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Honest To Goodness Sales And Marketing

Guest post by: Hussain Zaidi

Article Overview: The best sales and marketing happens when you are honest.

Honest To Goodness Sales And Marketing

The best sales and marketing happens when you are honest.

Here are the top 3 reasons why you should make sure you are meticulously principled in all of your sales and marketing activities:

1) Passion

People marvel at how the gifted sales or marketing professional effortlessly communicates benefits and value while spellbinding customers and compelling them to act. Imagine a bottled up monster inside of you and every other top sales and marketing professional, a monster that just wants to leap out of you and make your customer listen to what you are saying. Why? Because it is that good. Why? Because you know that your product or service is going to help your customer immeasurably. Why? Because you have been principled in all of your communications and dealings with them.

Principles lead to power, inner power. The power of conviction and of doing what is right will always overcoming the willy-nilly and wishy-washiness of secret agendas, distorted sales and marketing and seeking to mislead customers even in the slightest. Just don't do it. It doesn't work. If you do it, stop it. Change and let real success come into your life, success that is built and bred on honesty and fairplay and creates a snowball of business that will grow and grow until it grows out of control. Start by telling the truth and making sure the customers knows exactly what they are getting.

2) Credibility

If you are a proverbial "snake oil" salesman - and I don't know what that means either although I am sure you have heard that expression too! - then don't worry about this one. If you sell a low-cost commodity in a transactional sale where you will probably never see your customer again then you can pass this bit of advice over. If you are more interested in "one offs" than establishing long-term relationships then skip this and read ahead. This point does not apply to a hawker in a crowded bazaar or a fly-by-night spammer on the Internet for that matter.

However, if you are interested in establishing real and long-term relationships with people in general and your customers specially then read on. There are are 3 keys to a business relationship from a customer perspective and these are price, need and trust. The first 2 lie in the hands of the customer more or less but the last depends in a big way on you. Be honest so that your customers learn to trust you. Do what you say, be predictable and forthright. If you find yourself starting to play mind games then stop. It is not worth it. You don't want that and neither does your customer.

3) Karma

What goes around comes around. You've heard that, haven't you? Do you believe it? Well, chances are that you have experienced it in real life, not once but many times. All great religions speak of the law of sowing and reaping and most every successful person falls back on this as one of the cardinal rules of getting ahead in life. Perhaps you are not into "psycho-spiritual" mumbo-jumbo but here is a thought: why not give it a try? Why? Because it is the right thing to do. Why? Well, why not? From a practical perspective people - your customer included - are more likely to treat you right if you treat them right, right?

The parable of an enterprise built on good values is like a building made on a solid foundation. Examples of "shoddy workmanship" abound in the world of building and architecture as well as every other human endeavor. You will find countless people "shooting for the top" who are too busy to "cross their t's" and "dot their i's" along they way. Donald Trump once said that when he sees a car dealership with dirty cars he sees a loser. Think about it: if you run your sales and marketing activities in a haphazard fashion without integrity and honesty, how can you expect to build a world class enterprise? Sure, it is sometimes harder but in the long terms it is much easier, trust me.

The little things sometimes pay the biggest rewards so be unscrupulously scrupulous always!

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Article Tags: business, customer, honest to goodness, sales and marketing



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Online Sales and Marketing vs Traditional - Hi Evan, I am noticing that many of the posts in the Sales/Marketing section deal with online marketing, SEM and and SEO and Affiliates. I was wondering if it might be a good idea to separate that section into two; 1) Online Sales and Marketing; 2) Traditional Sales and Marketing
Re: Online Sales and Marketing vs Traditional - [quote="ltrahan":31w9r2iz]Hi Evan, I am noticing that many of the posts in the Sales/Marketing section deal with online marketing, SEM and and SEO and Affiliates. I was wondering if it might be a good idea to separate that section into two; 1) Online Sales and Marketing; 2) Traditional Sales and Marketing[/quote:31w9r2iz] I second the request...
Re: EC Forum Badge? - Honest mistake!
niche forum categories - I think Kevin just touched on the point that I was going make... and that is developing 'categories' that stick. Sales and Marketing may be too broad for example. However I can almost guarantee you that you would see many more sign-ups if you tailored a category to 'internet marketing' for newbies. I've seen this work on other forums, however, [i:1i903wkn]it can get a little frantic[/i:1i903wkn]... Fine tuning the categories, or expanding the scope should be effective. I think a lot of IM folks are surfing right on by because they're not finding what they're looking for here... Just a few thoughts: Better Blogging Developing Info Products Internet Marketing Presentation Skills More How to's Another point is... a lot of people don't know that they can benefit from participating in forums. The signature links to their site - if they have one - can / should be motivation enough to get more involved. The more internet savvy members that have signatures seem to stick around more... Don't you think?
Different Hats - CEO Sales & Marketing & Leadership Development Company Strategic Vision 10 Alliances & Growth Strategies 10 Hiring & Managing People 8 Mentoring 8-9 Strategic Planning for Clients 10 Execution of Marketing Campaigns 9-10 (i have great people who do the nitty gritty) Financial Management 9 Bookkeeping 3 (outsourced as I really hate the fine details like GST0 Administrative Follow Up 6-7 (again have great staff) Writing & Publishing 9 (getting better all the time!) Speaking 10 (so I have been told) Self Promotion 9-10 Web development & Promotion 6-7 (learning more and have brought on players who are 10+) Babysitting Employees (1 - wont do it, that's why I work so hard to hire and motivate the people I have) Great topic Kevin!! Jude


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