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  • After using your Gentle Rain program for a year, I wanted to let you know how much I appreciate its effectiveness. We tripled our inquiries from qualified prospects and doubled our contact-to-close ratio. Not bad for a "gentle" method that runs on autopilot. Your systems approach was just what we needed to grow our consulting practice.
    —Van Lanier
    Managing Director, Lanier Turnaround Group, LLC

    I love "Gentle Rain Marketing. The first batch of letters I sent out netted me a fee for over $20,000 and several inquiries. In less than a month, I picked up 3 more assignments that I can contribute directly to my 'gently raining' on prospects. I have only targeted about 25 prospects at this point - so that is a fantastic response rate. I am adding 5-10 prospects a week to my system and I am generating at least 2 inquiries a week. I am becoming more choosey in picking assignments; working less hard and earning more. I recommend your marketing plan to other business owners frequently.
    —Dianna Rudd
    Sales Search Associates, Inc
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Quit Selling



Imagine for a moment that there was no pressure on you to sell anything…that you were free from the constraints of producing revenues.

In this mythological scenario, your focus is now 100% on building relationships.

No pressure to get them to actually buy anything. All you’re charged with is getting their attention and building a relationship.

How would you communicate differently?

The answers probably vary, but I’d imagine that there would be a lot less focus on you. Your solution. Your features. Why you are better/different/cooler than the competition.

My guess would be that you’d focus more on the person with whom you were speaking. What their challenges are. What they’re worried about. What they desire.

Now pause for a moment and put yourself in the shoes of that person. Who are you more interested in? The person who’s pushing their solution on you, or someone who is genuinely interested in you? (I realize the answer is kind of obvious.)

But here’s the point. In our desire to get people to buy, we tend to revert to a default mode that says the quickest way to do so is to evangelically preach at them about what we have to offer.

Once we’re out of the actually selling situation, we know that we should invest the time to find out needs and desires. But, once we’re actually in the white-hot fire of the sales conversation, WHAM-out come the big guns of WHY YOU SHOULD DO BUSINESS WITH ME. Let me preach at you until you see the light!

Curious, isn’t it, how we know we should do one thing, yet under pressure do something different?

I believe the reason why we don’t actually do, what we intellectually know we should, is because we feel under pressure to close the sale…make the money…meet the quota. And here’s where irony comes into play.

Which is…you’ll sell better if you just don’t care whether the person says, “Yes” or “No”. (Or at least not care too much.)

Of course, having that distance, that ability not to care, means that you have to have lots of people to present your case to. Lots of times at bat. And that’s what a great marketing system should get you-lots of “at bats”.

So you don’t have to care about making the sale (or at least not care too much.)

Food for thought
Mark
Learn more about our Gentle Rain Done For You Marketing Program

Mark Satterfield, Gentle Rain Marketing — Author, Marketing Consulting Expert, Lead Generation, Business Development, Marketing Strategy, Get More Clients, Increase Revenue — Click here for his Facebook Twitter LinkedIn YouTube

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 3rd, 2012 at 12:54 pm and is filed under marketing agency, marketing services, sales prospecting, sales training. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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