Is heart centred marketing just a cop out?
There’s been a trend in the online world that has been rapidly picking up pace; heart centred marketing. Originally aimed at the spiritual and therapeutic professions, this phrase seems to be as commonplace as the infamous yellow highlighter a decade ago.
I’ve tried to research this phrase to find out who first used it, but googling variants of this phrase just seems to lead to tens of thousands of websites using this phrase to sell their own info products.
In a recent discussion in a Facebook group several people were asking where this phrase had come from; whether it was just another “buzz word from the Maria Forleo crowd”.
I was immediately drawn to the discussion; being a huge fan of Maria and what she does, I totally got what these people was asking. After several years of running the hugely successful B School, it is of no surprise that this programme is churning out hundreds of online businesses all seemingly offering the same old thing … how to be a heart centred entrepreneur and sell without selling.
On my online searching of this phrase, it seems that there are many other discussions pinging up about this topic.
Heart Centred Marketing – what does it really mean?
“Aren’t all entrepreneurs heart based?”
“Why all the focus on heart based and ethical? Surely we all want to be ethical, don’t we?”
It’s true isn’t it?
Why would you or me not be selling ethically?
Do the likes of you and me not really put our heart and soul in to our businesses?
So it is more that there are certain business owners who want to know how to “sell without selling”? Is that heart centred marketing is really all about?
Having thrown myself in to internet marketing almost on the day I started my own business in September 2004, the web looked very different from what it does today. Remember the Long Sales Letter? The pages that scrolled on and on and on and on, broken up only by the yellow highlighter and “Buy now … only 4 copies left” (really?? only 4 digital copies left??)
It was a very “masculine” world to be learning from.
(I use the term masculine here not necessarily focused on gender. I wish I could find other terms to use that don’t automatically point to male or female. Females can be just as masculine and sometimes even more so, than some men … and obviously vis versa.)
It was hard sell on the internet ten years ago and whether it is because business has become more feminine (again .. not more female; although there are certainly far more women online now than there ever was back in 2004); more soft; more pull than push; more attraction than aggressive double-glazing selling.
Perhaps this is why heart centred marketing is making such a surge this year.
Is it the ying to the yellow highlighter yang?
And this is where I worry and get concerned with many businesses jumping on the bandwagon of this phrase Heart Centred Marketing. And yes, in this instance it is mainly women who are doing this jumping.
I’m certainly pleased to see the move away from that yellow highlighter, but there seem to me certain women who see this heart centred marketing approach as a safe haven; a place where they can pretend they don’t have to sell and hide behind the mask of authenticity and spirituality.
If this is the case, I am afraid that his “heart centred marketing” is only going to cause the demise of hundreds of online businesses.
Heart centred marketing is NOT an excuse to hide from your fears of selling. By being afraid of having selling conversations – whether that’s through your virtual or physical words – you are in danger of avoiding the very skill that you need to grow your business and create an income.
It is the proverbial ostrich sticking it’s head in the sand.
I love selling. Selling is a lot of fun … when the other person involved is interested in buying that is. You can’t hold a gun to someone’s head and tell them to buy from you (unless of course what you do is illegal … but I won’t go there, today!).
You can’t make make an income from your business if you don’t have this two way street. And I believe that this is what many “heart centred” business owners feel afraid of; if that other person is not interested in buying, then that’s going to be a hard sell.
Social media and online networking is adding fuel to this fire. Hiding behind your screen and using the likes of Facebook to find potential customers is stopping you from the very thing that will grow your business; sales conversations.
I don’t mean double glazing hard sells; cold calling from a list of numbers bought from a data company. I mean having meaningful REAL conversations with people who may be potentially interested in what you offer.
REAL conversations that involve picking up the phone, meeting face to face, video linking on skype if distance and time prohibits travel.
Getting sucked into the heart based marketing mentality can be dangerous for business if all it does it allows you to avoid learning and developing your REAL human to human selling skills. Yes, we all want to be liked. And of course it goes without saying that we all want to be ethical, authentic and give the best we can possibly give to our customers.
But avoiding the REAL sales conversations and speaking to REAL humans will be the death of your business … online or offline.
Beware the dangers of hiding behind the heart based marketing tag as it could lead you to having an expensive hobby .. rather than a profitable business!
What do you think? I would love to know your thoughts and ideas about this new wave of heart based marketing. Do you agree? Disagree?
Please leave your comments below. And if anyone knows who first coined the phrase heart based marketing, then I would love to know!
Yes it’s a puzzle. It’s also a puzzle why certain trends catch on at particular times. Like for example that I will come across an article on some subject and see it on many sites all on the same day or within a day or two.
And I don’t think that the many are copying from a few. I think it is in the water. Or God having a joke on a quiet Thursday. Or something.
It tickles me how the most popular blogs are those that teach people how to become popular bloggers…
Heart-centered. The idea might be a spinoff from the things that Dan Pink talks about in ‘To Sell Is Human’ – level playing field, customer knows as much as the seller, talk like a conversation rather than being a human drilling machine.
Except that heart-centered is so, so touchy-feely the idea of actually selling maybe got lost in the transition.
I say that because the studies that Dan Pink highlights point out that empathising with how the customer/other party feels is not the most productive conversation but that the most productive conversations are those where the seller envisages what the other party wants out of the negotiation.
Well said. In fact most business websites/coaching for women do seem to be very spiritual, new age, ‘heart-centred’ or law of attraction based and for a while now I’ve been wondering why. After all, most women business owners I meet in real life aren’t like this (at least on the surface, anyway). Like you, I was coming to the conclusion that it’s because this approach is non-threatening. The law of attraction is a good example because it’s impossible to criticize with someone who believes it as no negativity is allowed.
I don’t mean this in a cynical way, but I think people like Marie Forleo are tapping into the biggest fear most women have in business – they hate selling. So as an excellent marketer Marie is offering a solution that people desperately want. And as she’s so successful at it, it has become part of the culture. The thing that worries me is that Marie Forleo is also excellent at the ‘hard’ sales part ie converting and making the sale. As you say, you can be as heart-centred as you like, but without this piece of the puzzle in place you’re not going to sell much. But it’s easy to get the impression from Marie’s marketing material that if you’re just highly likeable the cash will roll in. I don’t know about the content of her courses as I’ve never taken one.
http://www.heartofbusiness.com/ is the oldest site I’m aware of that teaches the heart centred business approach. Which ironically is run by a man, but that seems to be rare.
Thanks for raising this, I’ve been looking for an alternative viewpoint far a while and it’s goods to find it.
You are spot on Karen!
In my own experience I avoided sales and marketing for several years, believing a) that thing they say about ‘do what you love & the money will follow’ and b) that it was a nasty, manipulative, generally all-round undesirable activity. Both complete rubbish, of course!
The turning point came for me when I decided to learn about online marketing. I realised this is just like any other activity… if you don’t learn at least the basics you’ll forever be in the dark & feel mistrust & dislike towards it. But marketing & sales are simply a set of skills, techniques, knowledge & experience – just like anything else you do. Once you have some of that under your belt, you can go out & use it in as heart-centered a way as you want (or not).
So the heart-centered thing, I suspect, is the current phrase trotted out by those who don’t want to learn. It doesn’t mean it’s not used by others who are genuinely marketing this way, but it’s become this season’s bandwagon.
I really like the shift that is happening in the world, and love all of the heart centred marketing that I am seeing, it seems the complete opposite of money grabbing. I personally see it as monetising your passion and message that you want to bring to the world. Heart centred doesn’t mean wet, or lacking in sales skills, it just means that you care. Something which some businesses are seriously lacking.
This was my response to Glenn’s Facebook post:
” Is heart centred not just saying that they actually care, rather than just want to make money. I know that if you just chase money and don’t care that a business will eventually fail, but I think that heart centred really means that there is a genuine ‘why’ behind the business and if it is service based a real caring is there, and a need to help..
I have noticed a massive lack of great customer service in the past few years – and a lot of businesses treating their customers like they are on a tread mill – ”thanks for the business, now where is the next person I can sell too…. ” this is not a heart centred business, and I have recently experienced this treatment… So, just to be a little controversial (which is actually unlike me, I like sitting on the fence, it is safe) heart centred makes sense to me….”
So bring on heart-centred and Law of Attraction. Law of Attraction has transformed my life over the past 6 years… I say don’t knock it until you try it. ;0) X
Just to clarify, I wasn’t commenting on whether the law of attraction works or not – that’s a different issue. I was making the point that it seems to underpin a massive amount of business coaching/training but yet it’s a philosophy that dismisses any kind of debate as negativity.
Hi Helen
Totally agree that debate is necessary, but I personally think that debate doesn’t need to be done in a negative way. It is such a huge subject… negativity breeds negativity, and since I have erased negativity out of my life and stopped arguing and see the bright side of life my life has been easier and more fruitful. 5 years ago I had two young children and was homeless, life has changed so much and I would have the success I have today if it wasn’t for the LOA… I am a coach, and I tend to work with people who embrace this thought, only because it creates massive shifts in their business, it is amazing what you can attract, put simply I think it isn’t about Law of Attraction but about mindset ;0)
For me, I think ‘heart centred’ business is all about a desire to really make a difference in people’s lives and as someone else said it does tend to be in coaching and service based businesses.
No business can thrive if you can’t ‘close a sale’ but heart centred selling recognises that selling is a benefit for the client rather than the service provider and that it isn’t right to close with everyone. Some people are not ready for your service or a right fit for your business.
I’ve been on the receiving end of many sales conversations where I knew that the product or service wasn’t right and the salesperson simply needed to fill their quota or get their commission.
I think when I’m buying a service that I want someone who really wants me to benefit from what they have to offer and if that means they use a heart centred sales approach then that’s fine.
I don’t think it’s a cop out, I think it is totally ethical sales – and no, I don’t believe all business owners are ethical.
I think like anything it can be used and mis-used. In my business I am currently reworking all of my website content to reflect more the types of clients I am now working with and heart centred is key to my revised (soon to be published) content.
My reason for this is to focus on working with businesses are heart centred, I have had the pleasure of working with lots of entrepreneurs and business owners, sadly not all of them are heart centred and didn’t think twice about trying to rip me or other people off.
Someone just shared this post with me, so I’m a little late to the conversation. Very interesting to learn that heart-centered was already a term back in 2014 and by the looks of it way before that! I only became aware of it when taking an online business class by a woman who in my view runs a wonderful heart-centered business (Susannah Conway) and I loved discovering this term so much because that’s exactly how I want to be in my own fledgling web design business. So reading your post has been a bit of an eye opener for me. And actually confirmation that the way I am doing things isn’t so far off 🙂 I engage with my clients on a personal level (in-person meetings, phone calls, skype) all the time and it’s part of what I love about my business, the interaction with other business owners who often end up becoming friends, too. To me being heart-centered is all about integrity and being honest, reliable and hard working for my clients. I am now in the process of putting together an online web design course and oh my, this is an entirely different beast! It will be interesting to see how I can translate my ethics to a larger and more anonymous crowd. Thanks so much for this post!
Thanks for stopping Kerstin and leaving your thoughts. And good luck with your new online course.