In an age where technology rules pretty much every part of our life as business owners, I believe that we have forgotten that people still buy from people. Now I know using online Social media platforms have changed the sales and the way we connect for good I also know that the good old fashioned pick up the phone and ask for more information your prospects are still very much alive and well.
Sometimes I think we have forgotten about the basic “belly to belly” style of selling as now a good chunk of prospect simply want as much data as they can to try to decipher ( often leaving them more confused than ever) and then once they have deliberated will come to a yes or no conclusion to but whatever it may be they are after that you are selling. Don’t get me wrong that’s ok if they are buying a small ticket item that doesn’t require that much thought and or investment but if the reverse is true, the high ticket item that needs to be touchy-feely so to speak then a connection with a”real” human just needs to happen.
What I’m getting to here is don’t be fooled by all these so-called “ internet guru’s” that preach that everything can be sold online and people don’t want to talk to anyone etc. this is only true for a portion of prospects out there and the majority of people making a significant purchase still want a professional to help them with the transaction, in many cases showing them and helping make the decision for them.
So a clever way of using the best of both world ( online and offline ) is to combine Social media marketing to attract the client to your offer and the good old phone to answer any question and most importantly get the client face to face for you to close the deal. An interesting statistic I read yesterday is that the amount of people that would purchase a high ticket item ( more than $2,000) online is less than 19%, personally, I think that that’s being very gracious. I believe it’s more like 2 – 3 %…
Your whole aim is to get the prospect to enquire, handle objections and then create an easy opportunity for them to connect with you face to face. See it’s so much easier for us to then evoke all the senses when selling face to face. You read correctly – the senses. I mean this is how we buy. Take food as an example: It activates 3 senses – The sense of seeing the deliciousness and then the tasting the yumminess and smelling that beautiful, warm apple pie ( I’m making myself hungry now) see what I mean?
How do you do that online or even on the phone?
You can start with really good imagery and descriptions and then when you’re on the phone you can also future pace ( put them in the frame of them owning your product or service and what outcome that would produce for them ) but at the end of the day it really fails in comparison to demonstrating what you are selling face to face. It’s the other senses that allow us to fully close the sales however the gateway is the first touch point of connecting on the phone to build your integrity and lower the fear barrier. Many people have fears about purchasing online due to the fact of the growing number of scams out there. This is another excellent reason for using phone sales in your sales process.
In closing remember that we all still like to be human, connect with humans and have conversations with them and even though technology looks like it is eliminating the need to have that interaction I strongly believe the best sales are made when you can look into the other person’s eyeballs and serve them to the best of your ability.
