Marketing your business is a really good idea, don’t get me wrong. However you choose to do it, marketing is a vital part of your business. As a matter of fact, marketing your services is something I teach my clients to do more effectively every day.

Yet I find that there’s a hole in the thinking that “all you need to do is effectively market your business.”

You also need to sell!

Now I know that for some marketing covers selling just as it covers distribution and delivery. Yet I so often see marketing gurus focusing all their time on the preliminary aspects of marketing – clarity of message, target audience, demographics, psychographics, methodology, etc. Seldom do I see marketing coaches get into the specifics of selling.

But more importantly, so seldom does the average business owner see selling as a part of marketing. More often than not, they believe that if they communicate their offer effectively that people will just buy their service. For instance, the majority of the service providers I’ve run into – either as prospects and clients or through a large network of friends, associates and partners I offer help or advice too – see the importance in communicating their offer. And they understand what systems they want in place once the prospects enters their funnel.

But what they seldom focus on is the conversion process – when the prospective client becomes an actual, paying client. That’s where selling comes in.

What many don’t consider is that while there’s a process for marketing, there’s also a process for converting; for selling. And while there’s numerous, effective processes and methods for both marketing and for sales, neither make a successful business on their own. It’s hard to sell your services if you don’t draw prospective clients in through your marketing. Just as you’re not guaranteed a large number of prospects converting to clients without clearly knowing how you sell to them.

To drive the point home consider if I told you, “An effective marketing campaign should lead to increased sales and more clients.” Without a hitch, you’d agree, right? I mean, that’s the whole point, isn’t it – the better your marketing the more you sell and the more clients you have.

Well, effective marketing is like having a bus drop off thirsty people in your driveway. They’ve searched, they’ve found you and they’ve journeyed to your home because they trust you can satisfy their thirst. But just because they’re standing in your driveway doesn’t mean they’ll get to drink. Some will, sure. But many will just stand there waiting for some guidance. Selling is guiding those thirsty people to the well in your backyard, hoisting the bucket from the well, pouring them a cup of fresh water and handing to them to drink.

In other words, selling is a process as well. It’s the process of guiding the people your marketing brings to your business into becoming clients. So how you sell your business, how you convert your prospects, is something you need to consider in order to get more client, increase your business and generate more money.

So, how does your marketing process differ from your sales process? Does it? And if you’re getting people to engage your business, how could you more effectively sell to them?

Let’s hear your thoughts!

(note: image from Ward_ on Flickr, some rights reserved)

Now, three years later, she’s struggling to get enough clients. She seems to get just enough clients to keep afloat. However she’s not fully replaced what she made at her day job.

Yet, she’s self-employed. She runs her own business. Or does she?

That’s the question I asked Susan when she called me last week. She told me she wasn’t getting any new clients and that her leads have pretty much dried up. She’s committed to her business, but not sure how much longer she can run in the red since she’s financing her business with her credit cards.

I asked Susan, “So, if you had to think about it this way – are you employed or unemployed? In other words, are you working or not?”

At first she insisted that she was employed – self-employed at that. She has some clients. She just doesn’t have enough and she doesn’t know what to do.

So when I asked her why she wasn’t getting more leads she gave me the same tired answer that the media is banging away on – it must be the economy. She felt that “the economy was keeping people from contacting her and taking her programs.”

Of course the economy is adjusting itself from the overblown, over indulgent corporate abuses. That’s why we keep hearing about layoffs and buyouts. But in truth the economy isn’t affecting us small business owners too much, really. But that’s another story.

So I asked Susan to consider, just for a moment, what she might be doing differently if she was unemployed rather than self employed. Without even a breath she said, “Well, I’d be out there looking for a job.”

EXACTLY!

Getting out there to look for a job is exactly what she – or any of us – would do. We’d be reading ads, searching the web, making calls, scheduling meetings and following up appointments. But wait a minute…isn’t that what we would be doing with our business as well?

Another way to put it – isn’t that the same process we would go through in marketing out business? We’d promote our offer, generate new leads, schedule appointments, and followup with prospects. In other words – we’d be actively engaged in marketing and selling our products and services.

In short order, Susan got it. She remembers the days of looking for work. And she could see, almost immediately, that in having a business she always had to be looking for work. She always had to be generating new leads and working those leads into hiring her.

And that’s the truth with running a small business – you’re always looking for work. Remember, you’re only self-employed if you’re actually employed by your business.

Did you ever think the secret to succeeding in your business would be act as though your unemployed?

If so, what tactics are you finding the most successful in finding more clients? And if not, how do you think your business could improve – even grow – if you treated yourself as being unemployed?

(note: image from nogger on Flickr, some rights reserved)

Just the idea of it makes your stomach turn a bit. It seems dishonest and dirty. And you’ve convinced yourself that it’s pretty much unnecessary to sell. Somehow you can get more clients and customers without having to deal with all that selling stuff.

But how? How do you encourage more clients and customers to buy your products and services without selling to them? How can you grow your practice, increase your revenue and grow your small business and be apprehensive to selling what you produce and offer in your small business?

Perhaps you don’t have to be apprehensive to selling. After all, you’re selling all the time.

That’s right. You’re selling all the time. As a matter of fact selling is second nature to you. How do I know this? Because you’re a person. You’re a person with ideas, thoughts and opinions. And this is what you sell all the time without even realizing it.

Think about it. Why do you share your knowledge? Why do you offer your opinions? Isn’t it because you have something to share or add to a situation or conversation? And when you do so you’re selling. You’re selling your ideas, your opinions, your perspectives. And you’re doing it all the time. I’m doing it right now.

So if that’s the case, why do you think it’s so easy to sell your ideas in a conversation while it’s difficult to sell your offerings to your prospects?

I think it has to do with money. Often, when you’re engaged in a conversation and you’re sharing your perspective on a topic there’s no money involved. Now there may be other currencies such as what people think of you, but something changes when money is involved. Why do you think that is?

So do you think selling would be easier if money wasn’t a part of it?

If so, I say, then, don’t make it a part of how you engage with your prospects. Make the conversations about them – their problems and how you can help them solve them. Make money the just part of the agreement if they’re a good fit for you.

In other words, take the pressure off to feel as though you need to justify what you charge for your offer. The price only really matters if you’ve illustrated to them that your products and services can help them. Otherwise, price is moot.

Don’t you think?

How do you feel about selling in your business? What have you done to overcome it?

And what else do you think stops the natural flow of selling other than money?

I’d love to hear about it.

(note: image from Lorna87 on Flickr,  some rights reserved)

Yet, as business owners, we spend so much of our time focusing on how to do what we do better. We read, we blog, we train, we attend workshops and conferences, go to events, network and so on. All under the guise that we can gain some edge in how we do what we do.

But what if the edge isn’t in what we do for our clients and customers?

My grandmother buys a new car every four years. And for the past three decades, she’s been buying her cars from the same guy at the same dealership. Is it because the Buicks they sell are somehow better than the Buicks at other dealerships? Or maybe it’s that this specific salesman does his job better than the other salesmen do.

Certainly he does, to some degree. But I’ve spoken with him, he’s not the most knowledgeable salesman on the lot. He’s not the best dressed or most polished either.

Yet my grandmother keeps coming back. She won’t even consider buying from another salesman, let alone look at a different make of car.

I’ve asked my grandmother about why she keeps buying from him. Her answer is a simple, “I like him.” Now she doesn’t mean that in any flirty way. I’ve been with her when she’s bought a new car and there’s no weird flirting going back and forth. It’s just that she likes him.

And in their interactions is a little known secret to business success and customer loyalty – feeling. It’s not what you do that’s important with your clients and customers, it’s how they feel about what you do that’s important.

Let’s say that again:

What you do isn’t nearly as important as how it makes your clients and customers feel.

Would you say that’s true in your business?

If it is, why do you think most small business owners spend much of their time on the other?

(note: image from Storeyland on Flickr)

It’s easy to understand, right? As soon as I mention the word ’sell’ what goes through your mind. For me I think of the pushy people in the appliance store. You know, the vultures hovering around waiting for the next carrion to fall through the door. Or the guy at the car dealership who goes through some pavlovian response the minute you have a question.

We just don’t think well of selling, do we? Which means we probably have some idea that stand in the way of us selling, as well.

But we don’t have to be obnoxious to sell. The obnoxious ones are not the best salesman. The best salesmen sell you without you ever knowing they were selling to you. They engage you, understand your need and help you fill it. That’s it.

And that’s exactly what happened to us Saturday night at SOBCon. Denise Wakeman, Ruth M Sylte, Randy Windsor, Director Tom, Shashi Bellamkonda, Tojosan, Adam Kayce and I all headed to Vong’s Thai Kitchen for dinner. We were hunting for good food and great conversation. What we got was one of the best sales experiences I’ve had in a long time.

You’ve been to dinner. Even in a nice restaurant, your waitperson usually greets you, shares the specials and then asks for a drink order. They scamper off and return shortly with your drinks and to take your order. Sometimes they may ask if you want an appetizer. But overall, it’s usually a version of this experience in just about any restaurant.

But not with José at Vong’s. After getting our drink order, José gently ask for our attention. We all pick up our menus and are guided by José through some of his favorite dishes as well as the house signature dishes. But he didn’t just point out or describe each dish. Rather he brough them alive. He made each dish sound like it was something we had to absolutely try. It was a joy to watch him. I couldn’t get the smile off my face. And by the time he was done, I was salivating (literally). Sure, I was hungry. But now my senses were engage in the dinner and I couldn’t wait to try the food. Really, this was probabaly the best example of selling that I’ve ever seen from waiter.

José’s presentation was so good, that we talked about it around the table for a few minutes afterward. Now how many restuarants have you gone too where you talk about the waiter’s ’sales pitch’ when they walk away? There was absolutely no push. He did this so naturally there was no feeling that we were being sold too. Yet each of us, to a person, couldn’t wait to try the food.

So what did José do that was different than every other waiter I’ve had in the past few years? Better yet, how can you use his tactics to better sell your products or services?

1. Don’t sell. If someone’s contacting you, they have some level of interest already. In José’s case, we were sitting down at a table in restaurant so we were obviously hungry. What he did was not try to sell us a dish or an appetizer. Instead gave us information we needed to make good meal choices.
2. Engage people. One of the most impressive things about José was that he was engaged with us fully. When he took us on the tour through the menu, I felt like he was genuinely interested in me getting the perfect meal for me. Not the upsell or add-on and not the meal he liked – but the meal I would love.
3. Be authentic. Oddly, it takes practice to be natural in sales. But just being yourself is all it takes. Use what you’re comfortable with in yourself when you’re selling. With José it was clear that he is a warm and caring person by nature. So he allowed that in his sales presentation to make each of us feel like he genuinely cared about how much we’d enjoy our meal.
4. Be transparent. Be real with people. If you don’t know something, be honest about it. There’s nothing wrong with finding out the answer and getting back to someone. There was a point later in the meal where José was uncertain if the kitchen could prepare a dish a certain way, so he excused himself, asked and returned with the answer. Didn’t dimish our experience at all.
5. Know what you’re selling. To be comfortable with what you’re selling, you’ve got to know it. Even if you’re the product or service creator, you really need to know what you’re selling. José knew the menu like the back of his hand. Hence, he was able to answer questions with confidence and certainly.
6. Know who you’re selling too. This is so often missed…you’ve got to know who you’re selling too. Not the person so much, as their need, their likes, their dislikes. That means, listen. Listen to what their need is first. I watched José closely. During the drink order (before the menu presentation) he went around the table and got to know each person just a tiny bit. I didn’t ask him, but my guess is he was getting a small idea what each of us would enjoy for dinner.
7. Match their problem to your solution. If you’ve listened well, people wil often tell you what problem they’ve called you for help with. Assuming, of course, that you can solve their problem, match your solution to their problem. Don’t get them to change their problem so you can sell them your solution. José asked a few of us what we had a taste for. He listened first, then made suggestions from what he learned.
8. Remember, it’s okay to sell. Selling isn’t a dirty thing. Really, we’re selling all the time – our thoughts, our ideas, our beliefs, etc. So selling is natural. The oddities come in when money’s involved. And there’s nothing wrong with selling what you have to someone who needs it and making money, even a lot of money, from it. It’s just an exchange. José’s efforts left him with a huge tip. Network Solutions picked up the bill (thanks again, Randy and Shashi). So we left José an enormous tip. Isn’t that ultimately why he does what he does? Nothing wrong with that.

Really, I’m skimming the surface here. The important point, I think, is that proper selling has nothing to do with the sleezy, obnoxious vultures who have given selling a bad wrap. Selling done well is an art form. And how do you get better with your art…be authentic, be transparent and practice your technique.

I’d love to know what you best sales experience has been.

Even better, what do you do to affectively sell your products or services? And if you find selling difficult, what could you do better?

(note: image from Da Answer on Flickr)

Being so cramped with other people, I couldn’t help but here the conversations they were having about gift their gift selections.

“I think we should get this sweater for mom.” “Don’t you think Jas would love this truck?” “How much should we spend on Aunt Jennie?”

Everywhere I turned I heard questions like this. And while they may seem perfectly normal and benign, I got to thinking…

Aren’t these people marketing themselves?

Sure, none of them were actively promoting their business or selling their products to each other. On the contrary, they were trying to sell other companies products to each other.

But what they were doing is promoting their opinions; selling their ideas. Isn’t that marketing? And isn’t that what each small business owner is trying to do – market their ideas of how to solve your problems?

What do you think? Are you convinced?

image Are You Convinced by yueproduction on flickr

As I waited for my wife’s coffee, I looked around. Every table and seat was filled with people talking with each other. I gently tuned into the conversations that were close by (yes, I was easy-dropping). At one table, two girls were talking about their college Chemistry class. At another three guys were discussing investment ideas. I heard two women talking about gardening, a couple discuss their wedding plans, and a dad sharing stories with his two twenty-something daughters.

Then it hit me…this is what I see every moment in the blogosphere.

People were sitting together, relaxed, having enjoyable conversations about a number of different topics. They weren’t selling or out-duel each other. They were openly sharing their ideas and views. And that led to all these different conversations happening inside one medium-sized room surrounded by coffee beans and scones.

The blogosphere is exactly like this – just on a much larger scale. The blogosphere is a ‘room’ of limitless size where people can have conversations with each other about limitless topics. The only difference is you’re free and welcome to move in and out of conversations at will – something that would probably not go over too well if you were at Starbucks.

So I ask you, is the blogosphere the next evolution of the coffee house?

When I wrote the post on Friday about my ‘Gotta Get Goals,’ I didn’t realize it would have such an effect. Not only on you, by your comments – which I thank you for, but on me as well. Over the weekend and into today I’m a little foggy on how I want to proceed.

I’ll certainly continue blogging about small business development, marketing, using the web, blogging, etc. And, it feels right to begin doing so with even more of my own, unique perspective.

When I work with clients, it’s never just about business building. It’s much more. Often I share with my clients how to bring themselves more forward in their business. Not just ‘own,’ but how to bring more of their own, authentic selves forward in caring for their clients and customers.

This doesn’t mean getting all touchy-feely with your clients, not at all. It does mean moving with your clients and customers from, as Liz Strauss talks about, your fully-expressed self.

Moving is the key word because as a good service providers I actively move with my clients through their process. Not in a co-dependent way. No. Rather in a way of coaching, consulting and educating in which I’m interested in my client’s success.

Hence, I’m not just selling them a product or a service. Instead I’m taking a position the position of mutual benefit – they win, I win. Not, they pay – I win, they may win if they get it. I help them get it so they can win too.

So stick around. Looks like another set of changes coming. But that’s one thing I can say, I rarely stand still.

Do you have one blog post that you feel has made a difference to how you blog or do business? Please share it with all of us.

And remember, I’ve removed the nofollow in comments so all commenters now get link love.

Sure, sometimes the posts just coming flying out – like this one. But sometimes it’s a struggle to get anything down at all.

It’s probably true that anyone who writes deals with writer’s block from time to time. But what do you do when it comes knocking on your door? Or worse, when it makes itself at home, follows you to your office and sits on your lap all day?
Well, Bestseller Interviews has put together The Ultimate Guide to Conquering Writer’s Block. And they should know. Bestseller Interviews covers “Best Selling Authors and How to Write Best Selling Books.” So if anyone would know how to deal with writer’s block, they should.

Here’s the resources they’ve put together:

• Hack Your Way Out Of Writer’s Block – Includes My Personal Favorite: Talk to a Monkey
• Creativity on Speed – Don’t Give Yourself Time to Think
• Breaking through Writers Block- Interesting and Humorous Take by John Warner
• 7 Rules for Maximizing Your Creative Output – Enter a Creative Flow State
• Battling Bloggers Block- Advice from One of the Most Prolific Writers on the Web
• 101 Ways to Brew up a Great Idea – Fantastic List. Once You Have an Idea, the Rest Is Easy
• Why Dave Barry and Liz Don’t Get Writer’s Block – Good Writing Is Almost Always Hard
• Introducing the A*I*D*A Formula for Blogging – Use a Formula to Guide Your Writing
• Breaking a Writing Block – What Writer’s Block Really Means and What to Do about It
• Real Creativity – Creativity is more than ideas. It’s hard work. (From Seth Godin)
• Hacks for Writing: Starting – Are You Afraid of Writing Crap?
• Why You Should Always Write Your Headline First – Start with a Great Headline
• Writing Prompts to Awaken the Muse – Get Started with a Writing Prompt
• Overcoming Writer’s Block – Very Insightful List of Techniques from a Truly Creative Person
• Show up – 80% of Conquering Writer’s Block Is Sitting down to Do It
• How to Survive Creative Burnout – What to Do When It’s Worse Than Writer’s Block

I’ve read most of these. There’s some great stuff here. Thanks to Bestseller Interviews for compiling this list. If you’re a writer, I highly recommend checking out their site.

How do you handle writer’s block?

…Certainly the kind of blogging you want to do is not about you at all. Its about Them. I’ve alluded to it plenty of times in this very article, but blogs that are successful, popular, and growing are not ones centered around their authors. They are centered around news and information that is interesting to their readership.

But what does this also mean? It means ask yourself and Them, how you can make yourself better to serve their interests. It means, changing your content to make it wildly interesting to Them. It means ask yourself if the next Big Change your going to do on your blog will cheese them off or encourage more feed signups.

It also definitely means being accessible, and getting into the conversations that you generate. Once your blog is up and going, turn your comments on, and try and reply to as many as you possibly can.

One of the secrets of really good marketing copy is that it’s all about them. Excellent marketing copy identifies the problems people are having and shares with them how your products and services provides a unique approach to solving those problems.

Successful businesses and business websites are all about their customers. After all, as the business owner, you don’t need to be convinced to buy what you’re selling – you already own it. But your audience does. So make everything in your business about serving them.

Blogging is the same way. Whether it’s new directions in content, a new blog design, or new features, make sure that everything you do with your blog enhance your audience’s experience.

And remember, blogging is about conversation. So ask. Once you have a following of loyal readers, run your ideas by them in a blog post. Solicit as much response as you can. Those who really love what you have to share will go out of their way to help you make it better.

As I looked back over past conversations and one-on-one consultations, I’m struck with the overwhelming amount of misinformation about search engines. And unless you’re following current trends closely, you’d have no idea if what you’re being told is accurate or not.

Probably the biggest piece of misinformation “out there” right now is about keywords – how they’re used and what they can do for your website.

You’ve probably been told that all you need to do is get a big list of keywords (some times called search terms, or search phrases). This big list of keywords then goes in your copy. It also goes in what is called a META tag in your web code. And when you’ve got this done, you just sit back and watch the search engines build your business for you.

Well, it used to sort of be that way. But it’s nothing like that today.

You see, when popularity in the internet was growing early on, search engines did track big lists of keywords and use them in search results.

Ten years ago one of the most effective ways to get high rankings in the search engines was to add that big list of keywords to the META tag.

Remember, the internet did not begin with commerce, blogging or personal interest in mind. It began with scientist wanting to quickly share data from experiments. The first search engines were designed merely to make it easy for researchers to find data for papers and projects.

So, the people who wrote the parameters for internet coding (HTML, HTTP, etc) created META tags. These META tags housed metadata that was used to catalog and quickly search for research data.

META tags have attributes. One of those attributes is called “keywords.” The keywords attribute was established so that researchers could better cross-reference similar data. That way when a research chemist searched the then internet for “peptide reactions,” they would not only get specific experiments about peptide reactions, but also data that related in some way to it.

So back then the internet was nor more than a valuable research tool. Therefore, the accuracy of data and the ease of searching and sharing that data was of the only importance. And the keyword attribute was one of the most important ways to catalog that data.

Then came commerce.

The idea that people could make money with websites changed everything. Business were looking for an advantage – any and every advantage. It didn’t take long to discover how to bend the META keyword attribute for financial gain. After all, if I’m selling soap and your selling soap, it’s likely I’ll sell more soap if my website comes before yours in the search engines.

In a few short years, the keyword attribute became so inundated with false listings that search engines had to place less emphasis on it. Companies continued, however, to find other ways to abuse keyword lists. And soon the keyword attribute was barely looked at by search engines.

That’s where we are today. And not only are we at the point where the keyword attribute is all but dead, we’re also in a place that any attempts to fool the search engines can lead to a permanent banning of a website.

So search engines, unable to trust people’s list of keywords have had to get much more complex. They’ve had to create these complex mathematical algorithms to weed out pertinent information from junk. Remember, search engines are in the business of giving their users the most accurate results to their search. You can’t find what you’re searching for, it’s unlikely you’re going to use that search engine too often.

Of course keywords (or search terms) are still necessary today. But the META tag and large lists of keywords don’t get your anywhere – accept maybe banned from the search engine if they feel you’re trying to cheat.

The way to gain search engine rankings today is actually still quite simple. It just takes more time, patience and a bit more work. As I mentioned, search engines still want to have the best results for their users. So just be relevant to your specific topic and, in time, you’ll find yourself climbing in search engine rankings.

There are many things you can do to become more relevant in specific searches. The two most important are your content and relevant links.

You must have great content that includes search terms people would be using to find a service like yours. The more you can get those search terms in your content, the better. But make it real content and not just some list of words. Because when you’ve actually got someone to visit your site from the search engines, you want to do your best to convert them into a customer.

The second way is to get as many websites as you can to link back to your website. And the higher ranked and more relevant the site, the better the link is for you. I cover some strategies for this in my article Is Your Site Relevant. You can view it here…