Archive for the 'Empathy' Category

May 12 2009

BUDGET-CONSCIOUS CUSTOMER SERVICE

Train. Ask. Listen. Bend.

                                                                            

     First of all, there’s no reason in the world a small business needs a customer service department or customer service representatives. EVERY manager and every employee is or should be able to handle any customer complaint, concern, question or transaction. If they’re not, TRAIN them. Spend a few dollars to bring in a professional trainer (it’s cheaper than paying a rep salary or a department full of salaries).

     Periodically send a friend or relative in (physically, or by phone or email) as a “mystery shopper” to keep everyone fresh and on their toes. Tell your people of course that this will happen from time to time. You can even make a game of it with mystery shopper points for outstanding ratings, adding up to dinner for two or some inexpensive but fun reward (again, still less expensive than permanent salary or benefit increases or bonuses).

What should the training be focused on?

ASKING customers’ questions. (Not “What can I interest you in today?” or “How’s the weather outside?” or “Why don’t you want this product?”) Ask how they are or were using, or plan to use, the product? Ask what three things can you do for them right now that will help restore their confidence in your company, or how can you help them to have a positive shopping experience with your business, or what will it take to get them to return…to send their friends and relatives?

LISTENING to customers’ answers. (Not token “hearing,” but deeply listening, and understanding, and processing the comments, and paraphrasing them to make sure your understanding is correct.) The customer should do 80% of the talking. You should do 80% of the listening. Oh, and take notes. Always take notes. Nod your head. Smile. Put yourself in the customer’s shoes (empathy). Avoid crossing your arms, legs or hands. Be engaging. Use eye contact (not staring) and avoid looking past or over the person in front of you. 

BENDING to customers’ requests.This means really and truly bending over backwards to accomodate what’s asked of you. This does NOT mean you should give away the store or the farm or your sister. Don’t roll over and play dead to every request (assertive refusals can be delivered very pleasantly), but offer SOMEthing. Most people are happy with being acknowledged and listened to. Those who want more are usually happy with some token of appreciation for their forthrightness. Remember your goal needs to be to deliver exceptional attention to each customer with no exceptions. Send each one off to sell your business to others.

     If you have a small operation, with a dozen or fewer people, and want to save money, do the training yourself…but do your homework first, ask everyone to contribute a segment, and remember to practice what you preach!

     The bottom line is the old “Golden Rule” of do unto others as you would have others do unto you! There is no better approach to customer service in ANY economy. And when business is slow, there is no better approach to speeding it up! Try it! You’ll like it!     

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Send your input anytime: Hal@TheWriterWorks.com (”Businessworks” in the subject line) or comment below. Thanks for visiting. Good night and God bless you! halalpiar              # # # 

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May 04 2009

SENSITIVITY MOTIVATION…R U A 10?

Okay, Boss…where

                                                 

do you rate yourself?

                                                                               

     Where do you rate yourself on a scale of 1-10 (10 being highest) in motivational skills?

     You’re a business owner or manager. When’s the last time you put your brain in a blender and flipped it on “Puree”? (Er, never, I hope, but then you wouldn’t likely be reading this, right?) Well, here’s the point: what methods do you use to get people to sit up and pay attention? To jump? To dive in? To follow? 

     How aware are you of the fact that if your associates and employees have the same “take” on your business that you have from the control tower, they wouldn’t be associates and employees. They’d be running their own businesses, and maybe even competing. Sooooo, maybe it’s a good time to consider some new approaches.

     Let’s start by trying something you’re probably afraid to do (most entrepreneurs are): Tune in to other people’s sensitivities, and show them that you are aware of their feelings by directly or indirectly addressing them in the meetings you run, the directions you give, the requests you make, the emails you send, the phone discussions you have.

“I realize and appreciate that some of you may feel uncomfortable about having to share the burdens of this benefit plan reduction we’re making. I know because I am experiencing this cutback as well, but for now we all need to pull together in order to survive and grow. I fully understand the added stress this decision may put on you and your family and can assure you we will make some mid-air corrections at the first possible opportunity” is better than an announcement slip in the pay envelope!

     This is not to suggest you mollycoddle (I do love that word!) every employee sensitivity or cave in to every wimpy request. But it does mean that it’s important to the cardiovascular and musculoskeletal health of your organization to recognize and appreciate that leadership is often defined by one’s ability to relate to and mobilize others. The “relate to” part has to do with sensitivity.

     True leaders know their followers. They know their strengths and weaknesses, and they play to the strengths. They know how and when to challenge, and how to get the most productive efforts from each because they start with sensitivity…and then apply detective skills.

     You cannot motivate others for maximum effectiveness without knowing what makes them “tick” and without knowing what their current needs are. A trophy or plaque means nothing to someone struggling to afford new tires. A cash bonus is meaningless to someone who’s just inherited a big bank account.

     It doesn’t take as much effort as you might think to stay in touch with what your peoples’ lives are all about, and you need not step off the deep end of socializing to know how to reward and challenge appropriately and productively. 

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      . . . I’m open to your input anytime: Hal@TheWriterWorks.com (”Businessworks” in the subject line) or comment below. Thank you for visiting. Good night and God bless you! halalpiar  # # # 

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Apr 24 2009

HOW DO YOU SURROUND YOURSELF?

Are you on target?

                                                                        

     Everyone likes to help others when they can. Some of us, however, dwell on being do-gooders to the detriment of our own interests. And when we do that, we are not helping others. We can only genuinely help others when we’re coming from a position of strength.

     Some among us like to surround ourselves with people who are less successful (to feel more important), or people who have bigger problems than we do (to minimize the perceptions of our own problems), or people who are just plain lazy or negative (because of a lack of self-esteem or self-confidence…or perhaps backbone)…and if any of these scenerios describe you, and you run a business, you’re in BIG trouble. 

     Draw a three-ring target on a piece of paper. Put the names of the most important person or people in your world in the center circle of the target. In the next-to-the-center-circle ring, put the names of those you spend the most time with in your personal life. Circle those who are most influential.

     In the next ring, put the names of the people you spend the most time with at work. Circle those who are most influential. On the outside ring or edge of the target, write the names of those you would like to spend more time with in your personal life and in your work life. Circle those who are most influential.

     What’s going on here? What do you notice? Are you spending the limited time you have here on Earth with people who are not helping you to get to where you want to go in life? Are you wasting too much time with too many negative people who are influencing your thinking in negative ways?

     Why? What is it exactly that makes you gravitate toward these people? What keeps you from moving on? How hard are you making it on yourself to part ways with those with whom you surround yourself who are bringing you down physically, or mentally or emotionally?

     What keeps your brain from accepting the fact that the negative relationships in your life are preventing you from getting to where you want to go and are –lo and behold– your choice!? What will it take for you to choose a more productive, more positive circle of friends and contacts to surround yourself with?

     Remember, you need not be rude or caustic or uncaring in the process of separating your forward-moving interests from backward-moving friends and associates. You need simply to recognize that it’s time to grow in the ways you have planned to. It’s your choice.

     When you choose to move on with your life, and extract yourself from the clutches of all that have been holding you back, you make yourself and your business stronger, and you strengthen your ability to reach back and help those negative thinkers and doers who matter. 

I am always open to your ideas and suggestions. Please email me anytime: Hal@TheWriterWorks.com (”Businessworks” in the subject line) or comment below.

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Mar 22 2009

Under pressure from my non-business artistic-type friends, we’re taking a literary diversion break tonight!

SPIT: Rarely the object of

                                      

attention in a tender love story

 

                                                                        

     If we laugh out loud the first time we see a child’s bib block lettering proclaim “SPIT HAPPENS,” it may be because those of us with little kids in our lives know it does.  Or perhaps the humor surfaces as our minds flash unwittingly to the bumper stickers (with the adult version of the saying) and know instinctively for it to be true grit more often than not.  Isn’t it, after all, simply the unsophisticated, Americanized version of C’est La Vié?

 

     Spit.  We do it in disgust.  We do it in relief.  We watch baseball players do it on TV 14,397 times every game.  Boxers have their own buckets.  Spit conjures up thoughts of adrenaline, mucus, repulsion and sinusitis.  Sometimes we miss the spittoon, the gutter, the car window (yucht!) and end up with it on our sleeves, the fronts of our shirts, the tops of our shoes, rivuleting uncontrollably down our cleavages or hunkering down somewhere deep inside the thickest of our beards.

 

     Spit is swapped and mopped, and comes in all shapes and colors and levels of viscosity (yucht again!).  Then there’s the specialized version of spit we all know as flem.  Flem—having once been front and center in the embryonic form of a booger that got sniffed back—usually originates as a kind of loose stalagtite structure hanging mercilessly from the back recesses of the nasal passages. 

 

     Flem can be lumpy, smooth, or intricately woven into kiwi and mustard colored strands, occasionally available in nasty deep brown globs.  The thickest and most projectile-worthy of these is probably preceded by a throat ravaging clearance effort that sounds like a lot of little haagggt, haagggt, haagggt noises—or one death-rattling H-A-A-A-A-A-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-T !!!

 

     Tough guys spit from atop their horses, tanks, and tractors.  Adolescent boys (and some adolescent-minded men!) will dry themselves up by having distance and closest-to-the-wall contests.  But many of the winners move onward and upward to the higher challenge of launching their spittle from rooftops, movie balconies, and prime bridge locations over passing cars, boats, and trains … and unwary pedestrians.  Tomboys and other masculine females use it to draw their lines in the sand, and don’t dare step past the bubbly little puddle!

Anyway, one thing’s certain: spit has rarely been the object of attention in a tender love story. Until now. 

Stay on this site and just click here for (in the words of the immortal Paul Harvey) the rest of the story (just a few very short paragraphs!) :

http://halalpiar.com/?page_id=30  

Good Night and God Bless You!  halalpiar     

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Mar 05 2009

From “being in sales” to being GREAT in sales!

“Sales is a game of confidence,

                                                    

skill, and will. The best sales

                                                                                                                 

people I know have a huge ego. 

                                                                                                                          

Those who are great, have

                                              

learned to control it.”

— DOYLE SLAYTON

            When you hear an industry leader speak, you listen because that person already got to where you want to go and there’s a chance you’ll learn something, right?

  SO PAY ATTENTION HERE . . .

“If you,” says Sales Industry Leader Doyle Slayton (originator of the headline for this post), “can control your ego, you are on your way to greatness in sales!”

Great! says you, so how do I do that?

     First, you accept the truth. You look in the mirror and acknowledge that your head is bigger than it looks! Next you take some deep breaths [Click “ARE YOU BREATHING? to check out your breathing. This 60-second 4-step technique has been called “the most important link in my life” by thousands of the world’s top salespeople!]

     Now, if you really did what the last paragraph suggested, and you actually “get it” and put it into daily practice, you probably don’t need to go any further because it can solve your big head problem all by itself! On the other hand, you might find that your big head is creating resistance. I mean we all like to grow, but who likes to shrink, right? So a couple more points may be in order . . .

     First and foremost, you may have heard others suggest politely to you what I am about to toss on your table: SHUT YOUR MOUTH! Not only do you not know it all, but, guess what? Your prospect doesn’t care. If you are not listening 80% of the time and talking 20%, you are not making the sales you deserve to make, and you’ll never be a sales professional.

     World renown sales guru Zig Ziglar www.ziglar.com tells us to “sell solutions” not products and services. How can you know what constitutes a “solution” to a prospect if you don’t shut up long enough to hear what the prospect thinks the problem is in the first place? Zig always said: “We’re not selling if we’re not talking (when we finally do talk after listening 80% of the time) with a major focus on value, advantages and benefits.”

     Well, that makes sense, doesn’t it? All customers (including each of us) are tuned to the WIIFM radio station: What’s In It For Me?

     If you’re not spending your energy to uncover what the prospect wants (instead of trying to impress the individual or group with how great you are) and to help the prospect understand clearly what the value, advantages and benefits are (instead of what you think he or she or they should think), you’re wasting your time.

     Every time a customer or prospect tells you a story doesn’t mean she/he wants to hear another story that you are reminded of. It means that the individual has started to relate to you as a person enough to share some incident.

     Take it as a compliment, listen even more attentively, keep your mouth shut about your great related experience, and instead shift the focus back to values, advantages and benefits. Don’t fast-talk and don’t wing it. Keep the size of your head in mind. Keep your mind here and now. Breathe. Sell.

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Make today a GREAT day for someone!

“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!”    [Thomas Jefferson]

Hal@Businessworks.US         931.854.0474

Guidance to 500+ Successful Business Startups

Creating Record-Sales for Clients Since 1981!

Open  Minds  Open  Doors

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals and God bless you!

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Mar 04 2009

9 OUT OF 10 BUSINESS OWNERS SAY . . .

Survey this, doubters!

                                                                                                                         

(GRATEFULNESS, LIKE FLATTERY,

WILL GET YOU EVERYWHERE) 

I know there’re places in Maine with 9-10 feet of snow. But they know how to deal with it up there. Here, the “near blizzard conditions” that dumped 4-6 inches of immobilizing snow on America’s second biggest peninsula (unless you count Florida as a peninsula, which I suppose…) has given me cabin fever. And when you read the results of some of my phone calls this week, you may think I’ve gone completely off the deep end. But here goes: my unofficial telephone survey shows —

     9 out of 10 business owners from 9 different industries in 6 different states who I’ve spoken with in the last three days (including one with 50 locations, and another with 400 employees, and yet another with three employees) have ALL said the most important thing about the bad economy is that it has made them “grateful” for what they have. 

     All 10? Yup, all 10. They all said the word, “grateful”? Yup, all 10. In fact, in each discussion, gratefulness was underscored as a dominent factor in keeping business growth steady while neighboring businesses were crumbling.

     Hard to believe, right? I thought so too, but the more I probed, the more that I was reassured of the importance of being eternally appreciative on a day-to-day basis as a leading factor in keeping associate, employee, vendor, and customer attitudes positive. And positive attitudes beget positive business!

     “When I look around me at other companies in our industry, I’m really grateful to be where we are right now,” is the kind of comment I heard over and over. “I’m grateful to have such loyal people working for me!” and “We’re grateful to our customers that they trust and support us during these tough times,” and “I can’t tell you how grateful we are to the bankers in this town who have stood shoulder-to-shoulder with us and are helping us to get through this recession.”

     SO, take a good hard look at yourself. Go ahead. Go to the bathroom mirror if you need to; lock the door if you need to. Look yourself in the eye. Have you been appreciating what you have? Can you act, think and talk more grateful?

     Maybe you can’t relate to the millions of people without food or clothes or a roof or healthcare because they’re not in your neighborhood, or on your street, or in your back yard . . . because the success you’ve had has served to insulate you from the anguish, poverty, hunger, and ill health.

     But it’s out there, and you need to be grateful that you are not. You need to be grateful that you have managed to be in the right places at the right times and have kept your life and your business on track. It didn’t happen by itself. It didn’t happen by chance.

     It happened because you built a reputation for trust and integrity by demonstrating trust and integrity. Be grateful you had the good sense and judgement and abilities to follow that path.          

     Appreciate who you are and what you have. Appreciate your self!                    halalpiar

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Feb 27 2009

MOTIVATION RE-VISITED (Part II of II)

A smack

                             

alongside the head,

                                                                                    

a kick in the butt, or

                                                                                                   

cash under the table…

                                                                                                    

are not always

                                   

the best motivators!

                                                                                                                                                    

     Yesterday we resurrected Abraham Maslow’s “Heirarchy of Needs” to explain the compelling backdrop to his definitive theory of motivation, and provide some practical examples. Maslow’s Theory essentially says that effective (i.e., satisfying and productive) motivation occurs only by understanding, measuring and rewarding individuals at the specific need level each represents at any given point in time.

     I suggested the best way to accomplish this is to “be a detective” in order to determine where someone is “coming from” and what it is that best makes her or him “tick.” This, I noted, is particularly important because (except for those with unhealthy emotional burdens) we all tend to change need levels with some regularity, and often instantaneously, depending on circumstances.

For those not connected to Miami CSI or Law & Order, I recognize this detective task can seem daunting to say the least, because you simply may not want to expend the energy or approach the point of intimacy that may be required to determine, for example, a particular employee’s need level.

     So, like many of life’s choices, you must decide how important it really is for you to motivate someone in a manner that is most meaningful and appreciated by that individual, which of course means that it is also most productive for your business.

     If you and your business are in fact heartily invested in a person’s performance and general well-being, you will want to explore the idea of putting Maslow’s Theory to work.

     The most important and effective first step in this process is for you to get better focused on what makes YOU tick! When you are able to figure out your own need level history and movements, you will be putting yourself in a better position to maximize the potential and loyalty of others.

     How to do this: Consider joining a personal and professional development growth group. Many of these cater to business owners and managers who share similar concerns. If you’re not uncomfortably threatened by the idea of it and can afford it, try attending a group therapy session; these can be enormously healthy and helpful experiences if you stay focused on what you can learn about yourself. Or simply take a course in photography or painting or sculpting or creative writing or crafts or pottery. 

     Take advantage of every opportunity to learn more about your SELF . . . who you really are, deep down. Attend self-development conferences and workshops. Read. Try writing a memoir or –an even better (and quicker) exercise that most people find revealing to say the least, write your own obituary.

     See what you can learn about you, about how you respond (or react) to different issues, incentives, people, places, situations. There is no right or wrong here. There is only exploring and learning. Then application. Apply what you find out about what it takes to motivate yourself, and –from that informed perspective– begin to do what it takes to keep the best people on your team.  

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Open  Minds  Open  Doors

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

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Feb 26 2009

Management: MOTIVATING IN TIGHT TIMES

RULE ONE: Be a detective!

                                                                                                       

Lots of clamor lately about MOTIVATING employees, associates, and salespeople. It’s really simple…if you work at it. Some things, it’s true, really don’tever change! Managerial motivation is one of them.

The definitive theory, first published in the early 1940’s by Abraham Maslow and still taught today in university management programs, remains “MASLOW’S HIERARCHY OF NEEDS.”

  • Maslow’s theoryviews an individual’s motivation as a predetermined order of needs. PHYSIOLOGICAL NEEDS are the most basic and imperitive until they’re met. It’s hard to need more than food, water, clothing, and shelter, for example, if survival is not assured.

  • Once physiological needs are met, Maslow said SAFETY NEEDS would rise to the top. So, now that you have enough to eat and drink and can keep warm and dry, your mind moves to the need for protecting those fulfillment’s. This accounts for concerns like air bags, insurance coverage, fences, alarm systems, locks, escape ladders, and investments. 

  • As safety needs are satisfied,Maslow said we move up a level to SOCIAL NEEDS. Seeking acceptance from others, giving and receiving friendship and affection are key desirables.

  • With social needs met, we pursue ESTEEM NEEDS: recognition with items and actions that show appreciation and enhance reputation…things like trophies, plaques, certificates, prizes, awards, special dedications, news release mentions, etc.

  • Maslow said at the top of all needs is the need for SELF-ACTUALIZATION: realizing one’s own potentialities for self-fulfillment, for continued self-development, for being a successful, creative, and balanced person who is self-satisfied and has reached a point of total accomplishment. 

                                               

As we move from one level up to the next (and Maslow said we can only occupy one level at a time in any given moment), we can easily tumble back down to lower levels in an instant.

A job loss, pay loss, family death, injury, flood, fire, or hurricane are just a few of the kinds of tragic and debilitating events that can trigger someone who may be at a self-esteem level on Monday, for example, happy with being honored at a special luncheon, to suddenly find him or herself all the way back down to a physiological need level by the end of the week, or even the next morning.     

Okay, so how does this work day-to-day in practice?

To motivate people in ways that are most appreciated and most productive requires the motivator to be tuned in and aware to what need level someone is at on any particular day and reward that individual at that level!

                                                            

Recognition doesn’t mean squat to someone with a broken-down car or inability to pay for a child’s braces, or someone who lives where there are frequent break-ins and who needs an alarm system.

Cash doesn’t mean anything to someone who’s inherited a family fortune and is working to gain acceptance by others, or some form of recognition to brag about. You can only know a person’s need level when you can know what’s going on with that person’s life and what makes that person tick! 

You don’t have to cozy-up to every employee or spend more time than you choose with them.  You do need to pay close attention to the things they talk about and the ways they talk about them. It means…you need to be a detective!  Go motivate!

                                                                           

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  Open Minds Open Doors 

   Thanks for your visit and God Bless You.

  Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

   

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Feb 15 2009

Re-visiting the past sometimes helps the present

Dwelling on the past

                                              

…is emotionally unhealthy, but a short visit there

can help your future planning and present focus!

                                                                                                                  

     Let’s go back to this past Friday for a minute.  [See Friday, 2/13/09 blog post below for details]. 

     A number of you have asked whether my Twitter-contact talk-radio host Dan Gaffney in his Friday morning broadcast of my situation (with a children’s book manuscript I edited and my lost contact information for the author) actually produced anything. 

     Well, as most everyone who knows me knows, I am not often in praise of the media (though it’s mostly  “mainstream” media I’m critical of for taking advantage of human frailties and emotions simply to stir up sales by using disparaging and exaggerated reports that are totally subjective, often completely false and –more frequently than not– highly manipulative).  There.  Had to say that.  I feel better now. 

     Now on to “The Good Media.”  Most local media (though it certainly is not beyond also being misguided) at least tends to feature on-air and technical professionals who –to me– always seem to be warm, endearing, concerned, community-minded, straightforward and engaging local personalities. 

     And whenever they do have political axes to grind, they at least approach the task with a sense of care, compassion, and craftsmanship that we would never see from major media moguls.

     Anyway, Dan Gaffney is one of those good media guys.  And his loyal listener base, I have discovered is as responsive as it is huge.

     After my not being able to locate my promising, estranged, young author since Thanksgiving, Dan Gaffney produced the “lost” author’s business name and cell phone number, and put it into an email for me within an hour after he finished his show. 

     I called the number.  The author and I had a joyful telephone reunion (I got his home number too this time) and we’ve scheduled a meeting Wednesday evening.  Thank you all for the nice and encouraging comments and inquiries.  And thanks again, Dan for the assist. 

Why can’t network TV and big-time newspaper people have some of these fine qualities?  It’s called being authentic.      halalpiar      

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Feb 12 2009

MARKETING NO-NO’S . . .

What’s going on, America?

                                          

Got economic guilties?

                                                                                                          

Who’s confiding in whom?

                                                                            

“Trust me…!”   “To tell you the truth…!”   “Let me tell you like it is…!”   “Okay now, this is no B.S….!”   “To be honest with you…!” (or even worse): “To be perfectly honest with you…!”   “To be totally honest with you…!”   “To be 100% honest with you…!”   Whew!  Wait right here.  Let me run and get my hip boots and shovel!

I have heard every one of these statements in the past couple of weeks.  They have come from a wide range of product and service salespeople . . . including senior salespeople who should know better! 

I have noticed some variation of these little “aside” comments in two different TV commercials, three radio commercials and four different print ads.  I saw the same or comparable wording on two websites and in three blogs.  It was even in a news release!

What’s happening here? 

The mainstream media is driving us all into the ground with relentless reports of the glass being half empty!  This bombardment of negativity is creating a tsunami of low trust in business.  And that is prompting piles of desperate businesspeople engaged in marketing into thinking the only way to keep their jobs is to reverse the trend to low public trust by proclaiming that they are telling the truth. 

Only trouble is by doing that, they are simply causing the public to doubt them and wonder what the hell they’ve been saying right along (maybe for years in some cases) that NOW, all of a sudden, the truth is coming out!  Like the proverbial lady who “doth protest too much,” every statement of the type noted above is a step in the direction of casting even greater doubt and DIStrust!  A vicious circle.

And doesn’t it all remind you of the classic sales character who looks right and left over his shoulder while twisting the ends of his moustache and whispering, “Tell ya what I’m gonna do for you…”?

Do NOT tell people to trust you, or believe you, or that now –at long last– you’re going to be honest.  This junk makes you look bad.  Period.  When these expressions pop up (even in unconscious references) as part of your spiel, or your advertising, or on your website or in a news release, they will collapse any consumer confidence you may have already succeeded at building up.  You are killing your self!

Just TELL the truth.  Don’t tell people THAT you’re telling the truth!  EARN customer confidence and trust.  Don’t talk about it!  People buy from businesses whose marketing walks the walk!  halalpiar  

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