There are two parts to any offer you make to a potential customer.  One part is what the offer will do for that customer, how it will transform the customer.  The second part is the delivery mechanism, or how the offer works.  Transformational selling means that a business focuses their advertising copy on what the transaction does for the customer.  This may sound like nothing new, but in fact I often see advertising copy, especially in financial institutions, that focus on numbers and logic.  Focusing on the deal itself (how the numbers will work) means that you are focusing on the delivery mechanism.  You are stuck with an outdated, ineffective sales model that won’t work for you as well as transformational selling.

Here’s an example – let’s say that a young couple wants to add a large outdoor patio and fire pit to their home.  A hardscape expert has designed a perfect outdoor area for their yard, and the budget is $15,000.  The couple is willing to take on debt to get what they want, so they are shopping for money.  You would like to do the deal.  What can you do to make that happen?

·         Have an active customer and community relationship management system in place.  If you’re good, you will work this in two ways.  If the young couple is already in a business relationship with you, you will have achieved top of mind awareness that is so entrenched that they won’t even think of looking elsewhere, and you will also know that the couple has wanted this new patio area for a while.  If the couple isn’t an existing customer, your community outreach program will be strong enough to encourage their looking at you even though you are not their current financial institution.  And again, if you really know the people in your community, you will have heard that the couple wants a new patio for their home.  Either way, your relationship building strategies have worked in that they’ve given you a shot at doing this deal.

·         Craft your offer based on transformational selling.  This means that your advertising copy and sales conversation focuses heavily on what a new patio area will do for the couple.  Use emotional triggers rather than logic, and focus first and foremost on what the patio means to the couple.  The delivery mechanism is secondary.  Focus on how the patio area transforms the couple’s home, what the outcome of adding to their home will give them, the feelings that will come into play.  Perhaps the couple wants the area to entertain.  Perhaps they want it because they envision children playing out there in the near future.  Your job is to know the emotional triggers and address them in copy and conversation.  Help the couple to voice the vision that is in their mind, the unspoken emotions.  What will it cost them if they decide not to build the patio area?  Show the couple that you get and care about what this will do for them, how it will transform them.

·         Make sure that your transformational sales conversations are genuine – meaning that you are genuinely interested in this couple and want an ongoing relationship with them, whether they do business with you this time or not.  Transformational selling requires true and ongoing customer relationship.  Otherwise, it will sound insincere and manipulative and will most certainly drive the couple away.

·         Only after having the transformational conversation do you turn your attention to the delivery mechanism.  Your delivery mechanism (amount of loan, interest rate, length of term) has to be competitive, but it does not have to be the very cheapest deal around.  Remember that transformational selling is based on relationship.  Customers who feel understood will decide based on relationship as well as the bottom line.  If you have done your job well, your customer will do the deal and tell their friends, “We paid just a little more but we felt understood and know we will be taken care of if any problems come up.”  That word of mouth will help you in subtle but powerful ways with other potential customers, too.

Use transformational selling to build collaboration and great word-of-mouth as well as media.  A great customer relationship system will continue to strengthen the bond with this couple long after the deal is done.  What if, for instance, you followed the patio’s progress and when it neared completion you showed up with a new plant, a cooler on wheels, or a bottle of wine?  Want even more play?  Get a relationship going with the hardscape installer, and the two of you go in together to sponsor the first patio party for the couple.  Got a photographer as a bank customer?  Call him into the mix, too.  Not only will the couple never forget their first party (giving you great word-of-mouth for years to come) but you have given the photographer a little business, built stronger relationship with the installer who might recommend you to others needing money for similar projects, and you can easily get local press – a picture in the paper with a mention of the three businesses who made this couple so happy. 

 Transformational selling is a win all the way around.  It is heartfelt as well as good business strategy, and it helps build and keep customer relationships strong.  Add it into your sales strategies and watch what it does for your bottom line.

 © Sue Painter

• Setting a clear vision for their business
• Adopting good business practices
• Keeping up with trends in the SBO world. 

My experience is verified by the research in Tammy Lam’s infographic for Intuit, which confirms that a full 67% of small business owners start their business because of a personal passion. Get that – NOT to pay the bills, but because of a passion for what they do.

Like that 67%, I began The Confident Marketer because of a passion to see other self-employed professionals get comfortable with the marketing activities that are critical to their business success. At the time, I already owned another profitable business. I kept seeing how small business owners were so talented and good at what they did, but were not making enough money to keep going. I’ve seen that, on their own, most small business owners will not step up to learn the business side of their work.

Why?

• We say we don’t have the time
• We say we don’t have the money
• We are resistant to learning about and watching cash flow, operating costs, and profit margins
• The “business” part of business isn’t what we are passionate about (only 21% of us start a business to pay the bills).

But here is what’s hard to hear and absolutely true. Those who resist getting the help they need get stuck, discouraged, short on cash flow, and end up putting in tons of work for little or no profit. They lose the support of their family and friends, who wish they’d just go get another job and stop grinding themselves down. 

When I see a struggling small business owner I literally feel sick, because I know that the majority of us could succeed if we would combine our awesome passion for what we do with clear vision, good business systems, and a commitment to seeing ourselves as a business owner with passionate interests – not someone passionate about their work and “too busy” or “too creative” or “too overwhelmed” to be a businessperson.  It’s why I mentor self-employed people, and why I set up the Business Mentorship Program. If you have been in business for a year or more I invite you to apply for my program and get the information and support you need. Put your stake in the ground and commit to that passion of yours – and make it a passionate but well-run business that gives you the life you want.

     It’s funny how people close to you will doubt what you are doing and if it makes sense.  Why is that? Is it because they are afraid of failure?  Is there such a thing as failure? Why does our culture believe it’s OK to succeed but not to fail? Haven’t most successful people failed at something????  Isn’t that part of success?  Everyone wants me to stay in my previous work because I was successful in it……it was really the opportunities that I had and the people who surrounded me at the time.  It’s a different time and place now, and I don’t want to do that anymore.

You are quite perceptive and right to ask those questions.  Here’s my answer to you, sir, and it’s a little bit long.  People doubt what you are doing because, as you correctly stated, the people you love who are close to you are afraid of failure…and they project their own fear onto you. So, they can drop feeling fearful for themselves and feel it for someone else. That’s a whole lot easier for most people to live with.  

Also, sometimes, people do not want to be around someone who fails because it brings their fear about their own life to the forefront – so they try to get you to do anything and everything ‘safe’ so that (unconsciously) they do not have to face their own fears.

Here’s the deal about failure….almost all millionaires have failed a zillion times before they’ve made it big. There actually IS no failure, only feedback. You already know this, you said it to me when you reported on your first try at your new business.  You said then, “I didn’t sell anything, but I learned a whole lot and make good contacts.”  You turned what your lovers would call “failure” into feedback.

To me, the only “failure” is when people get feedback and then never act on it, curling up into a little ball and saying “I tried something ONE BIG TIME and it didn’t work, and woe is me, I cannot even dare to think about trying it again a little differently.” That, to me, is abject failure.  Abject failure’s cousin is stupidity.  Stupidity is doing the same thing, and getting the same feedback over and over again, and never changing what you are doing but still expecting the result to be different. 

You could be “successful” in your previous work because the timing was right and you were challenged and interested in doing it.  That was then.  It may come around again, who knows?  But right now, your vision for yourself is for this new business.  So let your lovers keep their fear to themselves, and you stay true to your own vision.  

That’s my answer to my reader.  But this comes up, frequently, for small business owners who are already in business, much less for those new to being self-employed.  You can get help from my e-book How To Get Support For Your Business from Your Spouse, Family, and Friends.  It answers the fear question, and more!  Check it out here.

I just read an article that talked about teaching business owners the “Language of Accountability.”  Here’s the quote:

“One focus of HG’s Leadership Development seminars is teaching women the Language of Accountability, which is meant to minimize drama, excuses, explanations and justifications.”  

Exactly!  When a small business owner comes to me for mentoring I often hear statements that are one of those four things.  Here are a few I’ve heard in the past 3 months.

• I’m distracted by the upcoming holidays, so can I reschedule my 3 months of coaching until February?  (This was asked in October)
• I don’t mean to be a whimp about marketing, but my mother never liked anything I ever did.
• I know I always forget to call in when I’m supposed to but usually my dog is barking.  

Can you see that each of those statements fits into either drama, excuses, explanations, or justifications?  Watch your language, and watch your profits improve.  Just sayin…..

While new social media sites come and go, Pinterest is a keeper and is already being monetized by retail firms. According to an article on Mashable (see http://linkd.in/pinterestarticle for the entire article) Pinterest is already driving more traffic to retailers than Google+.

People connect through Pinterest just like through Facebook by “following” you and your boards. So here’s a just a few ways to use Pinterest for your business.

1. Because the site is image based, it’s all visual, but behind each visual is a link to a website – and that website could be yours or one you affiliate with. 
2. You could give potential customers a whole new way to know you through boards that share the vision you have for your business, books you’ve read, or a board highlighting products you’re selling. 
3. You can do research on Pinterest – if you sell jewelry, for instance, you can search for boards with jewelry images and find the top boards (those shared the most and liked the most), giving you insight into what is selling and what’s not.

Pinterest is in its early stages of use (relatively speaking), so if you want to know more about it, consider purchasing Dan Morris’s video about Pinterest and SEO, how to monetize Pinterest, and more. It’s definitely worth the money at $7.00! I’ve bought it myself and have watched it several times becuase I couldn’t write down the ideas fast enough the first time around. Here’s my own affiliate link to the video. It will save you time in knowing how to make Pinterest useful for you and your business.  Whether you get the video or not, Pinterest is useful and more than likely here to stay.

Here’s a final tip:  Be sure to put your Pinterest ”connect with me” logo on your website, so that people will seek out your Pinterest account and connect with you.  You’ll find me there, too, if you’d like to connect.

Now this question isn’t necessarily about being a business owner.  But I kind of got the feeling that it came from a business owner who has bought into the energy of “the economy is nothing but bad” and who also is feeling exhausted and defeated.  And more than likely, there’s just a little bit of resistance to looking within himself for answers to the slowness of his business and the lack of profitability he is experiencing – so – it’s EASY to start talking/thinking/blaming the “bad economy” for taking away his meaningful spiritual life (along with his business).  So, maybe this person is finding it hard to keep his spirit up because of a lack of income in his business – I don’t know, just guessing.

This question made me think a lot about the relationship of our own spiritual ground and the situations we find ourselves in as life goes on. Because I know from my own experience and that of others that developing and living from one’s own belief system and character informs everything we do and sustains us in both good times and frustrating times.  Our personal growth and way of being affects all we do, personal or business.  

So here’s my answer:  Being in a bad economy has nothing to do with leading a meaningful life or a spirit based life, either. Think about the world’s greatest wisdom teachers. Jesus certainly wasn’t rich, and neither was the Buddha. In fact, being of good spirit no matter your outward circumstances is the very essence of a meaningful, spiritual lifestyle. Rich or poor, bad economy or good economy, one can live into a meaningful life or one can live what I call an “unawake and unaware” life.  Level of income or success doesn’t matter – some rich people have meaningful spiritual lives and some don’t at all.  The same for poorer people. Money is not a qualified for a meaningful, spiritual lifestyle. Intention, openness, gratitude, and lack of fear is.

This question made me think once again that it isn’t what happens in our surroundings that is important as much as it is how we react or give meaning to what has happened. Keeping our ground is the key thing for business or any other part of life, seems to me.

I answered the reader’s question and then the Solo-E.com owner asked if I’d write an article for the Solo.E-com website, and in the meanwhile my colleague Sandy Martini offered to add her expertise, as well.  So we banded together to produce Social Proof for Solo-preneurs, which you can find on the Solo-E.com website by clicking here.  But before you go there, I’d love to hear what you’ve done to offer social proof to your potential customers about your product and services.  So leave a comment here, then surf over to Solo-E.com for the scoop from Sandy and me.

Oh, and PS – even the article Sandy and I did together created a cool form of social proof for our own businesses – we each got what is called “referrant” proof from each other.  Cool beans!

Well!  We got into a discussion about goals for the year and I said I wanted to hone my coaching offers down and increase my products and then I rattled off about 4 other things I want to get done in 2012.  And he stopped me cold and said “Well before we talk again tomorrow just answer this question for me.”  And the question pretty much stopped the long list of to-do’s for the year.  Because he asked “If you could deliver ONE result for the rest of your life, what would it be?“

Just one???  Only one???  How about my long list of ideas, and my interests in more than one thing?  And he said “only one.”  I’m interested in lots of things!  I’d like half a dozen results.  Really, I said, I’d prefer to have at least 2, or maybe 3.  And he said “if you could deliver ONE result for the rest of your life, what would it be?”  

I’ve been thinking a lot about the ONE thing, and about the cold hard fact that I know more than most people what single-minded focus will do for your business.  Get rid of the extraneous stuff and focus on what you have a strong vision for, and be faithful, single-minded, and consistent in your effort.  That will gain you substantial success in both your business and your personal life.  Because no matter what your interest is, you will be offering the world something that 99% of people don’t offer – faithfulness and single-mindedness and consistent effort.  And those things alone will carry you and your business far.

So I’m going to turn the question over to you and ask you “if you could deliver ONE result for the rest of your life, what would it be?”  Think about what truly energizes you, what you can’t wait to get up in the morning to do, what you would do for free just for the pure joy of it.  Think about what lights you up and makes you feel of service, what you never get tired of talking about.  And whatever that is, resolve to build a profitable business around that thing. 

I’d love to hear what your “one thing” is, so share it here, if you will.  And if you need a little help in winnowing down to the ONE thing, consider a one-time-only hour with me and we’ll winnow it down together. 

1. You don’t have a passion to offer this anymore – you’ve grown past whatever it is and want time and money to try something different.
2. The product or service isn’t selling well or its intrinsic operating costs have gotten too high for you to be very profitable.
3.  It’s an activity you have done for years (perhaps a marketing strategy, or a leads group) that isn’t working for you anymore or you’re just plain bored with doing it.

I see small business owners keep on doing “the thing” even though they have grown to dislike it and have a negative energy toward it.  And I always think “what’s the reason this person is so hooked on keeping on with this?”  Last week I think I found one of the big reasons why.  In an article by Ellen Gibson (in January’s issue of O Magazine) there’s this little gem we’ve all heard before, which is “list arguments for and against continuing.”  Nothing new there, right?  But Gibson then quotes author Scott Plous (he wrote The Psychology of Judgment and Decision Making) who says “if your primary reasons for persevering have to do with the past, it may be time to change course.”

That sentence hit me like a trunk.  Not only could I instantly see hundreds of times my clients have hung on to what’s not working anymore because of tradition (they’ve always support such-and-such charity, or they’ve been going to a local leads group for 4 years even though the return on investment is very slim) I could also see how my own decisions have been heavily influenced by “what has been.”  It makes perfect sense to me that our natural inertia toward change, topped with the guilt we may feel about getting out of something that has a strong past history for us is a double whammy that keeps us stuck and indecisive.  Not only do we have to face the change itself, we have to face the people or organizations we’ve had a relationship with and bow out – and it’s just plain easier to keep on with it.

Easier on the surface, at least – but not really.  For one thing the opportunity cost is very high – when your time and energy are tied to something that drags you down and no longer works, you don’t have the time and energy to do the new thing that will be more interesting and profitable for your business.  Secondly, the longer we stay on the “keep on” path the more we become internally conflicted, whiny, and stuck.

Decision making made easy for small business owners sounds tough, but it’s not.  We can definitely list the arguments for and against.  But now, add to that list a star by anything you’re doing PRIMARILY because of the past.  You’ll have a good line on what is worth giving up – freeing your time and energy and changing your negative feelings.  You can check this, Gibson goes on, by asking opinions of outsiders who aren’t involved in the situation.  See if their take on it is different.  It’s a great use for a mentor, coach, or mastermind group you are involved in.

Small business owners have to face lots of decisions every day about what to offer, at what price point, for how long, and when to add or subtract something from the mix.  Being loyal to something because “it’s always been that way” might not be the best for you or your business – or for that matter for your customers, either.  Decision making for entrepreneurs can be easier with these tips.  I’d love to hear if you feel like you cling to things in your business primarily because of the past, so feel free to comment below.

But the question is, will we?  So here’s two ways to look at your resolution that help you ferret out what’s so hard about keeping it.

1.  Take a sheet of paper and draw a line vertically down the middle.  On the left side of the line write down what you want, as specifically as you can.  Let’s say you want to network more for your small business.  Now, in the right side of the page write “If only I didn’t have to……”.  Now read the left side and add on the right side so that, for example, you are saying “I want to network for my small business more, if only I didn’t have to…..”  and then start writing a list of your “if only’s” in that right column.  Write as many “if only’s” as you can, no matter how insignificant they are.  You might have a list at the end that reads something like this:

I want to network for my small business more, if only I didn’t have to

• get up so early in the morning to get to the meeting
• dress up and put on make up
• polish up my introduction because I never know quite what to say
• come up with a way to sound interesting to other small business owners
• have the entire rest of the day ahead of me all dressed up and no place to go
• miss my yoga class once a week to go to the networking meeting.

If you don’t like that method here’s another, similar one.  (And by the way, I did’t invent these, they are both commonly used in workshops by many people.)

2.  Take a sheet of paper and draw a circle in the middle.  In the circle write what you want.  Now, all around the circle, list all the reasons you believe you won’t get it or can’t get it.  Keep asking yourself “and why else?” until you just can’t think of any other reason at all.  You’ll find that this exercise gets to your hidden beliefs a bit more than the first exercise does.  For example, you might still be thinking about your resolution to network more but this time you find yourself writing “I really don’t believe that networking is going to help my business anyway.”  

You see?  Once we list out the barriers and the beliefs about what we have not done, even if we know we should be doing it,  we have in our hands all our resistances to the thing we have resolved to do.  Then, we have a choice to tackle each of  them, or to decide that the barriers are too firmly in place and we’re just not going to do the thing.  And we are free to drop that and move on, and quit hassling ourselves for not doing it.  

The bottom line is to resolve you’re going to do it OR resolve to let it go….and these two exercises will help you clearly distinguish which way to go.  You’re a winner either way, because you’re keeping your resolutions.  

Now that you know about how to make and keep resolutions, you might want some help assessing what’s next for you and your business.  I invite you to check out my Assess Your Success quick coaching.  It might be just what you need to move those resolutions ahead.