Does the Business World Need a Revolution?

“That will be £2.20, sir”, I said to the customer who proceeded to pay for his Chicken Curry and Pillau Rice.

That was the first customer order I took for my dad at his take-away in 1982. In those days, we let people know we existed via newspaper ads and leaflet drops. I was responsible for the ads. Then we would work our butts off to cook the best food and give the best service we knew how. Unfortunately, my dad was not the award-winning chef he would be ten years later and we were not located in a town famous for its connoisseurs of world cuisine. The true curry fans associated the curry with getting drunk before eating the hottest dish on the menu or even off the menu! Sunderland was also going through the worst recession in its history. Therefore, to say business was tough is an understatement. Unsurprisingly, our business shut down in less time than we could have imagined.

There is no doubt that, historically, most entrepreneurs go into business to make a profit. Given that there are 4.5million businesses in the UK and 99% are SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises), many of which are sole traders and partnerships, cashflow is the main means of survival. In fact, the British economy is hugely dependent on SME’s to thrive.

However, in a desperation to merely survival (50% of businesses fail in the first year and 97% by the third year), many entrepreneurs end up following the herd and resort to methods to market their business, which is out of integrity. In the 1970s and ’80s, motoring magazines were usually on or near the top shelf. Car and motorcycle ads would have bikini-clad size zero models sprewn over the vehicle. That hasn’t completely disappeared today. Today, the gaming industry uses sex and gratuitous violence (computer games) to attract a younger audience.

Of course, how can the sales profession be ignored? Most people loathe pushy salespeople who are in your face, right? So, why do so many people do it? I left the sales-training industry in 2007 specifically because the sales trainers who were the most successful in getting clients were teaching fear-based selling. What does that say about the state of business?

Ever since I ran like a the Road-Runner from the sales-training industry, I have been praying for a new way to sell to be revealed to us. At the end of last year, my prayers were answered! Unbeknownst to me, one of my new friends, Lynn Serafin, had been researching like crazy about sales and marketing in order to find a new, integral and integrated way for businesses to attract customers and keeping them. Her book, ‘The Seven Graces of Marketing‘, is the new bible for ANYBODY and EVERYBODY who wishes to build a profitable business that creates true value for the enterprise, the customer and the world.

Lynn will be joining me on tonight’s Consciousness Revolution Show at 7pm BST (British Summer Time) to reveal what it takes to move a business from merely surviving to going beyond thriving by understanding the Seven Deadly Sins of Marketing and the Seven Graces of Marketing. Here are the details:

• Time: 7pm BST, 11am PST, 2pm EST, 8pm CET, 11.30pm IST
• Date: Monday 9th April 2012
• Place: on http://www.untangledfm.com
• Price: FREE
• Registration: No need. Follow this blog here or Facebook to keep updated.

If you own a business, wish to start a business or are looking for ways to be more successful in business, then feel free to tune in. Does the business world need a revolution? Actually, that question no longer matters. The revolution has already started!

Love and gratitude,

Harun Rabbani

Host of The Consciousness Revolution Show on Untangled FM

ABOUT LYNN SERAFINN

Lynn Serafinn, MAED, CPCC, is a certified, award-winning coach and teacher, marketer, social media expert, radio host, speaker and bestselling author. Her eclectic approach to marketing incorporates her vast professional experience in the music industry and the educational sector along with more than two decades of study and practice of the spirituality of India. In her work as a promotional manager she has produced a long list of bestselling mindbody-spirit authors. Passionate about re-establishing our connection with the Earth, she supports the work of the Transition Town network in her hometown of Bedford, England.

‘Is marketing making us ill?’

That is the question marketer and coach Lynn Serafinn poses in her eye-opening, informative and inspiring book The 7 Graces of Marketing: how to heal humanity and the planet by changing the way we sell. A bold, holistic and often spiritual examination not merely of the world of advertising, but also of our entire world view, this book reveals how our relationships with Self, others, our businesses, our economy and the Earth impact every aspect of our lives. Lynn shows the impact consumer culture has upon our health, our economy and the delicate ecological balance of our natural world. As much for the conscious consumer as the business owner, this book shows why traditional ways of selling are ultimately doomed to fail, and how both business owners and consumers can begin to heal the world by embracing a new paradigm Lynn calls ‘The 7 Graces of Marketing.’

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