Welcome to The Affiliate Manager Weekly Strategist from Affiliate Classroom.

Each week, we discuss an affiliate management strategy and ask you for your input.

This week, our VP of Marketing and 10 year affiliate marketing veteran, Rachel Honoway talks about the “marketer’s curse”.

NOW WHAT ARE YOU SELLING?
– Rachel Honoway

I’ve been a marketer long enough that it is no longer a job - it has become part of who I am.

In fact, when I left my job in Florida last fall to move my family back home to Michigan, my friends and family didn’t ask me where I was working or what I was doing… they asked “now what are you selling?”

That little question sums up what I like to call the “marketer’s curse”.

Regardless of your passion, your true interest or your intentions to fix, help, improve and provide solutions - when you are a marketer people assume that when you’re talking, you’re selling.

I was never more frustrated with the marketer’s curse than when recruiting affiliates.

I had the perfect offer, the best payout and I wasn’t asking for money, I wanted to give away money - and still when I approached affiliates, the guards went up, the skepticism started and they thought “What is she selling, now?”

As an affiliate manager, you’ve undoubtedly had an experience like this in the past.

QUESTIONS FOR THE WEEK

How do you sculpt your pitch and your approach to help affiliates feel at ease in the recruitment process?

Have any good stories about not being heard because someone thought you were “selling” them?

Join our discussions and post your answers and comments here.