I Don't Care If I Suck at Sales & Marketing.

Apparently sales and marketing are important for business. Having always considered myself to be terrible at them I invested in training.  

My issue is I don’t want to be pushy or slimy. 
  
I found someone who promoted their on-line sales and marketing course as a new specifically non slimy and sleazy way.  I contemplated, investigated, and jumped in, keen to learn and full of hope.

A few weeks in we were being told to offer ‘bribes’…can you hear my heart sinking?  I contemplated some more.  I don’t have to bribe, I can leave that and learn the other
stuff.  Phew.

By the final module we were being told to use techniques which were creating a lot of resistance.  
 
Feeling vulnerable I reached out on the weekly coaching call, submitting a question asking if there was another way and what I could do to help my resistance.  

Well…I received a very public and humiliating ‘smack down’ (as it was described
afterwards on the forum).  

Apparently if I am not willing to use established tried and tested psychological sales techniques I am cheating potential customers.  Apparently it is a consumer society and we are kidding ourselves to sit using laptops and smart phones thinking it is anything other.  Apparently my resistance is because I hate rich and successful people. 

Apparently I can use these techniques, or I can sit whining on the side lines with my business that will never make a difference or any money.

The download of the call emailed out the next day came with a warning about the language which was used in the “height (and fun!) of the moment.”

I was genuinely shaken and upset.  After an exchange of emails I withdrew from the course and received a refund

As it was a pre-submitted question I had no chance to respond.

So – for the record.

I didn't sign up for established tried and tested.  I signed up for new and non-slimy.

Who says we live in a consumer society?  I don’t.  Yes, I have a smart phone and a lap top.  So what?  I looked at my needs and picked a good match.  I am not a deluded victim of consumerism because I own and enjoy them.   They don’t define me or the world I live in.

I do not hate or resent rich and successful people.  I am grateful to be rich and successful in many ways.

And Hello, I joined the course because I wanted to develop greater future success.  I do not hate success!

I was not wining.  I asked for help on a coaching call.  Why disrespect my business, my clients, and those who visit my website with such aggression?

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And here is why I don't care if I suck at sales and marketing....

What is perceived as tried and tested to someone else is slimy and sleazy to me.  Yes, these things work well for many other people and their businesses, but they don’t work for me and mine.

The sales and marketing lessons on this course were outdated and cynical. The internet has opened up a whole new world. 

I do not need to compromise myself (and my clients) to make short term profit increases.  My business will grow in a way that is authentic to us at its own pace.

This new world allows us to build meaningful relationships with people we may never meet in person.  That amazes and inspires me.  I want to nurture those relationships, not exploit them. 

Everyone is welcome here on my blog, even if you have no intention of ever hiring me.  

I would never speak to anyone the way I was spoken to.  Everything is open for discussion, and when people reach out to me for help I always try to support, and signpost onward if I am unable to help.

My name is Charlotte and I suck at traditional sales and marketing.  I would love to serve you and I am not going to let sucking stop me from trying.  

With Love And Light
Charlotte
xx

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