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December 10th, 2009

Okay, so my husband and I found ourselves at a discount travel club sales presentation last Friday night. You have undoubtedly received mailings from groups like this and were either compelled by the extravagant free gift such as a 7 night stay at a luxury resort or suspicious of the ‘scam’ factor as you quickly threw the mailing away.

Well, I cannot speak for products offered (no, we didn’t buy anything J ) but there were some interesting lessons in effective marketing, specifically ‘closing’ techniques that I wanted to share with you.

The first is that once we had a sales associate sitting across from us, the relatively safe assumption was that we absolutely and without a doubt saw the VALUE of the product. This was likely because throughout the presentation the speaker…

·         Acknowledged our potential cynicism and encouraged us to silence internal conversations and remain open.

·         Led us to acknowledge to him and to ourselves that we WERE going to invest in travel thus altering our choice from yes or no, to how.

·         Demonstrated the dramatic savings available as well as the incredible variety and flexibility of their system.

As the presenter did such a bang up job turning this potential purchase into an exciting and wise investment, the job of the sales associate was simply to answer questions before we made our purchase. My husband and I were very clear that this was not the time for us to buy a program like this, however, the next hour proved to be a fascinating experience in the no-pressure, pressure sale. As our first representative thanked us and moved on, another one sat to ask just a few more questions. He was kindly and politely pulling out our objections one by one and we let slip that we would love to know someone who owned the program. Within moments our sales rep excused himself and was replaced by an associate who just happened to own the program and who knew of a policy in default that we could have at a much lower price. They were meeting our financial objection as well as our ‘not enough info’ objection but still, we had others.   Soon we were escorted to the check out room where we were given an exit survey which unabashedly asked us exactly why we didn’t buy that day but in the context of a thank you and goodbye. Of course, after the survey was completed, one last offer was made which was which included absolutely all the benefits and virtually none of the commitment. We were impressed and still we said, ‘no’.

Ultimately, I left the event with mixed feelings. I had just witnessed a polished sales event which is always interesting to me (did I mention this is what my marketing consultant husband and I chose to do on a Friday night?!) I felt a bit drained by the multiple stages of out ‘no-thank you’ but I also felt that no one sales rep had pressured us AT ALL! It was the process that turned up the heat, not the individuals and that gave this organization a decided leg up on the notorious used car salesman. They didn’t talk over us or make irritating assumptions. They just kept zeroing in on our wants based on our feedback and provided what they had on hand that better matched what we told them. I am hesitant to make a positive or negative pronouncement on this type of organization but these folks certainly had a way to efficiently move prospects through the stages of curiosity, enthusiasm and commitment and there is something for us business owners to take from their success in that area.

Think about your business. How can you…

·         Ensure that you are presenting to a qualified audience who is listening actively and openly?

·         Illustrate to your prospect that they WILL invest in the promise you offer one way or another?

·         Demonstrate why YOUR offering is heads and tails above doing it another way?

·         Learn about your prospect’s objections and respond to them with real opportunities that feel great for you both?

Happy Marketing!

Best,

Marilyn

Marilyn O'Leary
The Business Healer
www.HolisticBusinessDevelopment.com

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