Human Website

I sincerely believe that selling and marketing is about creating a conversation between you and your customers. For example, would it be fair to say that it is hard to hold an interesting conversation with someone who can't seem to cough up the simplest smile even when tickled?

Smile....it is priceless and it is free but to your business, a real, heart-warming smile can mean millions of dollars. I will give you an example of how smiling turned a sales person around.

Mike Chin is a marketing executive for an advertising agency in Malaysia. Having been in the business for 5 years, he knew that first impressions counts for a lot, so, what he did was try to impress the socks off of his potential customers with his knowledge and expertise. Despite his best efforts, his success rate was negligible. Out of the 10 people he met, sometimes less than 5 people said 'yes' to his proposals.

Due to pressure asserted on him by his employer, he tried his best to figure out what was wrong with the way he was trying to close deals. If he doesn't, his career would come to a grinding halt.

He came to me for some sound advice and I noticed that his face was devoid of joy. In fact, he was somber because he couldn't close the deals that meant so much to him, and the less deals he closed, the more somber he became. It is a vicious circle that drove him deeper and deeper into a far corner of depression.

At that point in time, all I did was pointed out to him that he needed to smile more and he defensively says, 'If only it's that simple. If a smile is all that it takes to close a deal, everyone would be successfully selling their way to a lucrative career.' Despite his skepticism, I managed to convince him to smile...otherwise, risk losing his job. He saw no harm in indulging me with my little experiment.

Two weeks later, bemused, he called me to inform me about the outcome of my advice...he closed a RM50,000 sale. Not only did smiling turned his career around, his friends loved him more, his boss appreciated his efforts more, his family saw more of his good side and every customer he met with loved to talk to him. Basically, smiling turned his life around.

Now, that is offline. But how do you use the same technique for a website?

Smile through your articles, that's how! When your readers read your articles, the emotions flow through the words and into their hearts. It's important to use 'happy words' like wonderful, excellent, amazing, cool, etc. Well, if the fancy hits you, insert a happy face like this one. :-) Makes you smile, doesn't it? And that would be the point.

With that said, you can't fake a happy article. You need to be really enjoying it to make the words come alive and be real. If you don't know how to do that, hire a professional copywriter.

Intelligent and fun articles are even more important in email marketing. You are in DIRECT CONTACT with your customers or potential customers and you need to remember that they're human beings with emotions, not a machine. It's perfectly fine to greet them with a smiley :-)

Let me share an email that I recently received from one of my customers:-

Wouldn't it make you happy too when you get such feedback from your customers? So, remember, there are two surefire ways to make your customers remember you. One – for them to love you. Two – to hate you.

So, come one, give the world a warm, heart-tugging smile everyday!

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