? Yikes!
For eight of the nine years that I've been writing my newsletter, the content was more than 90% editorial. Until this year, there were less than a handful of times that I sent an email to my list that wasn't focused on delivering content.
As I began to send emails to promote (and sell) the Authentic Wealth Tele-retreat, I got some pushback. Most of it came from friends, who care a great deal for me and had my best interests at heart. But they were not and are not my just-right clients, and they didn't and don't know anything about a business like mine.
Until I decided to sell to my list, life here at Shaboom was part dream, part nightmare, a rollercoaster of excitement and depletion. My energy would go up when my subscribers praised me and down when you didn't. I lived in fear of angering readers.
That's no way to build a long-term relationship, let alone a thriving community.
When you avoid selling you keep customers at arms length, turning them into strangers. I'm here to tell you, neither you nor your business can survive by relying on the kindness of strangers. (And why should strangers take care of you, anyway?)
Enough. It's the upside to this story that I am itching to share, so here's the good news. When you sell to your customers, everything changes.
How Selling Builds Community
When you sell and a customer buys, the whole world changes. Does the customer love what they bought? Wonderful! Find out how else you can help, and sell them something else. Not to milk them, not to take advantage of them, but to help. (That is why you're in business, isn't it?)
Is your customer dissatisfied? Excellent! Find out why. Ask how you can improve the product or service, and, provided that the customer fits your business "just right," they'll tell you exactly what you need to do to make them happy and to attract more people just like them.
More customers mean more people taking ownership, and that is the basis for a community. Yes, there's more to growing the community than this, but you won't have one to grow until you start selling.
The Real Reason Nice People Don't Sell
Do you know why nice people like you and me resist selling? It's simple: we would rather be liked than have profitable businesses. Another way of saying that is that we'd rather be liked than do what it takes to deliver value to the people we can help.
Okay, you may be more evolved than I am. But consider these classic reasons for not stepping selling to customers.
You don't want to seem pushy. (You want to be liked.)
You are afraid your work isn't good enough. (You are afraid a customer might be disappointed and then they wouldn't like you.)
You can't stand rejection. (What is rejection except the belief that the person who is saying "no" doesn't like you?
If you have read this far, odds are very high that you, like me, place a very high value on being liked. There is nothing wrong with that. But are you willing to let the desire to be liked prevent people from benefiting from your work? Are you willing to place being liked ahead of creating revenue streams that will energize your business and help you generate quality products and services on an ongoing basis?
Smile. Your Customers Love You.
Here's the part that will make you smile big time. Imagine having plenty of bandwidth to build trust with your customers and take care of them. Imagine being comfortable in your own skin, satisfied to be doing your best for your just right customers. (Goodbye, perfectionism!) Imagine looking forward to feedback, both positive and negative, from customers that are part of a growing community.
That's what selling can do.
I hope I've whetted your appetite for building relationships, trust, and community by selling your products and services. I am here to help self employed people who have a lot to give and a lot to learn about how to do just that.
How Selling Builds Trust and Community - To learn more about this author, visit Molly Gordon's Website.
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Does being self employed have to be lonely? Wouldn't it be great if self employment meant enjoying the support of a committed community? Well, it doesn't have to be a pipe dream. But to leave isolation and loneliness behind, you may have to rethink your position on selling to your customers because it can actually help you build trust with your customers.
What Makes a Community?
Community begins with shared ownership of things physical or metaphysical or both. In order for a community to grow up around your business, your customers need to share ownership with you and with each other.
Inviting people into the community isn't hard. One time-honored method is to give something away. This makes it safe for someone to approach your business and evaluate your offer. If it is not a fit, the prospect can walk away with no harm done. (Remember, we're talking about a community of just-right customers.)
If your give-away is valuable to her, your prospect may hang around. If you keep giving away valuable information, eventually she becomes part of your community. Right?
Wrong.
How "Free" Gets in the Way
Community begins with shared ownership, and if all you offer is free information, how can your prospects take ownership?
They can't. The only way for customers to take ownership is to buy something from you. That means you have to sell something to them.
Until you ask your prospective customer or client to buy, you haven't given them a way to invest -- let alone to participate -- in a community of shared interests. No investment, no return on investment.
That's not just semantics. Sure, people can benefit from reading a free newsletter for years without buying a thing. But until you ask for investment, you may have admirers, but you won't have community.
The Trust Factor
There's a direct relationship between selling to your customers and gaining their trust. That's because authentic trust is the result of commitments that are made, tested, and kept. What's more, there has to be some risk involved. Without risk, the only kind of trust available to your customers can have is naive trust, the half-blind hope that since you haven't betrayed them so far, you won't betray them in the future.
The kind of trust that builds long term relationships and communities grows as individuals exchange commitments while remaining aware of the risks entailed. Will the other party come through? Can you live up to your part of the bargain? And how do you manage when something unexpected happens?
Selling Builds Trust
The way to build trust with your just-right customers is to ask them to take just such a risk. Offer them something you believe to be of value, and ask them to pay it. Then live up to your end of the bargain.
Does the idea of coming right out and selling to your customers give you the heebie-jeebies? It did me. I'm fine with marketing, but selling? Yikes!
For eight of the nine years that I've been writing my newsletter, the content was more than 90% editorial. Until this year, there were less than a handful of times that I sent an email to my list that wasn't focused on delivering content.
As I began to send emails to promote (and sell) the Authentic Wealth Tele-retreat, I got some pushback. Most of it came from friends, who care a great deal for me and had my best interests at heart. But they were not and are not my just-right clients, and they didn't and don't know anything about a business like mine.
Until I decided to sell to my list, life here at Shaboom was part dream, part nightmare, a rollercoaster of excitement and depletion. My energy would go up when my subscribers praised me and down when you didn't. I lived in fear of angering readers.
That's no way to build a long-term relationship, let alone a thriving community.
When you avoid selling you keep customers at arms length, turning them into strangers. I'm here to tell you, neither you nor your business can survive by relying on the kindness of strangers. (And why should strangers take care of you, anyway?)
Enough. It's the upside to this story that I am itching to share, so here's the good news. When you sell to your customers, everything changes.
How Selling Builds Community
When you sell and a customer buys, the whole world changes. Does the customer love what they bought? Wonderful! Find out how else you can help, and sell them something else. Not to milk them, not to take advantage of them, but to help. (That is why you're in business, isn't it?)
Is your customer dissatisfied? Excellent! Find out why. Ask how you can improve the product or service, and, provided that the customer fits your business "just right," they'll tell you exactly what you need to do to make them happy and to attract more people just like them.
More customers mean more people taking ownership, and that is the basis for a community. Yes, there's more to growing the community than this, but you won't have one to grow until you start selling.
The Real Reason Nice People Don't Sell
Do you know why nice people like you and me resist selling? It's simple: we would rather be liked than have profitable businesses. Another way of saying that is that we'd rather be liked than do what it takes to deliver value to the people we can help.
Okay, you may be more evolved than I am. But consider these classic reasons for not stepping selling to customers.
You don't want to seem pushy. (You want to be liked.)
You are afraid your work isn't good enough. (You are afraid a customer might be disappointed and then they wouldn't like you.)
You can't stand rejection. (What is rejection except the belief that the person who is saying "no" doesn't like you?
If you have read this far, odds are very high that you, like me, place a very high value on being liked. There is nothing wrong with that. But are you willing to let the desire to be liked prevent people from benefiting from your work? Are you willing to place being liked ahead of creating revenue streams that will energize your business and help you generate quality products and services on an ongoing basis?
Smile. Your Customers Love You.
Here's the part that will make you smile big time. Imagine having plenty of bandwidth to build trust with your customers and take care of them. Imagine being comfortable in your own skin, satisfied to be doing your best for your just right customers. (Goodbye, perfectionism!) Imagine looking forward to feedback, both positive and negative, from customers that are part of a growing community.
That's what selling can do.
I hope I've whetted your appetite for building relationships, trust, and community by selling your products and services. I am here to help self employed people who have a lot to give and a lot to learn about how to do just that.
How Selling Builds Trust and Community - To learn more about this author, visit Molly Gordon's Website.
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
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Dianne CramptonDianne Crampton is an executive leadership coach, team culture consultant, author and president of TIGERS Success Series, Inc. Dianne has been helping CEO's and Executives connect their employees to their core values and goals for over 20 years using the trademarked TIGERS team culture process, which stands for trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk and success. To download a free white paper on behaviors that build strong teams and behaviors that will predictably tear them down go here. Dianne's contribution to the 2010 Pfeiffer Consulting Journal (an imprint of John Wiley and Sons Publishers) entitled TIGERS Hearted Teams is available in November 2009. Her new book TIGERS Among Us: 5 Winning Business Team Cultures And Why, Three Creeks Publishing will release in March 2010. To receive publishing discounts, subscribe to the free TigerTracks Newsletter here. - Visit Dianne Crampton's Website |
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George LudwigGeorge Ludwig is a recognized authority on sales strategy and peak performance psychology. An international speaker, trainer, and corporate consultant, he helps clients like Johnson & Johnson, Abbott Laboratories, Northwestern Mutual, CIGNA, and numerous others improve sales force effectiveness and performance. Though it's George's strategies and processes that help corporations increase productivity and performance, it's his tremendous energy and dynamism that spark the transformation. Again and again, clients remark on his amazing ability to unleash human capacity and inspire men and women to break out of their comfort zones. The result is a whole new type of salesperson. His customized presentations teach achievers to make stunning advances in their lives. From helping salespeople realize cherished dreams to helping corporations exponentially accelerate revenue streams, George Ludwig leaves audiences and individuals empowered, emboldened, and clamoring for more. George is the best-selling author of Power Selling: Seven Strategies for Cracking the Sales Code and Wise Moves: 60 Quick Tips to Improve Your Position in Life & Business. - Visit George Ludwig's Website |
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Cheryl MatthynssensCheryl is a life skills coach, licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor and a 20 year entrepreneur. Cheryl's dedication to achieving a life of balance led to her expanding her teaching from the simple managing of life's daily challenges to adding financial well being as well. A direct marketer with DrinkACT, she is gaining ground in the online community with her concepts of making sure business owners, entreprenuers and employees have well rounded life styles. She opened up a small affiliate site - The Balance Guide- to help others find resources for mental and emotional well being. Visit Cheryl's blog to see more of the diversity beyond business she has began offering online at www.thebalanceguide.blogspot.com - Visit Cheryl Matthynssens's Website |
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John PowerJohn Power, founder of Biltmore Franchise Consulting, has extensive experience developing and marketing franchises and business opportunities. He has been in and around franchising for over twenty years. From 1980 through 1990 he conceptualized, organized, and developed the American Video Association. He grew AVA to 2,000 national members, before selling the company it 1990. It was later merged into another home video marketing company. From 2000 to 2005 he worked as a contract marketing and human resources consultant to several local and national companies. In 2005 Mr. Power began working as a franchise development consultant on a full-time basis. Since that time he has helped more than three dozen companies initiate and develop their franchising program. He notes that there are many companies interested in developing a franchise program, and who need his specialized assistance. Mr. Power is a “hands-on” franchise consultant. He said, “I am the ‘nuts and bolts’ person who tends to the details for my clients.” Mr. Power holds a B.S. degree with a major in Marketing. See: www.biltmorefranchise.com You may contact Mr. Power at: jpower@biltmorefranchise.co - Visit John Power's Website |
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Staging DivaDebra Gould, aka The Staging Diva®, is President of Six Elements Inc., an internationally recognized home staging company. Inspired by many requests from aspiring home stagers wanting to start similar businesses, Gould created the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program. Gould has trained over 1000 Staging Diva Graduates worldwide to start staging businesses. Buying decorating and selling six of her own homes in four years lead to an interest in real estate staging which she turned into a career with the launch of sixelements.com in 2002. Since then she has staged hundreds of homes in addition to teaching home staging training. Gould is the author of several home staging resources including a series of popular ebooks made up of a Design Guide, Color Guide and Portfolio Guide. For more information about Debra Gould visit stagingdiva.com. - Visit Staging Diva's Website |
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Jay Kubassek(Jay's Full Bio: EvanCarmichael.com/jaykubassek) In five years, Canadian-born entrepreneur Jay Kubassek went from selling mufflers at a Midas franchise to revolutionizing Internet marketing with the 2004 launch of CarbonCopyPRO, a online marketing education company, now worth over $20 million with customers in over 160 countries.
As an independent film producer, his upstart film fund Aliquot Films is currently producing a films with Spike Lee and Abel Fererra (starring Ethan Hawke and Dennis Hopper.)
Jay's entrepreneurial spirit is irrepressible. He’s the owner of five companies, a professional speaker and trainer, international real estate developer/investor, extreme sport enthusiast and emerging philanthropist. Jay resides in NYC with his wife Jamie, son Milo and dog Cooper. Visit Jay's official website: www.JayKubassek.com - Visit Jay Kubassek's Website |
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