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Environmental Sales And Marketing

Guest post by: Hussain Zaidi

Article Overview: Sales and marketing is about creating an environment in which your customer feels comfortable – even compelled - to do business with you.

Environmental Sales And Marketing

Sales and marketing is about creating an environment in which your customer feels comfortable - even compelled - to do business with you.

Do you wonder why most people today have a built-in aversion to sales and marketing? Why wonder? They do so just deal with it! Overcoming this natural resistance with proactive, polite, persistent and poignant professionalism is what sales and marketing today is all about. Remove obstacles to doing business starting with customer perception and create an irresistible urge to act. Action means the next step in the sales and marketing cycle: engagement, inquiry and finally a sale!

Here is how to become a champion at environmental sales and marketing:

1) Set at Ease

A customer comes to your shop because they find it attractive. A visitor stays on your website because it is entertaining or informative. No one goes out or their way to be sold or marketed to. Therefore do not "sell" or "market" to your customer but rather create a comfortable zone for your customer to engage you in. Let them know they are welcome and that there is no pressure. Making your customer comfortable is the first step in sales and marketing.

2) Communicate Value

The actual sales and marketing process begins with talking about value to the exclusion of anything else. Your customer does not want to hear about how great you, your company or even your product or service are. They want to hear about themselves and how you can help them. They are not your friend and they do not care about you. They care about themselves and therefore you must find out what they care about and communicate that.

3) Listen and Learn

Marketing surveys and discovery sales meetings are all about finding about what makes your customers tick. Do not assume that you know anything about your customer without giving them an opportunity to tell you about themselves. Regardless of how experienced you are selling and marketing your product or service keep in mind that every customer is unique. The art of sales and marketing is making your customer feel comfortable talking.

4) Ask Compelling Questions

Imagine a helpless family whose house has burned to the ground. "What if this happens to you?" asks the ad. It did not sell or market anything but simply depicted a scenario that viewers will want to avoid. "What are you doing about your arthritis pain?" "How long are you going to put yourself at risk?" "What is the cost of doing nothing?" These kinds of questions compel your customer to think and then act.

5) Be Friendly

The person that you like and trust most is the person you are going to do business with. Time and again customers show that they will pay a premium for service. Being sincerely helpful, courteous, respectful and honoring your customer beats price, quality and almost every other market advantage almost every time. Try it, it works. A Turkish saying goes, "a cheerful vinegar seller sells more than a grumpy honey seller."

6) Open and Close

Once your customer is engaged you must continuously progress them towards the desired outcome of a sale. You do this by creating an open dialog that uncovers their needs and seeks to fulfill them in the best way possible. Find out what they want and then show them what they want. Point them in the right direction one step at a time and let them walk ahead of you. Open the door and close the sale.

7) Diffuse Objections

If you know what customers think that prevents them from buying then speak up about it. Talk about it in your sales presentations and market around it. Your efforts should be to engage, inform and persuade while along they way answering questions and concerns that discourage and prevent a customer from buying. Do not force the issue but simply realize that an objection turned around becomes a reason to buy.

8) Step Aside

I had originally forgotten this one last important point but here it is: once your customer is ready to buy, get out of the way!. Your job is creating an environment and setting everything up to gently push your customer forward towards a sale. You have created a comfortable buying environment, providing reasons and gently removed all obstacles to a sale. When a customer says, "okay" then you say "okay" and simply take the order.

Customers like buying and not being sold to so create optimum conditions for them to buy!

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  Going Green and the Entrepreneur
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  It's Easy Being Green
  Due Diligence
  Advantages of ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001 Integrated Management System
  Economic Growth, Sustainable Development, and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
  Green Certification for Small Businesses
  Earth Day and The Business of Green
  Green Marketing: What it is and how to do it.
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  BE YOUR OWN STRESSOMETER
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Article Tags: business, customer, sales and marketing



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