Last month we looked at promoting your product and, leading on from there, discussed the key area that is point of sale. All of that leads us to this month’s thorny subject: selling. Last month I said that a lot of the promotional activity may be a bit ‘psychopop’, but this month we are moving into a real heavy-hitting area of operating where psychology is the prime mover. Good sales people almost seem mystical in the way they can read their customers’ wishes and get them to order and buy. Most marketers will tell you that they are not sales people – once we have done our job we hand over to the sales wizards to do theirs. There is a massive difference between sales and marketing, and it is well to realise that they’re completely different and complementary parts of the process of moving your widgets from the shop shelves to consumers. Let’s assume that we are in the sales conference; the marketing man has just unveiled a product and handed it over to the next set of professionals to move the process forward: the sales people.

 

Are you a believer?

Let’s assume for a moment that the sales people are enthusiastic about our widget and like it – they also like the price and its packaging. (I know that this may be unusual, but just humour me). One of the main goals of the sales people is not only to sell loads but also to convert the customer into a loyal consumer who comes back for more of the product, the service and the brand. After all, we are trying to convert our customers into our advocates – walking advertisements for our product. As I’ve said in the past, this is one of our major ambitions, for customers to not only buy from us, but to also actively praise our widgets to their friends and associates. In this way, they are doing the sales job and selling the products for us. While it’s not the most important thing in the world, it certainly helps if the sales people are enthusiasts and believe in the product. Without this belief it is easy, in many cases far too easy, for the customers to pick up on this lack of belief. Understanding the product inside out helps with this belief, as does knowing all there is to know about its features and benefits. After we have spoken to our customers about all of that, then and only then should we look at talking about the price.

 

Hey good looking

So what else do we need the sales people to know about? What to look like is one very important issue. What image we are trying to portray is a crucial part of the sales person’s armoury. There needs to be a careful balance with the whole look of formality. Formal clothing has gravitas and creates confidence in the sales people and the product, whereas being over formal can put people off. Selling surfboards and looking like a stockbroker in a sharp suit just won’t get the job done, and vice versa. The right casual look is equally important, and the balance is critical, looking like a tramp won’t impress anybody, but a smart yet casual look with a branded shirt, for example, will always look good. On the other hand, and this is a blow to all of us who believe in equal opportunities, a good-looking woman in striking clothing (or lack of it) can sell just about anything to the tackle trade. See page 32 of April TTW.

 

Speaking of bodies…

It’s not just how a body looks that we need to be concerned about. The best sales people will have an uncanny knack of connecting with people and usually this is because they have learnt how to do it. There are some naturally talented communicators, so what we need to do is study them and copy what they do to succeed. If you really get hooked on this subject then it is worth getting a book or two from the library that show and define the basic body-language behaviours. Learning these basics can be worth its weight in gold. This way you can learn how to ‘mirror’ peoples’ gestures, make them feel in command and complete control. Let them make the decisions that you have already made for them. Sounds like cheating doesn’t it? Well it is just another skill that can be acquired to make sure our widgets get into the consumers’ hands.

 

 

Asking the right questions

You can learn how to make people feel at ease by identifying, using and reflecting their gestures, and you can do the same with their use of language. You can pick up a lot from them. For example, if they make a metal image of something they might say: “I see this as a good thing,” “I like the look of that,” or “I get the picture.” They may be more focused on how something sounds – “That sounds good to me,” or “I hear what you’re saying.” Or they may be more empathetic and feel their communication – “I feel this could be a winner,” “I’m comfortable with that.” In rare cases, the sense of smell is dominant – “I get the whiff of success.” Once you know this then you can use those phrases back to them, mimicking their words and phrases. The very first thing is to create confidence by asking them questions that cannot be answered with a yes or no response. These ‘open’ questions are engineered to supply information and allow the customer to feel in control. As with the body language, it’s worth popping down to the library and checking out books about NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming). They are a real eye-opener and, once learned, can be a sure-fire order-book opener too.

 

Where next?

Now that the widget’s fate is in the hands of the mystical charms of the sales people, we will need to check how sales are doing. Are they above or below our targets? Are the targets sensible? Are the targets so rigid that in the first six months they can make or break our widget? What happens next? This is the subject of the next article and a fascinating one it is too. Does our widget have a future and, if so, are we still in control of it? Next month we can look at ways of keeping control and making sure that we have a long-term future to ensure that our widget is not merely a ‘flash in the pan’.

In the final part of his back-to-basics series of marketing articles, Chris Leibbrandt talks about promotion.

Last month we looked at the issues that affect pricing – a sticky subject indeed, and one of the most dangerous and difficult of all the steps to getting a product to market. This month I want to look at a subject that can also make or break your product, as well as your bank account, and not always for the right reasons. In many ways this is one of the easiest areas to get wrong. You can relax; you’ve done all the hard work – now comes the easy bit, promotion.

 

What’s the point?

It’s easy to get depressed about promotional activity because it’s not cheap. It is always, no matter how long you do this job, difficult to assess the efficacy of your advertising pounds and easy to see them go if you’re not careful. It’s a bit like sailing, standing in a cold shower or throwing money down the drain. Needless to say, I don’t look at promotion like that – sailing on the other hand… well I am yet to be convinced. Promotion is another of the marketing ‘P’s. Simple enough you might think – do some adverts and you can’t go wrong… if only! Taking a closer look at some of the key issues of promotion, many are esoteric and subjective, and that’s what makes this subject so fascinating and dangerous in equal measure.

 

A&P

Advertising and promotion is often referred to as A&P. As a term, A&P makes it easier to identify and differentiate between the two distinct areas of marketing that are involved. In a strict marketing sense I prefer to call it promotion, which encompasses both advertising – usually easy to identify – and promotion, which is less so. So what’s the difference? Say, for example, you are sponsoring two of the best (or if you’re not careful, the worst) bass anglers in the Bassmasters – that’s promotion. In fact, it’s easier to say that anything that is getting your message out, which isn’t advertising, is promotion. Despite the pitfalls, with an equal measure of prudence, gut instinct and a keen eye on your promotional spending, you’ll eventually find that you have created an awareness of your product. That awareness has been stimulated into interest; thereafter a desire to own the product, so much so that the consumer has taken the most important step possible – he has taken action.

 

Above or below?

You will no doubt have heard marketing men talk about ‘above’ and ‘below’ the line. I was as confused as anybody when I first heard it – what line is that? In marketing terms it’s the line that’s created between inward and outward-facing promotional activity. Above the line, or outward-facing activity, includes any advertising, press releases, radio or television snippets – just about anything that means your widget is getting coverage in the public domain or out there in the world of consumers. It’s the fun part, the Cinderella syndrome, the creative process that involves so much gut feeling that it’s difficult to measure. Below the line, on the other hand, is inward-facing activity, which is just as important and just as esoteric, and in many cases, even more so. This is the activity that you undertake to ensure consumers get the best look at your products when they’re in the store.

 

POS or POP?

So where does all this promotion take us to? Where does all this take place? In the bear pit of selling, at the Point of Sale (POS) or the Point of Purchase (POP)? Good grief, I hear you say, surely they’re the same thing, and isn’t that all the price tags and wall boards we’ve made specially? Well no, not at all, because the place that you find your POS or POP labels and wall boards is the same place it all happens: on your retailer’s counters. Be it real or virtual, it’s both a place and a marketing proposition. This POS or POP line is drawn between the buyer and seller, or retailer and consumer. The POS is a line where the retailer has the product and pushes it towards the consumer, actively selling the product – the ‘I’ve got it and you’ll want it’ line. The POP line, however, is the line that all retailers and marketing men work for – one of the marketing holy grails. This is the magic moment when the consumer walks in and tells the seller: “You’ve got it and I want it.”

 

Is it all over when the fat lady sings AIDA?

So this is what this is really all about, yet another marketing acronym, AIDA. Just how many of them has Leibbrandt got in that marketing locker? Well, plenty. This is where the first part of the promotion road ends. Your retailers are calling to tell you that they have customers in their shop asking for your widget – they’re selling off the shelves. Then it’s time to celebrate, get your marketing team together, crack open a beer or two, put your feet up on the verandah and bask in some well-earned marketing sunshine. This celebration has come about because you have unearthed the Holy Grail of marketing, and because of your promotion, you have consumers who want your widgets. Let me highlight this process again because it bears another visit: your promotional activity has created an Awareness of your product. That awareness has been stimulated into Interest; thereafter a Desire to own the product, so much so that the consumer has taken the most important step possible, and taken Action.

 

Where next?

This celebration, fun though it is, is merely a way point – the first pit stop. The reality is that the promotion of your widget should never stop. Just take a look at all the global brands that last forever. There are a number of reasons: great product, excellent pricing strategies, excellent distribution and accessibility, but most important, they never stop promotional activity. Never. They promote their products to the point that they become national treasures; they are the past, present and future; our constant companions from cradle to grave. Coke is the real thing because we have been told that for a hundred years, or so it seems, and Gillette is ‘the best a man can get’ because we hear that, see that and experience that every single day. These brands are part of our lives. People feel good about them; they are comfortable, and like an old pair of slippers, they fit and feel good. Some of that may sound a bit ‘psychopop’, and I do not apologise for that. Promotion is all about people, humanity, psychology and how they react to our messages. Our job in marketing is to make sure they react in the right way and buy our widget. One thing that you have to remember is that promotion is a marketing road that never ends, and if it does it’ll end with the demise of your product – so be warned!