Rebirth of the salesman

I don’t know about you but back in the nineties and for most of the two-thousands, sales became a little too cold and calculated for my taste. It became all about numbers, processes and tools like customer relationship management systems(CRMs). I think many forgot that contained in the word salesmanship is “man” not as in the gender but as in the race – human. I see that pendulum swinging back.

Relationships and humanity return to selling.

I’m going to suggest an approach that for those of us over forty-five will amount to the rebirth of salesmanship. If you are younger than that you may have never experienced salesmanship like this and it may appear new. On the other hand, if new media is not “new” to you and you have grown up in the world of blogs, Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin you may be wondering what the hell I’m talking about. Whatever your position on this continuum, humor me for a few more minutes and play along at home.

We buy for two reasons. Because; 1. our emotions have been tapped by 2. someone we like and trust. It’s really that simple. When you find an audience of folks who can and will tap into emotions linked to needing and wanting your product, watch out. If, on top of that they consider you likable and trustworthy…..oh my gosh…duck, success is going to come so fast and furious you truly may not know what hit you.

You still need to measure, but what? I enjoy deep dives into analytic data as much as the next guy…oh wait some of you aren’t big fans but you know what I mean. I also love my CRM and would lose track of important future customer contacts and equally important details about past contacts. Hold the phone – I call BS on myself about both of the previous statements. How about we do this, measure two things; 1. sales and 2. profits.

Your database is king. The time you might otherwise spend analyzing data, spend making sure you have the most kick-ass list in your market. Your blogs and websites should make it extremely easy and attractive to signup for your email list and RSS feed. I reach thousands of you each month with RSS feeds and email lists you have opted into. Choose tools for content distribution that have the metrics and measurement built in.

Why? Because I want to write for you and to you as a human. Not a number or a statistic. The vast majority of you who read my writing will never buy anything from me and that’s OK. Hopefully you find me likable and trustworthy. If you do, you’ll spread the word about me at some point and I about you.

While you are here, how about signing up for my email list?

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