Marketing, sales and the courage to risk rejection, to stand out there. It’s all important, it’s everything and you put it out there clearly… the issues.

And…

I know it’s ALL MARKETING and I also believe that like any product, marketing is a good or bad as it’s intention–or the creators intention. If the purpose to make a product is solely profit, you got problems.

If you market only for profit–problems. The absence of true “win win” intention, or concern / compassion for the consumer / customer is dangerous… pathological actually.

It’s what Henry spoke of in his frustrating horror story of the “Energy Supplements” above.. he’s sooooooo right. My field is fitness, wellness, nutrition and I’ve been in the nutritional supplement business, as a part of that, for 20 years. I helped create the market we see today with the largest sports nutrition company in the world.

And I’ve watched the internet turn an always grey business category (since the first elixir was sold off covered wagons) into a black hole of frightening proportions.

The scam scum that do that Acai crap causes not just marketing a black eye but will end up costing us all freedom to even consume supplements. They sell without integrity… which is to say the steal.

I like to say about those scammers, there nothing creative about marketing when you’re just lying… it takes no innovation to say “Clinically proven to reduce body fat by 30% in 30 days” when it’s just a lie you made up. No genius there.

The result of this is I have the world’s finest, most expensive, small batch built nutrition shake that is REALLY clinically proven in peer reviewed published science and I find myself resistant to sound like the scam marketers when I go to sell…

Yes, my thing but I am being effected by the fear of association… odd… but real.

Thanks for this and hope Henry is finding his way in the madness.

In Strength,
Shawn Phillips
Full Strength Nutrition
www.FullStrength.com

Author, Strength for LIFE

And yes! You’d probably know how many points of contact it takes just to land a sale, so stressing the key ideas several times counts. More than we think

Love the repetiion. A famous ad agency guy named Ted Bates invented that back in the 60’s…. beat the consumer over the head with the key selling idea at least 4 times and they might remember it.

I’ve always found that what works in life works in marketing. Humor got me lots of dates with wonderful women. It gets my clients lots of new customers too.

Love Men with Pens. Keep the great content flowing my way. I look forward to reading the site every week.

Steve

[...] Are You Afraid of Marketing or Do Sales Just Turn You Off? | Men With Pens [...]

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Ahhhh, sales. As somebody who teaches people and organziations to “sell better” for a living I’ll offer a few thoughts I hope the readers find useful.

First off, people love to buy things but HATE to be sold. This is where salespeople get in trouble fast. They get themselves catagorized as “salespeople” by the things they do and say. As soon as this happens the prospcet has little or no trust in the salesperson and a lot of fear—Fear that they will get “sold” something that may not be in their best interest.

Effective selling has at it’s root effective communication. For effective communication to happen there has to be a level of trust. The most important question to ask yourself if you have to sell:

What is my process for establishing trust with another human being?

If you can’t establish “trust” sales will always be a challenge.

If you want to explore this topic feel free to email me.

Cheers!

[...] on sales and marketing tactics. You can find the first post that explores whether you’re Afraid of Marketing or Just Turned Off right [...]