Getting started in a new year can be tough. Maybe you’re like me. In this first week back at work it’s easier thinking about negatives, before moving ahead with positives.
Here are three negatives in selling and marketing to get rid of quickly in 2012. Onwards and upwards.
- Magic Words
- Visual Noise
- Hubris
Magic Words
There are none. No secret words injected into proposals, brochures, or web pages guarantee results. Yet many sales reps and marketers hold onto that belief – that magic ones are out there, they only have to be found.
Time to let go.
Here is the only magic to sales and marketing:
Persuasiveness in a consultative process.
And this magic comes in many different words. It’s the music, not the notes.
Onwards and upwards. Positively do this:
First – find out what customers want & need
Second – communicate to them you understand their wants & needs (otherwise they wont listen)
Third – communicate you have a solution that delivers their wants & needs
Lastly – all other communications validate you can deliver
Visual Noise
Think about the 1,000s of marketing messages that flash across your retinas every day. From those overly busy web sites with 100s of widgets, flashing animations and graphic display ads – to the wildly desperate print ads sitting cheek-by-jowl on page after page in trade magazines.
They’re all exhausting in their attempts to suck you into a call to action. Visual design is overloaded.
Time to let go.
White space is the new magnet. It directs viewers’ focus, raises their engagement and increases their retention of information. When they can see it, (and it’s relevant and valuable) they’re yours. Google proved that.
Onwards and upwards. Positively do this:
First – ruthlessly refine & distill the kernel of the message you’re trying to communicate into a purity that is almost painful
Second – eliminate everything that distracts from that single pure kernel, then eliminate more
Third – go with the almost painfully pure look & design
Lastly – trust in that one message (if you want to communicate something else, do it separately)
Hubris
Hubris denotes overconfident pride and arrogance, which many reps and marketers suffer from when they believe they were the sole cause of their success.
Time to let go.
Obviously chances of success increase the harder and smarter one works but luck is its own being. Success at any level has a healthy portion of luck (in addition to effort and smarts).
Onwards and upwards. Positively do this:
First – change “No” as the first out of your mouth to “Why?”
Second – pay heightened attention to diverse ideas & opposite opinions (leads to innovation)
Third – listen empathetically, think judiciously
Lastly – strive for humility & self-confidence in equal measures
