God has blessed each of us with different skills, personality traits, and life experiences.  These all combine to create a unique point of view that nobody else in the world can offer.

Isn’t it interesting that Jesus chose men from various walks of life to be His disciples?  Perhaps, it was because He knew that His message needed to be told through various viewpoints to reach the widest possible audience?  Take the Gospels for example.  Each of them tell the story of Jesus’s life here on earth, but each author told it in a very different way.

What about your blog?  Are you only providing your readers with a single point of view?  Have you considered opening your blog up for others to come and share your topics through the lens God has given them?

I’m Interested in Guest Blogging for You

By now you’ve had the opportunity to read my posts to discover how my personal lens impacts the way I see the role faith plays in the marketplace.

If you think I might provide your readers with a valuable point of view on your topics, I’d be interested in writing a guest post for your blog.

Choosing Where to be a Guest Blogger

When I write a guest post I throw whatever influence I have behind the post to send readers to the site.  This includes writing a teaser post on this site sending Google link juice to the post, and using my social media accounts to promote the post.

I’ve adopted these guidelines for choosing sites where I’ll post:

• The site must be established. Preferably your site will be at least 6 months old.  You must have at least 20 posts that you have written on your site.
• The site must foster a sense of community. If you’re not responding to your reader’s comments or engaging them in social media don’t ask me to guest post.
• The site must have a professional layout. There are many free themes available, so there is no excuse to operate a website that is hard on the eyes.
• The site must not be overly promotional. If most of your site is advertisements, or your pages are filled with affiliate links, I’m not interested.
• I must know who you are. I want to write for people I know.  Develop a rapport with me by commenting on my posts and engaging me on Twitter or Facebook.
• The site must be relevant to my topics. This one seems pretty straightforward, but if your blog is about poetry, mud wrestling, etc. it isn’t going to be a good fit for what I write about.

There are no Google PageRank, traffic ranking, or subscriber count requirements that many bloggers impose.  I would love the benefits from guest posting on more popular sites, but it isn’t why I’m doing this.

Invite Me to Guest Post on Your Blog

If you’re interested in having me guest post on your blog, and your blog meets the guidelines above, just email me with INVITATION TO GUEST POST in the subject line.  I would like to do five to eight guest posts per month.

If you’re interested in writing for The Christian Entrepreneur please check out our Guest Posting Policy for details.  We also have staff writer positions open.

Related posts:

1. January 2010 Recap – But I Don’t Wanna Blog!
2. How I Make Money From This Site (and You)
3. Comments Are a Blogger’s Best Friend

Our inaugural guest post is written by Mike Holmes.  He is the author of I Shall Raise Thee Up: Ancient Principles for Lasting Greatness and operates a blog by the same name where he writes about business and leadership development from a Biblical perspective.

Mike has written posts for several respected Christian business blogs, and is currently working on his second book entitled Biblical Strategies for Marketing Success.  He has been a very active member of our blog community adding interesting insights through his comments and tweets.

And now, without further adieu, here’s Mike …

What does the Bible Say about Salesmanship?

By Mike Holmes

With all the strategies and techniques available to the Christian Entrepreneur (offline and online)…it all means NOTHING if not translated into sales.

Sales is vital; not just to business but everyday life:

• A prospect doesn’t become a happy client without a sale
• The unsaved don’t realize their need for Christ without a sale
• An interview doesn’t become a job offer without a sale
• The single become involved when there is a sale…in fact, it moves to marriage through another sale

Sales is so important that the Bible goes into great details about it.

The Bible?

Sales?

Huh?!

Yup. You heard me: “great details”! It gives strategies, concepts, what-to-do’s, and what-not-to-do’s. It’s all there.

But before we go “there” let me define “selling.”

I define “selling” as:

“Persuading someone to take advantage of an idea, concept, product, or service that is in their best interest.”

Nothing more, nothing less. A true salesperson is a servant first.

So here they are…some of the Biblical strategies for sales success. Whether you’re interested in becoming a better salesperson, helping your people become better salespeople, or just interested to see what the Bible says this one is for you!

Be sold yourself

To sell something effectively you have to be sold on it yourself. How can you sell something you truly don’t believe in?

The apostle Paul had numerous hardships in being a messenger of Christ. He faced persecution, ridicule, scorn, beatings, imprisonment, and etc. But in spite of all the hardship he still wrote:

But we continue to preach because we have the same kind of faith the psalmist had when he said, ‘I believed in God, so I spoke.’ We know that God, Who raised the Lord Jesus, will also raise us with Jesus and present us to himself together with you. - 2 Corinthians 4:13-14 (New Living Translation)

In other words, “I so believe in what I’m selling that I’m willing to endure this kind of rejection. Because what I’m offering will benefit the world!”

SALES=The Transfer of Enthusiasm

Enthusiasm is essential to sales. If you’re not fired up about what you’re offering, why should your prospect be?!

The word itself is Greek in origin; and it means “inspiration or possession of God or a god.”

When the early Christians saw someone convert to Christianity they had no word to describe the overwhelming joy that followed, so they created a word out of two words: “En” and “Theos” which together mean “God within.” In other words, “it means to be so inspired it’s like God Himself dwells within.”

The last four letters of the word IASM are used as an acronym:

I
AM
SOLD
MYSELF

That kind of enthusiasm comes with a GREAT PRODUCT that you’re sold on yourself!

If you’re currently selling something you’re not completely sold on do one of two things:

(1) Resell yourself on its merits

OR

(2) Stop selling it!

Sell yourself

The Bible says, “He who wins souls is wise” – Proverbs 11:30 (NKJV).  This is sooo critical in selling.

If your prospect is not sold on you they will not be sold on your product or service. The worst thing you can do is try to win the sale without winning the soul.

To win a soul is to win the prospect’s trust and friendship—through genuine relationship building. Not through gimmicks, but genuine honesty and integrity. Why ? Because every message is ALWAYS filtered through the messenger. And if people don’t trust the messenger, how can they trust her message or product?

When you succeed in building a genuine (emphasis on “genuine”) relationship you move from a “salesperson” trying to get them “to buy something,” to a “consultant” helping them make “a buying decision.”

Relationship is key.

Sell your service

A sale never ends with the signing of a contract and/or the writing of a check. Your customer needs to understand that you’ll be there for them—as long as you’re in the business they’re warranty is good with you.

The Bible says, “Since God assured us, ‘I’ll never let you down, never walk off and leave you,’ we can boldly quote, ‘God is there, ready to help; I’m fearless no matter what. Who or what can get to me?’” Hebrews 13:5-6 (The Message)

Until it is installed, programmed, finished, and/or understood the sale is not done. Sales and service go hand in hand.

One of the things that separate top producers from lower producers is the top have books of repeat business—in other words they have a clientele. Even though they’ve closed the deal they still service the account. Doing that opens a tremendous stream of client referrals.

Service is still the best form of marketing.

Unfortunately, most salespeople subscribe to a “wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am” philosophy of selling—and though this helps quota it doesn’t create a clientele. In fact, it creates resentment and mistrust.

Your customer needs to understand that you’re there for them not for their money!

But what do you think?

Related posts:

1. Sell Anybody Anything
2. MLM Buyer’s Remorse
3. Walk Like An Egyptian? – Pyramid Schemes & MLMs