Soft vs. Hard Sells: Which Strategy Really Works?

Your business depends a great deal on whether you and your salespeople can close a sale.  Customers often prefer working with or talking to live people when they make a purchase.  However, the method of selling to a customer can make or break a sale.  Do you make a high-pressure sales pitch?  Or let the customer feel in control?

Hard and soft sells have been debated for decades.  We’ve all been through the experience of a car lot with a salesperson making high-pressure, almost desperate sales pitches to get us in the car of our dreams “today.”  And anyone who has seen the play or film, Glengarry Glen Ross, remembers the line, “A-B-C: A-always, B-be, C-closing.”  But does selling require such hard approaches, or should we give customers a little more credit?  Here are some things to consider:

Customers Buy on Emotion

High pressure, or “hard” selling, has been a staple of selling for highly emotional items, such as cars, homes, and large investments such as stocks.  Consumers spend money with emotional factors.  A house is purchased if it is “perfect” or “beautiful.”  Cars are bought with the emotion of having luxury, speed, good mileage, or comfort.  However, the same holds true for simple things like food.  A particular entrée is purchased because the customer is “in the mood” for that dish.  If you are going to make a sale, you must appeal to customers’ emotions.

Build Trust

Consumers will spend money with people they trust.  Whether your sales people meet a customer off the street and try to get to know them, or if your customer visits your retail store many times a month, you must be able to acquire and keep their trust.  Get to know the customer and their needs.  Find out what drives them, and how they like to be sold.  You can easily determine whether a hard or soft sell is necessary.

Call To Action

Don’t forget the call to action.  If you’ve appealed to a customer’s emotional states and gained their trust, let them know the ball is in their proverbial court.  It never hurts to ask a customer whether they want to buy today.

Both hard and soft selling techniques can be used for your customers.  The important thing to remember is to know your target customer and what type of selling messages appeal to them.

How to Effectively Define Your Target Market

An important part of making marketing successful, even if you are on a tight budget, is to define your target market.  The targeted demographic will have an effect on the type of marketing that is most effective, the products you use, and how much money you spend.  Thankfully, even small businesses can learn from the larger ones when it comes to what works and what doesn’t.

Keep in mind that marketing isn’t always about the quantity of the people you reach, but rather the quality.  A small business cannot compare to a multi-million-dollar conglomerate, and therefore their target market is much more precise.

Discovering your target market

To have the most successful marketing campaign possible, you have to find your target market.  The target market is the customers who have a need your business can satisfy.  Your marketing goal is to identify this market and set your focus of the campaign on them.  To do this, you have to consider four variables – your product, your location, the promotion you want to do, and the cost.

The product means coming up with something that the customer sees as having value and satisfying their wants or needs.  The location is a combination of being in the right place at the right time.  Your promotion is your way of communicating with the customer and doing so effectively.  The last thing to consider is the price.  You need a price that satisfies your profit margin without being so expensive that the target market does not wish to buy it.

You also have to consider the segmentation of the market.  Every market can be broken down into smaller categories, including geographic regions, specific demographics, or product types.  What you want to do is identify what traits your ideal customers have in common so that you can market to those traits.

Playing the mass market

Mass marketing is a strategy that works well for larger companies, where it is assumed that just about anyone could be a customer.  Car companies and soft drink companies, for example, often appeal to the mass market.  However, this only works well if you have a large amount of capital to back this marketing form, and it can be a great risk for smaller companies with less marketing funds.

Segmenting your market

In order to better understand your target market, it is useful to segment it.  This allows you to focus on the market most inclined to buy your product, giving you the most bang for your marketing buck.

Geography is one of the first segments that are applied to the market.  This can be dividing your target market to a specific region, city, or even neighborhood.  Different marketing techniques will be required for different geographical locations, and small businesses usually will achieve the best results by marketing locally.

Demographics are another segmentation that is commonly used.  It looks at the age, gender, race, nationality, education, and more of the target market.  For instance, if you are marketing towards teens, your marketing strategy will be vastly different than if you are marketing to senior citizens or if you are marketing primarily to women over men.  This does require you to understand to whom your product will most appeal.

Segmentation can go even further depending on the results that you are trying to achieve.  The better you understand your market, the better you can target your marketing, and the more successful your marketing strategies will be.

The Truth Behind “Shock” Marketing Tactics

Have you ever seen one of those “World’s Most Shocking Advertisements” shows? Plenty of companies have made a name for themselves by creating shocking, lewd, or bizarre commercials and marketing campaigns. Sometimes it works to boost sales and sometimes it does not. Before you embark on a shocking or “out-there” ad campaign, here are some things to consider.

• Interest Doesn’t Always Convert – What is important to remember about marketing is the principle of “conversion.” Conversion means the ratio of individuals who are aware of your company to the individuals who actually make a purchase. As in, if ten thousand individuals visit your website but only five hundred people buy your product, you would have a fairly low rate of conversion. How does this relate to “shock” marketing tactics? Well, these shocking strategies can often result in high levels of interest, but poor conversion rates. This is because people will be made aware of your company, but not necessarily of your company’s product or overall quality.
• …But Interest is Beneficial – Taking what you know about conversion into account, it is indeed important to take measures towards creating a well-known image for your brand. While it is indeed important to have a high rate of conversion, a business cannot achieve this if they don’t have a high amount of interest to begin with. Thus, if you choose to use “shock” marketing techniques, it’s important to ensure that plenty of information about your company is included within the ad.
• People Are Easily Offended – This may sound like an unfair understatement, but it is quite true. While you and your friends may value your open-minded senses of humor, most people are offended fairly easily. Hypersexual or incredibly crude ads rarely play well amongst religious or conservative types. While pushing the boundaries a bit can be a good thing, going overboard can backfire.

Don’t shy away from having fun with your ads. However, remember that any marketing efforts should always ultimately be about increasing sales and profits. Any ad idea that you feel may jeopardize sales should not be pursued.

Word of Mouth Advertising: Five Free Ways to Market Your Business

In these shaky economic times, even Fortune 500 companies are rethinking their billboard advertisements. Instead of investing into expensive advertising campaigns, businesses can take advantage of free marketing ideas. All you need are a stack of flyers or business cards – and the following ideas!

Don’t believe us? Here are five ways to promote your business without having to pay a penny!

• Voicemail Messages: No one likes a telemarketer calling during dinner. However, people do like when a company with whom they have done business in the past calls to ensure the customer is happy. Leaving voicemail messages for past customers is a great way to retain repeat customers. Here is a tip that may seem counterintuitive, but really works: call during the day when people are at work, not after five PM when they are trying to relax. Let them listen to your message on their terms.
• Children’s Events: Consider sending one of your employees to the next children’s festival or fair, dressed up in a fun costume that has your company’s logo printed on it. Parents are happy when their kids are happy, and thus they will associate your business with a sense of contentment. You can give away lollipops with your business card attached. Parents will keep the business card, while children enjoy the treat.
• Word of Mouth: It may sound too simple, but promoting your business whenever you meet a new person is a great way to generate viral advertising. You will be surprised at the effectiveness of a pleasant conversation. Make sure you always have business cards on hand to give to a new acquaintance. You can also initiate word of mouth advertising through your customers; each time they refer a new client to you, your business can reward the existing customer with a discount or a gift.
• Open Houses: Invite your customers to bring friends to your place of business for a free seminar and maybe a few refreshments. A free open house can be quite useful in attracting both new and old customers to your company. Keep plenty of literature, brochures, and business cards handy. Display these prominently throughout your open house to encourage visitors to take home the materials with them.
• E-Mail Signatures: Never send an e-mail that doesn’t have your company’s name posted within the signature. Every message you send is an opportunity to spread the word about your fantastic business, so use this to your advantage.

As you can see, you don’t have to break the bank to spread the word about your company. Using even one of these great tips will have a definite positive effect.

Last Ditch Marketing Efforts to Avoid

In today’s economy, you have seen many local business ads promoting their “Going Out of Business Blowout” or “Store Closing Mega-Sale.” You may have given these ads little thought beyond briefly pitying the unfortunate owner of the closing company.

However, here is a little secret that may shock you: some businesses promote their “Going Out of Business” sale before they have officially decided to go out of business! Believe it or not, many store owners are actually using these sales as last ditch efforts to see if they can still save a failing company. If their “Going Out of Business” sale is successful, they will simply remain in business and play off the extravaganza as a happy accident.

While this tactic may work occasionally, it does not bode well for your branding efforts. Furthermore, you are sure to alienate your loyal customer base. But just for fun, let us look at some of the other tacky tactics of shameless entrepreneurs.

• Stock Market Pricing – This is a trick that is more common in small bars and cafes. The latest trend in lounges and taverns is “Stock Market Pricing.” Since the prices of drinks in bars tend to be more ambiguous and arbitrary than in a shop that sells tangible goods, many bar owners are actually raising or lowering drink prices on a day to day basis based on the patterns of the stock market. However, while Stock Market Pricing may seem somewhat logical and relatively tame, here is why it does not work: while this price system may build the business a fan base one week, it may chase them away the next.
• Guilt-Inducted Advertising – Unless your small business is a funeral home, there should only be happy feelings associated with your business. Therefore, it is hard to believe that many small business owners are using guilt tactics to draw in customers. Guilt tactics are any marketing slogans or themes that rely on guilt or other negative emotions to bring in customers. For example, if a pet store promoted a sale on puppies by using language such as, “In this economy, a new pet is the least you can do for your child,” this would be a marketing strategy that relied mostly on guilt and negativity. This does not work for obvious reasons: it’s cheap, tacky, and transparent.

To avoid being like one of these awful failing businesses, follow one key rule of thumb above all else: promote your company, but be honest and frank. Your forthcoming, cheerful, and positive attitude will bring in more business than any unscrupulous strategy.