Instead of persuading, work on alignment
Channel: George Kao
Date: 2017-12-15

Do you enjoy having to convince/persuade people to buy from you?

That very dynamic of persuasion sets up an arms-folded, you vs me dynamic. 

I'd like to present you with an alternative:

Instead of trying to sell, let’s do our best to *align* with our potential clients.

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In marketing/sales, it is typically assumed that you must learn “persuasion tactics”. 

Unfortunately, persuasive marketing strategies do “work.” But it’s just for the short-term. When a buyer has to be persuaded during the sales process, they often later regret the purchase. As the seller, you lose a long-term customer, and probably get some *negative* word-of-mouth reputation whether you become aware of it or not. 

As consumers, all of us have been tricked by persuasive selling, and we feel buyer’s remorse. Persuasion tactics tend to short-circuit our own natural buying process. which has its own rhythm and timing, and needs to be respected.

Our conscience is saying “there’s got to be a better way.” 

Instead of trying to persuade someone to buy, we can instead work to *align* what we offer with the right people who need and want what we have.

1. We are in marketing alignment when we offer the right thing to the right person at the right time for the right price.  When we fail to align on any of those, we become needy or desperate, and fall back into persuasion tactics.

2. To find alignment, we need to talk with enough prospective customers in the right way -- to understand what problems they really want to solve, that our service can help with, and to discover what they and their friends buy, that is similar to our service.  

How? Conduct more Niche Interviews -- https://medium.com/@georgekao/7108e7db96db

3. We need to keep improving our services, and our understanding of whom it's best for, so that we can talk about our services honestly and transparently -- and what it really does and what it doesn't do -- so that we feel energized to take our services to the people who really need it.  When we approach marketing/selling from this service-oriented way, with care and love for our ideal audience, we find market alignment. We no longer need to persuade. We can now just whisper, and our ideal customers will love to buy.

**

Let’s say that what you sell is an ointment for foot fungus. Stay with me here. If you’re presenting your ointment to someone who has foot fungus, or a close friend who suffers from it, then you don’t have to do any ‘selling’ or persuasion. If the price is similar to other types of ointments they’ve seen, and they (or a close friend) has that very problem, then there’s alignment between the buyer and the product.

However, if you are talking to someone who doesn’t have foot fungus and doesn’t know anyone with that problem, but your goal is to make the sale, then you will become desperate, and fall to persuasion tactics such as "Listen to these scary stories of people who had foot fungus… you might develop it too, so you better buy it now!  Last chance for this price.  You'll never see this great offer again!  etc..."

Bottom line: In your marketing, selling, networking, copywriting, remember that persuasion is only necessary when you don’t really care about the other person. 

If however you want to build business from a space of love, then work instead on Alignment.