A Culture of Manipulation
I cracked open Start With Why the other day and was immediately struck (chagrined, even) by the overwhelming culture of manipulation we indulge in the Internet marketing world.
The author, Simon Sinek, outlines the common categories of manipulation — those things we speak to or leverage with our marketing — as price, promotions, fear, aspirations, peer pressure, and novelty.
The fact of the matter is marketing manipulations work. Otherwise business owners and entrepreneurs across the globe wouldn’t be entrenched in the habit of using them to sell their products and services.
In the midst of this somewhat nauseating realization, a couple things stand out to me.
- How often I use manipulation in my own marketing. Ouch!!! I have taught it to other entrepreneurs too. It’s in the strategies behind launch campaigns, how we structure newsletters, the format for an effective opt-in page on a website, the words we use in our marketing messages, and the list goes on.
- How consumers feed the culture too. It’s hardly all the fault of the business owners. I realize it’s unconscious on the part of consumers (I mean really!… who wants to be manipulated?), but the fact remains that every time we rush to buy a product or service in response to a marketing manipulation, we only encourage the dubious behavior.
- There has to be a better way of doing business. Building a business from the inside out, as Simon proposes, is certainly critical. And in a field like coaching that has grown so dependent on the “science” of effective sales and marketing (in actuality, the art of manipulation), I wonder if it will take something more to break the vicious cycle. Is it possible? That is the question of the day, and I can assure you I intend to find out!
I’m making a commitment to eradicate manipulation from my own marketing and find a better way for coaches and other heart-centered entrepreneurs to successfully market their services… starting with their big why. I’ll let you know what I discover along the way.
