Your good friends will risk upsetting you briefly to tell you that you have egg on your face. Your not so good friends will sympathise that you have egg on your face, and everyone can see it but you, but do nothing about it. (They’re embarrassed for you, but not enough to risk embarrassment themselves by letting you know.)

Similarly, your best customers will let you know what needs to be improved – with your site, your products, your services. They really want you to do well, and will risk upsetting you in the short term.

Gushy, enthusiastic positive feedback is great, but measured, justified criticism is worth its weight in…well…something very valuable. Wherever possible, encourage people to give you that kind of feedback, thank them for it, and actually do something.

After all, we all have egg on our face, metaphorically, at some equally metaphorical dinner table.

Whenever possible, find out all you can about these folk.

The old bottleneck: production and distribution

The new bottleneck: marketing and attention

Here’s a definition:

Social: living together or enjoying life in communities or organized groups

Media: channels or tools used to store and deliver information or data

So, social media is just another way for humans to interact together.

NOTE: there is nothing here about ’social business.’ That’s another ball game entirely.

A business is: a commercial or industrial enterprise.

There’s nothing in that definition about being social. Of course, a business is part of society. And businesses are made up of people. But the whole social/business issue has been confused by the buzz about social media.

And a lot of the buzz about social media has come from people who see this as a way to build their businesses. They’re fundementally missing the point. Social media was not built for businesses. It was built for people. To socialise.

People who ‘get it’ are using social media in the same way that they use any other medium to spread their message. They interact in social media naturally, genuinely, with enthusiasm.

The medium is not the key. It’s just a medium.

Being social is not the key either. It’s just what people do anyway, given the chance. They’ve just started doing that on line.

The real key to social media is realising that if your business has anything to do with connecting people to people, then you have hit the jackpot. The web has developed a fluid and easy way for people to talk to each other in large groups. If that’s the core of your business, then leverage that on every social network possible.

Apart from that, it’s business as usual folks. Provide value, fulfill a need, have smart positioning and do your socialising at lunch.

If you buy a great info product, (or any product for that matter) half the learning comes from the product, and the other half from observation.

Look at how it’s delivered, the sales piece that triggered you to buy, the lead up, how customers objected, and how those objections were resolved.

If you watch the best marketers working their craft, you’ll learn as much from how they sell as what they sell. And exercising your observational skills is worthwhile in and of itself.

Simple observations of where things were going launched itunes, the kindle, amazon and the Grameen Bank. Observation is where you can separate how you think things are from how they really are.

And it’s people who see clearly to the heart of things who can change their world.

‘Hit your customers with 2 messages every day, then drive the traffic to some audio content’

I’ve heard this kind of expression from quite a few marketing ‘gurus.’ It’s slyly entered into the vocabulary of many (talented) marketers.

Since when did ‘hitting’ and ‘driving’ your customers become a good idea?

I’d prefer ’surprise’ ‘delight’ ‘awe’ ‘entice’ or ‘amaze.’

It’s very important to mind what words you use to describe relationships. After all, your customers are the only reason you’re still in business.

Great Content

Inbound Links

That’s it in a nutshell. Of course, there’s a million and one other things the experts do to optimise their sites. But if you stick with those four words and don’t get distracted, you’ll do just fine.

For people who are always jumping on the next BIG thing. (Like I do sometimes.)

This may help you get it in perspective: Best Biz Op Sales Letter Ever

Or, for the more realistically minded: Billions in Minutes

You owe it to your customers to put on a good show. Present yourself and your product in the best light. Be charming, daring, delightful, make people feel good to be buying from you.

Always be honest, but remember that great busker or street performer or pie seller who was memorable and engaging, and made you feel good to be buying from them.

That’s all part of the service.

Yes, I hate salepeople a little bit. (Even though I’m aspiring to be a good one myself.) And I’m not talking about the sleazy, pushy ones.

The really good salespeople cause pain. Change is often painful, and when you get offered a product that’ll help you grow, achieve your dreams and live a larger life, that’s often painful.

It’s like growing pains. Or an injection of vitamins. If growth and change was all easy, then persuasion wouldn’t be necessary.

When someone’s selling something that I know I want, would benefit me, and I can afford, I still resent them a bit. Because they’ve given the one part of me (that wants to change)  tools to convince and fight the other part of me (that wants to go along as before.)

So the ‘let’s stay the same’ part of me gets a little miffed. To get someone to change course and take action and buy something is a bit like pushing someone into a swimming pool. Once you’re in, it’s great. But the actual getting wet ain’t quite so much fun.

So, to all those salespeople out there – as long as your stuff’s good, go for it. It’s ok to sell good stuff to people who will benefit from it. Just expect a little resistance.

And remember, salemanship is a double edge sword. It hurts to be sold something, but people love to buy.