Confession time: we’ve been selling a lot recently. If you’ve been reading this newsletter over the last weeks, you may feel similarly to the reader who asked, “Can you tone it down a bit? Love your offers, but just a little less.” A few echoing sentiments have been less polite.
I wanted to let you know that I’ve been having the same “errr errr” in my heart, and thinking “We’re on an overdone edge here.” And I wanted to talk openly about how and why this has been happening. As always, there have been lessons we’re learning as a result, which means there are lessons to offer. I also want give you a heads up about the rest of the year and ask for your help and advice.
Some People Say You Can’t Sell Too Much
When I asked folks for feedback on Twitter about our promotional schedule, some told me, “Hey, you can’t sell too much.” “People who are upset wouldn’t have bought from you anyway.” “You’re just thinning the herd.”
These were people of integrity, not quick-buck sleazy marketers. However, as comforting as those answers were intended to be, they didn’t have the “clunk of truth” in my heart.
Many people with big hearts, you included perhaps, are nervous about promoting at all. Not because of being shy. Not because of fear of sales.
I believe it’s because you sense what I sense–that there is a line you can go over, and you don’t have an accurate way to judge where that line is. The stakes are too high in your heart, around integrity, generosity and caring, to risk crossing it.
Had we gone over that line?
Where Is The Line?
My father had an email list of 7000 people for the family retail store, and he would send out three emails a week. Three sales emails a week promoting products. People loved it and it brought in customers in droves.
If we did that, we’d maybe have three people left subscribing–Kate, me, and my wife Holly. Although I don’t think Holly would be reading them.
What I’m saying is that there is no hard-and-fast rule about where the line is. You just have to listen.
Your Heart’s Ringtone
Despite the umpteen promotions I’ve run over the years, I still get nervous before clicking “send” on an email promotion. I also hear that even veteran actors are still susceptible to stage fright before walking out into the spotlight.
Popular wisdom encourages you to face your fear and let it go, but I think for me that nervousness is healthy. It means my heart recognizes that there is something at stake, that it matters. That what I do affects people. That what you do affects people
Although that initial fear is not your heart, it is your heart’s ringtone. Are you going to pick up and listen?
Louder and Louder
Over the last few months that ring tone has been getting louder. And I keep picking up and listening. At first, and for quite awhile, it was just my usual nervousness before a launch, and checking in with my heart allowed me to settle into clarity and ease.
But more recently a different message has been coming through. The message of “enough.” I’m tired of asking and want to be giving more.
When people I trusted and liked, people I had personal connections to, started giving feedback of “too much” that was one signal. Another was the qualitative difference in the message in my heart. The fear of being on stage I’m all-too-familiar with. This was different. I wasn’t feeling scared or unnerved, but rather feeling a quiet certainty in my heart. “Enough.”
This listening is so important. Sometimes fear signals the opposite message of the truth. Sometimes it points you right at the exact message of the truth. But the fear is not the messenger you want to follow.
When you hear the ringtone of fear, take a breath. Stop. Remember the Divine, that love is always available, and that you’re okay. And then pick up and listen.
For me, the message was this: “Enough.”
There’s a problem, however. The business is on a track we can’t easily get off.
When Heart and Business Collide
You see, we’ve been wanting to change the focus of our business model for awhile. In the last several years, I’ve been accustomed to offering an intimate, small-group six-month program, and not selling a whole lot else in between, so there was a lot of spaciousness between.
This year it became really clear in our hearts to reach more people. That meant no small groups. Starting at mid-year we began offering larger sized classes over fewer weeks and at lower prices. This shift in structure and presentation has been fantastic. I’m so glad we’ve done it.
Obviously, the courses haven’t been lasting six months. They’ve lasted six or eight weeks. So suddenly this year we, and you, found ourselves in a much shorter promotional cycle.
I can assure you that 2010 will be different. For one, we will have a year-long program for those who are interested. For another, we’re planning how to do it all a differently. For a third, I’m getting past the brand-new-parent overwhelm thing. 🙂
That said, we do have more offers coming down the pike for the rest of this year, and we just can’t not offer them. My question is how to follow through with our offers while honoring you and honoring what my heart is saying?
Following my heart message of “Enough,” the one I shared with you at the beginning, came one of those noggin knocking suggestions from my gentle amazing friend Martin Rutte [www.martinrutte.com]. He asked, “Why don’t you just tell people what’s going on?”
Of course.
So let me wrap this up by telling you one thing we do to keep promotions from going over the line, one big mistake I made, and one request of you all.
Keys to Stopping Short of the Selling Line
- Make promotional emails super clear.
There is a school of thought that says make the promotional emails look like your newsletters, so people will read them. I hate that.
Every Wednesday the weekly article goes out with the subject line “Business Heart: Title of Article.” Our promotional emails don’t have that. Plus, in the first line or two of the email itself, I mention the name of the offer.
I do this explicitly so that if you’re not interested you can just delete it quickly, without feeling as if you’ve been “suckered” into reading a promotional email. At the same time if you are interested, you don’t miss any deadlines.
- The mistake–didn’t use the opt-in list.
I ran the No More Square Wheels teleclass as a way of gauging interest in the subject. I also made it explicit that I was going to promote the class through that opt-in list.
Then I forgot. I did. I sent out a few emails to that list, but then proceeded to send all of the promotional emails out to the general list. The original idea was to do the opposite– a few to the general list, and more to the opt-in list.
You could say I was being an evil marketer just manipulating you. But in reality, I just goofed up. Gah.
Don’t do that.
- Our request for your advice:
We do have a few more offers planned for the rest of the year:
– The home study version of the current course–Heart of Business Momentum.
– Our year-long program, which starts in January.
– A soft re-launch of the Business Oasis, which has received a face-lift.
– Our usual end-of-the-year product promotions.
Four things, and only three more months. The things we’re doing to listen to the “enough” voice include: the Oasis is actually a “soft” launch–meaning we’re mentioning it, but we’re not pushing it in any kind of campaign. And the home study promotion and the end-of-year product promotions will be relatively short, one or two weeks each, maximum.
My request for your advice comes in two parts: What would you do if you were in our shoes? What would feel good to you as one of our readers?
These are purposefully open-ended questions. We’re eager to listen to any and all sincere feedback.
25 Responses
Hey Mark,
I’m wondering if the issue is so much about promoting too much versus not being transparent.
As you described in this email, Heart of Business is changing because you’re wanting to serve more people. That’s such a beautiful thing!
But for casual ezine readers, perhaps even dedicated readers, all the activity may be feeling abrupt and create a “Whoa, why the big shift?”
Because the tone of your offers has always been extremely respectful, kind, and communicates a sincere desire to serve.
Perhaps also in the context of the economy there’s an overall tone of fear and scarcity which has caused a lot of businesses to up the volume of their offers so there’s a lot of shrillness overall in the marketplace. The overall vibe may reflect on HOB even though you’re not IMHO playing that game.
I’d like to suggest you keep on promoting as you have but also communicate more openly about the “State of HOB” so that those of us in HOBs “orbit” have more context to understand what you’re doing and why.
And thank you for leading with a sincere and humble heart!
Blessings
Judy
.-= Judy Murdoch´s last blog ..MarketingProfs Articles : Better Than a Magic 8 Ball =-.
IMHO you have NOT been selling too much.
I have a sneaking suspicion that the reaction you’re getting is more in response to the shifts in the business.
I totally applaud the shift to reach more people, but huge transitions are hard on everyone especially when they’re happening very fast as you and your business have this year…and for you the huge transition hasn’t just been in the business.
I also think that it’s not so much a question of too much or too little selling. I think it almost always comes down to the balance between offering great content which you always do, and the selling.
Personally I think you do a very good job at keeping it balanced but if you and others are feeling it’s not well balanced, I would create more content and more free offers.
The trend right now seems to be in the direction of offering huge amounts of free content as part of the sales process. I must say it seems to be working very well for folks.
You create great content so my suggestion would be to leave the selling at the level it needs to be to get the job done, but balance it out with more content and freebies.
Just what you needed to hear right?
Hope it helps,
Susan
Hi Mark,
Thanks for sharing your thinking on all of this. Another great bit of transparency, which is what keeps me coming back to your site.
For me, the email discussion that you just sent out, that mentions the four promotions coming up, could be enough of the soft launch for those campaigns.
If people want more information about each, maybe it can be left up to them to ask, or wait for the “hard” launch of the promotions.
Appreciative of your integrity and recognizing your growth,
Ben
Hmm…I think it’s just the fear talking. I haven’t felt that you’ve been pushing too much. But I do have friends who seem to be going off the deep end with the marketing stuff. Using every connection as a pitching opp in the name of growth leaving me feeling like a bit of a pawn.
You don’t do that. I’ve never even felt a twinge of yuck coming from your direction. But if your heart twinges, then maybe you’re at your personal limit of salesyness.
I love Heart of Business. I know you’re never going to be that guy. Thanks for being so open and honest about your gut checks. 🙂
.-= Sarah Bray´s last blog ..Self-promotion for rockstars =-.
I love what you said about “pick up and listen.” No one can hear what my heart is saying BUT ME. I love reading your process here and it inspires me to do more listening to my own. Thank you!
.-= Laurie Foley´s last blog ..If Goldilocks Ran Her Own Business =-.
Ditto what’s been said about transparency. What a wonderful lesson for all of us!
Personally, I don’t think you’re promoting too much, because I know that you truly are offering w/o attachment; it’s ok for me to say “No thanks”. Your promos probably wouldn’t feel intrusive even if they were 3 times as often.
However, I trust your heart — and if your heart is saying “enough”, then that’s something to pay attention to.
I wonder if there’s something about “consuming” to explore here. When you talked about your dad sending out 3 promos a week and how you think that wouldn’t work for your list, that seemed like an important point.
Because in the wine business, the wine gets consumed and then the customer is back for more the next week (or in a few days!); but with HOB, the products are so rich and deep that it might take us a while to consume, digest and then get hungry again.
And we’re not all at the same point in the dinner, either; some are slurping down the soup course, while others are impatiently banging on the table for dessert.
A bunch of us are sprawled out on the couch, sleeping off the roasted turkey.
OK, before I get completely lost in the metaphor and start sounding like Julia Child on LSD —
The other thing I’m wondering is — what does my reaction as a customer say about my mindset as a marketer? Because in the HOB community, we’re all wearing two hats (oh no, another metaphor) — the customer hat and the marketer hat.
And it seems like my reaction as a customer would certainly reveal something about my mindset as a marketer.
I’m just sayin’.
.-= Kathy M.´s last blog ..Email Best Practices: Double vs. Single Opt-in =-.
Hi Mark,
I have 12,000 readers on my list (natural healing methods for IBD and IBS) and I ran into exactly this same problem last year.
And like you, before I got the pissed-off emails and the unsubscribes, I had been feeling myself that I was being too “selly”.
I think as those of us in the holistic field test out techniques that supposedly work for internet marketers, we need to keep one really salient point in mind: How many of these guys will be around in 20 years time?
Many of these techniques are geared to make the quick buck. If they burn their reputation, their integrity, they don’t care, they’ve made their $10 million and they’re gone.
Like you, I’ve been around for 10 years already and my reputation for integrity is the BIGGEST part of my business.
So, my suggestion for you would be to section up your regular newsletter.
Don’t email more often – that’s the top reason for unsubcribes. We all get too many emails already.
The only people I’ve remained subscribed to for a long time are the ones who don’t email me more than weekly or bi-weekly. A number of people who’ve been online for about a decade echo this – MAX email once per week.
If you divide your newsletter up into sections – I would suggest the first half being one of your wonderful articles. Then have a clear dividing line with the next section titled something clear like: “Learning Tools To Deepen Your Skillset” and in that section detail whatever you’ve got on offer at that time.
This way, people who are not wanting to learn/buy anything yet, will quickly learn to just read the first part. And when they are feeling like getting more help, they will immediately know where to go to check out what you’ve got on. Without feeling continually sold to.
Of course, I would also always include a hyperlink in that section to your webpage with full details on the course/book on offer.
The question is:
Do you ONLY want to have people on your list who want to buy from you?
Or do you want people who like you, pass your wisdom (articles) onto others, and eventually, maybe a year or two from now will want to buy from you?
Soar higher,
Jini
Hi Mark,
thank for entering the field of dilemma. I have no problem at all to receive a lot of mails from the same sender as long as he communicates with me in an integer way.
When hyperventilation comes in (I’m very strong related to it), I got the feeling that the sender doesn’t trust anymore my good senses as a reader. Sender is leaning over and “knows better”. That is what lets me shrink away as a receiver.
Reading all (!) your mails during the last weeks I often reflected about stillness and for some time I thought “well perhaps the American way of stillness is another one than my European comprehension of it.”
Assisting your Remembrance sessions I don’t think anymore that there is a regional difference between stillness. Perhaps there are differences in expressing it but the feeling is always genuine.
What I want to propose is a sort of checking out how any action resonates with stillness. When one is really respecting sacred moments as the crucial elements in working together, then one might find here additional hints and answers.
All the best
Franz
Thank you all for such wonderful responses! I’m taking to hear the feedback and advice and thoughts. Deeply grateful.
Between these responses and the emails I’ve been receiving, I’m digesting, digesting… with gratitude.
Hi Mark,
I’m one of the No More Square Wheels teleclass opt-in list people and I am in the Heart of Business Momentum Class.
I am loving the class and want to hear more about your products. I signed up to get more information so I say, bring it on!
Listen to your heart but, know that there are people like me out here that are thirsty for marketing information in the heart centered way you present it.
Make a great day,
Debbie Tlach
.-= Debbie Tlach´s last blog ..Artistgirl’s Museletter & Extra =-.
Mark,
I haven’t felt over-marketed by your recent shift and growth. In fact, I liked the fact that you had so many different products to offer. It’s exciting!
However, I did wonder “why?” and now you’ve told me. I think it would have been great just to tell those of us in your “orbit,” as someone earlier called it. Then we’re all along for the ride (and maybe one of us would have reminded you about that opt-in list!).
I appreciate your early-bird messages and especially would like to have a long lead time to plan. If you had a 2010 calendar of offers you could make available on the website in the next month, that would be great! I live so close to the bone financially, that sometimes I have to save for several years for something like a retreat.
For example, I’d like to know about the year-long program right now, not 6 weeks from now.
Thank you for all you do!
Sally
When you talk about the change in your business to something reaching more people with shorter courses, I immediately thought of a model that Goddess Leonie is using: A School.
So there is a sense of so many things happening each term, and new stuff at specific times of year. And a kind of wholeness to the offerings even though there are different short courses in there.
http://www.goddessguidebook.com/courses/
I wonder if something like that that made it less like each short course was a separate thing and allowed you to do some marketing of the whole set of offerings would work.
Just an idea.
.-= JoVE´s last blog ..Embrace the research process =-.
“We love you Mark & HoB, oh yes we do.
We love you Mark & HoB, and we’ll be true.
When you’re not wiiith us, we’re bluuuueeee.
Oh Mark & HoB we love youooooooo.”
.-= Leif Hansen´s last blog ..Heading down to PBS MediaShift
Personally I don’t feel like you’re selling too much. I think I wondered about the emails for your course, since I hadn’t signed up for that list. But at the same time, you mentioned “this promotion is ending on X day” so I knew no more emails were coming after that.
Maybe people need to get some good email filters / triage systems. All my newsletters go to one folder so I don’t feel “inundated” with emails in my regular inbox. Then I read them when I want to catch up. 🙂
.-= Nathalie Lussier´s last blog ..Healthy Desserts: 28 Healthy Dessert Recipes in the Raw =-.
Debbie and Sally- thank you for that other side of the coin. It’s helpful to hear all sides, both the “bring it on” and the “slow down there, podnah” messages.
We are intending to announce the year-long program by next Wednesday. Just need to polish up the sales page and put a few more things in place.
@JoVE- that’s actually what we’re going to be doing- the year-long program will be a complete program for the year, with a lot of content in it, etc, etc.
And then we’ll have quarterly offerings “for the public”- for anyone that wants individual pieces. The Sacred Moment sales workshop, the Heart of Money, the Momentum course (currently running) and the Path to Profitability Retreat (which is not happening this year, but will next year, God willing.)
Mark,
I’m new to your list, so I didn’t feel the shift. Just gratitude for what you’re offering. And your very transparent message about the dilemma you’re in built trust and offered a good model for me as well.
Thanks for all the good learning!
mandy
Thank you for your transparency here! I have been regularly unsubscribing to many marketing ezines as the result of getting too much promotional email — I don NOT want to receive three messages in a day reminding me of a teleseminar taking place that evening, or a sign-up time running out! This, however, is not you and the Heart of Business. Are you emailing me more than once or twice a week? (aside from the Remembrance Challenge, which I signed up for) I honestly don’t know :-). Whatever you’re doing does not feel like too much to me, so as far as I’m concerned, continue on! I like hearing about what you offer. I feel such a sense of relief when I receive your emails, as opposed to some others I continue to (warily) receive (time to unsubscribe from them too!). I invariably come away from reading anything you write (so far 🙂 ), with a sense of peace and wonder: business and marketing can be honest, transparent, profitable, and feel really beautiful :-). I cheer in your success!
I never sensed I was getting an unusual amount of email from you because I subscribe to so many marketers. Since you make it easy to sort the newsletters with feature from the straight marketing emails, I’m happy.
.-= Diana Schneidman´s last blog ..How to get a job today! =-.
Thanks for caring and being conscious of the possibility of over-promoting. That makes all the difference and is sensed in your communications. It certainly is a risk as I have unsubscribed from several good folks with great content just for that reason – too many repetitive “reminders” of their offers. Enough is accurate! So if you’re hearing enough, I trust you’ll strike the right balance.
I truly appreciate you sharing your questioning. It builds trust and encourages me to pursue my desire for a less frequent and less wordy form of communication and promotion.
Yep. I can relate.
Just recently, I offered a class. And on the last day to signup, the site went down. When they brought the site back up, it also sent the email back out. Yep. Same email. Twice in one day. After I’d been feeling the ‘twinge’ of sending too many emails (not all including offers).
And then I sat there wondering, “Well now what do I do? I *want* to send a note along to let them know what happened and apologize for it — but that means sending *another* email” (Ick. I did that, by the way. Just a brief one to let them know.)
And then, I have a lot of things coming up too and so I begin to wonder if it’s too much too soon.
So I feel that — about myself.
I don’t, however, feel it about others.
There are a couple of people who I like, and I like what they do. I get a ton of emails from them. Like….tons. And sometimes, I find myself thinking, “Jeez. Okay. I heard you.”
With some of them, I know when the first email comes through that others are on the way. So I just chuckle and move on.
So… most of the time, since I have that sense of trust with these people, I really don’t mind. I just look at it and hit delete. I know what they’re doing and….here’s the thing:
I know they’ve got good solid courses with good, solid content and I know they’re *in business*. I certainly don’t mind them promoting what they’ve got and don’t mind helping pass the word along because I *want* them to do well, even when the course isn’t something I personally need at the moment.
So I suspect that the people who advised you that you’re ‘thinning the herd’ might be on target. Because the people that Havi calls ‘your right people’ aren’t going to mind that you’re doing what you do and will want to see you being successful.
I love your transparency about it all though.
You’re doing just fine.
😉
All the best!
deb
.-= Deb Owen´s last blog ..do you want to be happy? here’s the key =-.
It’s so interesting to me the different flavors of response: “too much” “kinda too much” “just right”
And what’s really sweet is that no matter where you think I’ve fallen on the scale, nearly everyone, here and in emails, has been so supportive, encouraging, loving. That’s what really feels good.
I’m also having the worry thought that someone will take what I’ve written here and then not promote their offer as much as they need to to really see the responses they are hoping for to support themselves and their families.
Mark said
“I
As always, Mark, your transparency and integrity are a joy, and inspiration, and a safe place. Thank you! I get two main things out of the article and the discussion. One is to make clear what is an article what is a promotion (either two parts of an email or two separate emails). The other is to go inside to get the answer on any move I am considering (to send a promotional email or not to send it; to call someone or not to; etc etc).
For me, it’s helpful to know in one email all that is ahead rather than getting separate emails for each thing.
Many blessings!
With love,
Siddheshwari
As usual, thanks for the reminder to listen to our hearts and our customers.
.-= Trisha Cupra´s last blog ..The