New Marketing 4.0 – Transformational vs. Transactional Marketing – Marketing that You & Your Customers Will Love

THE CONUNDRUM:

*Do you love your business and believe in your service or product, but feel stiff when it comes to talking about, sharing or trying to sell?

*Are you already doing transformational marketing, but you are not seeing results?

*Are you the kind of service provider who is disenchanted with the focus on sales that does not fit you?

*Do you feel disjointed, disembodied, mechanical, joyless and stiff when you do your presentations?

*Do you feel like you have to force yourself to sell your services?

*Do you limit yourself or get almost nauseous or frozen when it comes to stating how much money you charge?

*Do you understand, even appreciate transformational marketing but you realize that you hedge your bets by compromising with transformational marketing messages on the surface but transactional ones when you become too fearful, desperate or freaked out?

THE WORLD OF MARKETING: 

The world of marketing is being turned upside down once again.  It seems like we are all chasing after our tails – trying to find some new novel way of attracting attention and converting that attention into paying clients. 

Historically there have been two premises:

1. Attracting Attention AND
2. Converting that attention into paying clients.

Both premises seem bankrupt. 

People are tired of having their attention caught up in some tik tok, youtube or video short that distracts but leaves you empty. 

People are wary of having a distraction turn into an upsell. 

You may even be wary and tired of reading this article thus far and I would not blame you. 

On the converse, people who sell are tired of continually chasing after the next attention seeking post, article or like.

They are also tired of trying to convert that attention into some kind of profit. 

Both premises leave one feeling empty most of the time. 

Transactional Marketing.

So far the solutions have involved the same paradigm – what I term as transactional marketing. 

In this world, you sell features, benefits, discounts, biographies, boasts, testimonials, products, services, quick fixes, promises, money back guarantees and more. Nothing wrong with any of these, except that that is all you sell. What is left behind is a truer experience of who you are and what kind of world you want for the person who could be your customer.  

What is missing in Transactional Marketing (what are the costs?):

1. There is little or no talk about the future that is relevant to the customer. 
2. There is little or no presence or “beingness”.  Your presence is forsaken for a sales process. 
3. There is little or no opportunity for the prospective customer to engage and feel like they are heard – their world recreated in another mind, accepted and validated. 
4. There is little or no sustainable joy in selling. Selling seems to be mechanical – a set of overly linear steps e.g. first I explain the benefits and then I whack them between the eyes with my money back guarantees and then I “pause” and nod when they give me their concerns.
5. Burnout occurs faster in transactional marketing – I have seen burnout occur for people who engage in purely transactional marketing unless they are totally impervious emotionally. Sensitive people and creative people are particularly susceptible to burnout in this case. 

Why do people settle for transactional marketing?

1. EASY TO THINK: It is the easier thing to think through. It does not require much thinking or design work. Design work is when you design your marketing to fit your needs and the needs of your audience. Design work can involve much more depth of inquiry.  The nature of an inquiry is that there is no real obvious and immediate answer and that it may involve some abstractions that are difficult to map onto your business initially.  Transactional marketing may involve some design work but this design work is not as extensive or intensive as in transformational marketing. 
2. EASY, LESS FEARFUL & COMFORTABLE TO ADOPT A MODEL? It is easier to follow what others have done.  Again this involves less thinking and your brain instinctively prefers this. Overthinking may represent a perceived (or imagined) threat to your survival – think about how your brain evolved over millions of years to thwart off the dangers of predators etc. You really don’t want to think too much when faced with a threat – and believe me, your brain can feel threatened when it thinks about how to sell or market effectively.  Also, your brain knows that if you dive into the transformational arena, you will need to confront where you are not self expressed or repressed in how you sell – that self expression, while vital to being effective in sales, may also be scary for you to share with “professional clients” as an example. 
3. FOLLOW THE HERD: It gives you a false sense of security and hope – “At least I am following what most others are doing.”
4. ASSUAGE YOUR INNER CRITIC WHO IS THE CHAMPION FOR TRANSACTIONAL: Your inner critic – the one that tries to keep you safe and comfortable by admonishing you when you try to stray off the beaten track – will be assuaged and thus complain or distract you less when you adopt the beaten and worn track of transactional marketing – even if you know it will not work for you.  
5. PURE DESPERATION: I need not say much about this. I think it is well understood by those of you for whom this is relevant. 

What is Transformational Marketing?

1. IT IS ABOUT THE FUTURE:  You design your marketing to express a future that is compelling for your audience and the people that they affect, influence, live with or relate to. Once well designed, this kind of marketing is easy and less confrontative – your audience has no real argument nor any basis to argue or resist your offer. 
2. IT CONSIDERS EMOTIONAL POSITIVE STATE CHANGES:  You design your marketing to message the possibility of positive emotional state changes e.g. relief, confidence, clarity, self respect, connection, charisma, intimacy, joy, etc. 
3. IT AFFECTS EVERYONE:  Your clients get present to the possibility of whatever service or product you are offering to them affecting everyone in their community. 
4. IT AFFECTS EVERYTHING: Your clients get the sense that working with you will transform everything in their life – their business, their relationships, their ambitions, their children, their social life, their communities, how they do their day to day life, their relationship with themself and more. P.S. You will not need to promise this. They will get the sense of it. 
5. IT RISES ABOVE SURVIVAL WITHOUT INVALIDATING IT: This kind of marketing elevates people – giving them the choice to step outside of their world of survival, no matter how comfortable it may seem to them to stay inside that world. 
6. IT INCLUDES ALL THAT YOU FEEL, FEAR, DOUBT OR WORRY ABOUT:  When designed correctly, the manner in which you sell transformationally includes rather than invalidates how they feel, doubt or worry.  This makes it easier for them to include these feelings in their choice to play bigger with you, rather than necessitate them and you to “work on” these fears etc. before they buy or commit. 
7. IT IS SELF EXPRESSED:  You will feel your true self arise and so will your customer. This true self is the part of them that wants to grow and expand. 
8. IT CREATES THE ENVIRONMENT FOR BREAKTHROUGHS:  It is difficult if not impossible to create breakthrough or phenomenal results when people are operating in their past.  This does not mean that people have to give up all their values to work with you. When designed right, transformational marketing gives them permission to explore beyond what they feel is right – to expand responsibly and in a grounded way. 
9. YOU FEEL RIGHT ABOUT IT ESPECIALLY WHEN IT STARTS WORKING:  When designed right, transformational marketing has you feel comfortable and self expressed in your own skin.  As an example, you will know intuitively when to request someone to step up to the plate and when to back off. 
10. YOU NEVER WANT TO GO BACK TO TRANSACTIONAL, BUT YOU ARE COMPASSIONATE ABOUT PEOPLE WHO ARE TRANSACTIONAL.
11. WHEN DESIGNED RIGHT, IT EXPRESSES EVERYTHING THAT IS BOLD, ADVENTUROUS AND WONDERFUL ABOUT A LIFE FULLY LIVED. 

How do you start?

1. ADOPTING YOUR NATURAL BOLDNESS: RECOGNIZING FEARS AND DOING IT ANYWAY:  Oftentimes, you just have to say to yourself “I am ready.”  There may never be a perfect time nor a perfect set of circumstances. Boldness occurs in the NOW.
2. RECOGNIZE THE NEED TO DESIGN AND THAT YOU CANNOT DO THIS ALONE: Once you declare, you need to start designing before you ‘pour concrete’ – i.e. design first for what you want and need and then build it. This is complicated work and best to be done with a mentor like me. 
3. RECOGNIZE THE NEED TO INVEST MONEY: You cannot compromise any longer on price or monetary investment.  You will need to invest more money than you may be comfortable with – to have the design done right. You can design for a Porsche / Mercedes Benz in your business marketing OR you can compromise and design a Yugo (much cheaper and a less than perfect design.) 
4. LISTING OUT WHAT YOU WANT AND WHAT YOU ARE WILLING TO INVEST OR RISK TO HAVE WHAT YOU WANT: Start listing out the things you want in your marketing and what you really want to offer to your people. Also make a list of the criteria for your ideal clients and how much you want to charge them. 

5. HIGH TRACTION AND MOMENTUM – A DIFFERENT KIND OF CONVERSATION WITH INTENTION TO CREATE TRANSFORMATION IN YOU AND YOUR MARKETING. 

THE INVITATION TO SUCH A CONVERSATION: 

I invite you to do a highly intentional but joyful conversation with me to get the ball rolling on your design for Transformational Marketing.  

In this initial meeting (no cost to you), we will

1. Resolve or show you how to resolve one major challenge. 
2. Resolve or show you the steps to creating a design for your transformational marketing. 

TO BE BOLD: 

You will notice whatever fears or justifications come up for you now. My invitation is to be bold and to click on this link to select a time to meet with me and to fill out the information I will need to serve you in this 30 minute session.

Please click here to get your session: www.MeetupChat.com. 

See you soon.

Sunil Bhaskaran. 

Sunil is a globally-recognized speaker, trainer, educator, and author. He brings 30+ years of building and implementing successful business plans to entrepreneurs, small business owners, and companies worldwide. His expertise includes leadership, sales, marketing, and global small business.