By: Brad Kartel
Submitted: 2010-10-05 19:41:23 | Word Count: 601
Traditional sales tactics is about one thing – making the customers feel good. You might find this opening statement ridiculous because as a customer, you never felt good about traditional sales tactics. This is exactly the reason why traditional sales tactic fail, because most businesses view it from their point of view and not from the customers. Traditional sales tactics is all about making the sale in a manner that marketing executives think is making the customers feel good. These sales tactics are still perpetuated by sales trainers despite the flawed premise. Do they work? Sometimes. Do customers appreciate them?
No! Customers detest this approach in more ways than one. People want to express their values through the products and services they buy. For example, if you see a bill from an expensive steakhouse downtown, you’d know what I value. However, if my credit card charges included a bill from a custom printing company or a notice from a continuing education from a Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, you would get a different sense of the person’s values.
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The bottom line is that people do not buy because of a sales pitch or a standard commercial printing brochure. They do not decide on something a sales agent claimed to be her product’s strengths. If this is so, that customers are not convinced by overused clichés or traditional methods of selling, why are most businesses still using them?
If I were you, throw away this old way of marketing. Dump the elevator pitch. Dump the pushy way you give out commercial printing flyers. Dump the insensitive and almost repetitive way of the canned approach. You must understand that a sales pitch does not have to be a box. You will not be able to get that sale by a packaged 1-2-3 approach or a 2 minute elevator pitch. In order to grow and achieve your objectives, you must be willing to learn from your customers.
Any marketing effort should be based on customers. It goes without saying that it is all about the customers. Like it or not, you should be able to factor in what your customers hold valuable. By doing so, you will be able to connect brilliantly with your customers.
The simplest way to do this is to listen to your customers. Listen to what your customers say. They might be saying that they are tired of your sales pitch yet you continue to bombard them with it. They might be saying, in more ways than one, that they do not want to get those unsolicited brochures while they are in the mall; yet you continue to shove them to their faces. With all of these things they are saying against how your business is marketing, do you still expect a good response?
If you care about your business and its future, reinvent your approach. Maximize your time and energy and build credibility rather than on sticking to traditional sales approach. If you do care about your business, you would care about what your customers say. Customers are more conscious about what they purchase. They are wary about smooth talking sales people who are just in for the kill; and after you have given them your money, they disappear completely. There is nothing more disappointing than this approach. It smacks of insensitivity and lack of concern. What you want your marketing approach to do is to connect with customers – brilliantly.
Author Resource:-
Brad Kartel is a marketing executive whose passion is helping business owners build their campaign through custom printing. Learn more about commercial printing.
