You know the drill. We show up to a website and there it is; the irresistible “FREE” offer, something we can have in exchange for our email address. This FREE life changing webinar will be happening in 3 hours, 14 minutes, 12 seconds… 11 seconds… tic toc, tic toc.
Maybe we are also on the marketing end of one of these FREE offers. And, of course, almost every online marketer out there is teaching us to use these strategies/tactics with the promise that if we use them, we will be successful online.
Why? It works. (Sort of).
You can build an email list pretty quickly this way. The list becomes your audience, a group of people you can now directly sell to.
Wahoo! This is what we all want! Right?
Maybe. But maybe not.
I’d like to hit the pause button for a second and really weigh the costs of using this tactic. Let’s fully evaluate how it really works, both for and against us.
First…
What are websites ideally used for? To share the way we see the world! To invite others into our online living room; cozy up with some warm coffee or tea. We ask our guests to try to be open to, or even embrace, our work and our views. We work to convince others of the merits of our offer, to persuade them and, hopefully, to sell to them.
Looking at it from this perspective, this is an extension of our personal space and it is up to us to structure these exchanges in a way that feels genuine. Sometimes this involves a money exchange, sometimes not. The truth is, we all need support, the money kind, to keep those living room lights on. (At least in our current socioeconomic structure.)
My question is, what happens when we call something ‘free’ in order to sell it?
The reality is, it’s not FREE. There is an exchange happening. When someone goes for the email opt-in, they trade their email, let you into their personal space, to receive your offer/teaching. The same is true with a webinar; an email and a chunk of time, in exchange for an embedded sales pitch.
Why not be direct?
When something is FREE, is that its greatest merit? Or should we look to what we are actually offering and sharing to find the real value? If the real value is to be found in what we are offering, the price tag probably shouldn’t be what we are shouting from the rooftops.
In the end, you and I hope to inspire people who care to connect with our values and mission enough to want to support us. The reality is that money is a part of the support we are requesting. If this is our upfront intention, why not be transparent?
When we are selling, we are entering into a relationship with another person. HOW we enter this relationship is very important! The truth is, that this beginning dynamic will most likely set the tone for the rest of the relationship. So, what kind of relationships do we want to have? A medium of concealed motives doesn’t seem like one that is easy to learn, grow and be vulnerable within. In the end, this “selling FREE” misrepresentation can’t serve our mission and values if we want to approach people from a genuine place.
So, why do it?
The reality is that selling is a dirty word in our culture. Mainstream selling often involves lying and using manipulation to favor the seller’s bank account. It’s what we have grown up with and have seen all of our lives. It can, quite frankly, feel abusive. But selling, my friends, is not the actual dirty affair. Only if we engage in the selling ritual with dishonorable motives is it dirty. Our intentions; our bottom line – they determine how we show up.
We CAN choose to show up with a different bottom line.
If we are doing valuable, important work, then let’s not hide behind sleight of hand tactics anymore. The way to transform selling from something shady to something beautiful is to bring our love to it. Love exists and thrives in full light. Let’s lay all our cards on the table for all the world to see.
What do we have to lose?
Besides, we have physics on our side 🙂
The fastest way to get somewhere is the DIRECT way. It’s true in selling too, I promise.
I spent almost 15 years standing on city street corners selling to complete strangers. I had seconds to get someone to stop and be human with me. This was NOT easy! I learned rather quickly to tell people UPFRONT that I was selling something. Otherwise we often would find out midway that we were on different pages. It didn’t feel good and wasted both our time. In making my intentions clear upfront, we entered the relationship, the transaction, consensually. The person I was talking to knew my end goal and CHOSE to stick around and hear me out. As well, without the pressure of hiding my ‘end pitch’, I was able to relax, be myself and take the conversation anywhere I wanted; closing at the end by asking for the sale came naturally out of this. This worked extremely well!
And yes, I took this same approach into many other selling arenas – cold calling stores, selling LED lighting to manufacturing plants. People not only appreciate, but crave directness and sincerity.
My contention is that it’s the same online!
We have to value ourselves and our own work first. I believe in us. I believe we want to help, to make the world better. Let’s lay all those cards directly on the table for all the world to see. And let’s ask for what we need without shame and guilt.
The truth is, there is no sales tactic or strategy that is inherently good or bad. In the end, it is all about where we are coming from and whether our sales strategy aligns with our mission and furthers it. This is a very personal decision.
We all know that following the pack can sometimes lead us astray. We also know, if we really listen to ourselves, there is no “ONE WAY” to do anything.
Let us invest the time to question; to evaluate; to decide what really is effective in serving our mission and livelihood and what is not.
Let’s find the courage to believe in ourselves, to cut free from the pack and forge our own way.
Together we can do this!
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