Use Your Personality To Make The Sale

In today's society, marketing is very much focused on impersonal
forms of communication: the Internet, mass media promotion, and
even bulk mail. When it comes down to it, we are all busy people
but we could probably stand a little bit of personal interaction
every now and then. So how do you go about making sales on a one
to one basis?

Let's say you decide to make personal sales visits to customers.
You need a sales pitch kit. This is the material you pull out
to show the client and help make the sale.

Try using a three ring binder for your sales pitch kit. Use
plastic pages you can insert photos and paper pages in. This
makes it easy to add, remove, and rearrange pages for
maximum effect.

Unlike a mass produced catalog or brochure, you can
easily update your sales pitch binder. Some top sales people
rearrange the pages for each customer so they can appeal to
specific likes and concerns.

Your sales pitch kit can include:
* Samples of your work
* Articles about you, your product, or industry
* Testimonial letters from previous customers
* Photos of completed work. Nothing tells your story like a
picture!
* Licences and permits to reassure customers
* Your satisfaction guarantee printed nicely on a page.

Once you have your sales pitch kit together you've got something
to talk about with your potential customer. The next thing to
think about is HOW to talk to your customer.

Many industries are in the habit of using business language.
It is not too different from lawyer language.

You get a memo that starts: Pursuant to yesterday's
communication between the concerned parties....

Eh? You will get far better response from your marketing
and customer service materials if you switch business
language to people language.

"As per your request" becomes "as you requested."

Change "enclosed please find" to "here is."

Rather than "in the event that," simply use "if."

"It is in our considered opinion" is shortened to "we
think."

Business language is slow reading for people who aren't
used to using it all day. Many folks give up if they have to
read it. Plain, simple, everyday language will grab more people.
It is clearer and easier to understand.

Business language also tends to hide your personality because
it's all dressed up in someone else's clothing. Speaking to
customers in terms they understand will be highly appreciated, as
will appealing to how they feel.

Customers appreciate getting lots of details on the attractive
features your product or service offers. Many will spend days or
weeks looking over your materials or web site before they decide
to buy. In the end, though, their decision is largely based on
emotion.

That's why savvy marketers stress the benefits a customer will
receive when they buy. They try to get straight to the customer's
personal emotions.

"Earn more money! Spend more time with family. Get the dream car
you've always wanted. Show the boss how you saved 20% on all
future supplies."

Those lines make you feel good about your future and proud of
your accomplishments (or future accomplishments you will achieve
AFTER you've purchased the product.)

The copy tells the customer "you're ok, what you want is ok, and
you should have what you want."

Build emotion into your marketing by stressing the problem your
product or service solves. It's a BAD problem that makes people
miserable. Build up the stress the reader feels. Then show your
customer how to relieve that stress by purchasing your product.