How would you like to launch a new restaurant and by the first weekend have a waiting line of patrons? That’s what Scott Slater did. Recently I had the pleasure of dining at a Slater’s 50/50 in Anaheim Hills. Not only did the food win Dorothy and me over, I was impressed with how successfully Scott Slater launched this business and how well it appears to be doing in only 90 days. So I wrote two additional articles for Examiner.com, an interview and an analysis of his marketing efforts, especially his social networking in “Anaheim restaurant Slater’s 50/50 uses social media to generate traffic and reviews.” In today’s article, I cover the first of the seven points from that analysis, the ideal customer profile. In subsequent articles, I’ll go into more detail on each of the remaining points.
While your small business may seem to have nothing in common with a restaurant, generally good marketing is good marketing regardless of the business or industry. The main differences revolve around knowing your best customers well enough – and knowing what they want and need that you can provide better than your competitors – so that you know where to find additional people like them and how to appeal to them. You can avoid using pressure, control or manipulation when you present what your ideal prospects want. By really understanding your ideal customer profile, you are able to design your product and you marketing to speak to their concerns, which is what Scott Slater has done so [...]
Strange as it sounds, soft sell sales and marketing are, in some ways, tougher to do than hard sell because they require the self-discipline to focus on the concerns of others, and they require caring enough about others to delay your gratification of “closing” the sale. You must wait to describe how wonderful your products and services are until the customers are satisfied that you know and understand what their problems and/or desires are. When you have earned their trust by listening and by asking meaningful questions showing you want to understand better, they will be open and receptive to your advice. This is natural because now they feel you care about them, not just their wallets. Then, when they are ready, you can help your customers buy. [...]
When you really believe in soft sell sales and marketing, it’s hard to admit that the soft sell approach is not for every customer. While most people I know love it when they find a salesperson they can come to know, like and trust, strange as it may seem, some customers actually want hard sell salespeople.
The choice is yours how you want to handle prospects who prefer hard sell salespeople. But remember, you will never sell everyone. This is part of being selective. I’ve written a lot about identifying your ideal customer profile because people like your best customers are most likely to want and need what you provide. Moreover, there is a price to pay for trying to accommodate a customer by becoming hard [...]
In my meeting this afternoon with my client, we got into a discussion about experiences we’ve had with small business owners who waste time on quotes they won’t win. To most salespeople, any live request for a quote is exciting. Eventually, experience teaches us to pass on doing some.
This article presents seven situations where smart salespeople, whether soft sell salespeople or hard sell, win by walking [...]
I love it when someone can help me appreciate my profession in a new way. The fascinating part of it is that after over 30 years in sales and marketing, it took a couple psychologists to give me a major insight into how to make my marketing activities more effective. I found their tweak to the definition of marketing in The Heart of Marketing by Judith Sherven & Jim Sniechowski, known as Judith & Jim.
This significant change is so subtle yet simple. I was always taught that marketing is about making yourself known in the marketplace. To quote them, “The essence of selling is converting your prospective customer into an actual customer. And the essence of marketing is — preparing your prospective customer to buy.” [...]
When I’m consulting with clients on soft sell sales and marketing, I come alive. I absolutely love training people on how to improve their sales and marketing effectiveness. I really think that a career in sales is fun, fulfilling, and mutually rewarding when you help customers buy.
At the same time, it is work, lots of work. Nor is it a get-rich-quick scheme. A career in soft sell sales offers a lifestyle of hard work rewarding success with much more than money. [...]
No matter how noble your efforts and how much you want to help people, each of us only has 24 hours in a day. For most business purposes, the time to work with prospects and customers tends to be significantly less. After too many hours, I lose enthusiasm and energy so eight to ten hours is my practical limit normally. I find too that as much as I love my work, I need downtime to refresh and recharge. Still there is time enough but no more, if I manage my time well, to reach the prospects and customers I need to.
The point here is that none of us has an unlimited supply of time. So how do we grow our businesses then? We do it by identifying our Ideal Customer Profile, narrow down the suspects to only those who are likely to benefit from your products and services. This approach is soft sell sales and [...]
Two weekends ago I was fascinated when I was visiting my son to see how he disciplined his daughter. His approach was an incredible demonstration of the power of WIIFM. It really doesn’t matter whether you’re in sales & marketing or management or just trying to convince your child to change her behavior, the key question is “What’s in it for me?” (WIIFM)
So when you want people to seriously consider what you are proposing to them, speak to them in terms of their interests and concerns. In sales and marketing jargon, talk or write about the benefits. Go beyond the idea of benefits being that people buy drills to make holes.
I propose that as a soft sell salesperson or soft sell marketer you can go a step further in discovering their motivation. Why are they mounting or building something that requires a drill? While the potential reasons are numerous, discovering the specific reasons shows you care about them. You can then focus your presentation on the benefits your products and services provide that mean something to them. You can help customers buy. Moreover, you will find it leads to relationships that make sales fun, fulfilling and mutually [...]
Stop wasting your time, effort, and money trying to sell to the whole world. It takes discipline to train yourself to narrow your efforts to your best effect. I too have to discipline myself: soft sell sales and soft sell marketing appeal mostly to small business owners and people who care about developing long term relationships. Yet we find it tempting to be available to anyone and everyone who might want to buy our products. We don’t want to miss out on any sale. The whole world is our oyster. Not so.
The people who thrive are those who identify their niche and tightly focus on what they do that appeals to that specific group. That’s why I strongly encourage everyone in soft sell sales and soft sell marketing to determine your ideal customer profile. Prospects who match that have the greatest likelihood of wanting and feeling they need your products and services because such problems are common to people and companies like your best customers. Help customers buy because it works for them. You’ll find your sales more fun and the results mutually [...]
I’ve had numerous clients who wonder why their websites fail to produce sales. The answer is simply the lack of marketing. Traffic doesn’t just happen because you have a URL or website address and a presence on the Internet any more than it does if you have an office in an office building or an industrial park. Having had a small business in a commercial park, I can assure you, we did not have walk-in traffic. The Internet with millions of websites is worse than any neighborhood in the world for trying to be seen just by having a “presence” on the web.
No matter how gorgeous your website, it’s only an address on an overcrowded virtual marketplace. The fifteen proactive marketing ideas I list here will enable you to expand your reach beyond what you ever could with a storefront. You can attract people looking for what you offer. Soft sell sales & marketing activities enable you to develop trust by showing that you care about your prospects’ challenges and dreams. You are giving them a taste for what you can do to help them. And when they are ready, you help customers buy through guiding them and by describing the benefits instead of manipulating and [...]
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