101 Best sales and Marketing Ideas
IDEA 79:
FOCUS ON USERS
For most successful products there are lots of good things to say about them. They have all the latest technology and design, and are well proven in use. You may well say that not only is this case with your products, you are well practiced in differentiating features and benefits, and talking about them in the right kind of way. Sometimes, however, it is possible to sell successfully without mentioning any of that. So what do you do instead?
Idea
From a computer service agency…
People who will never use them personally buy many products, from the office photocopier to a huge piece of construction machinery. The staffs at work around the office use the copier, and the road builders or whatever is driven by professional drivers. And it is these people who provide an avenue for this approach to selling. Take the example of a specialist service, a computer troubleshooting outfit (I use an excellent one, which once rescued me when I thought I had lost the text of an entire, but undelivered, book).
The seller might describe the service in detail: the frequency of checks, the time taken to send a technician to arrive in an emergency, what is covered in a contractual arrangement and what is not, and much more. But what might best be talked about is not the service itself at all: it is the people working on computer around the organization, and how this service will help them. For instance:
Will it keep them productive?
Will it keep them well motivated?
Will it assist staff retention?
It is, after all, the end result that is most interesting, and most likely to prompt a sale.
In practice
- This kind of focus will differentiate your product or service. In the case above, the sales person talks about why the service is valuable (classic benefits), but does so very specifically by focusing on the people.
- You can highlight particular points that relate to a particular client. For example, if you know that staff retention is an issue in an organization, then it might be your priority to mention how you can help improve it. This makes the particular service seem better matched to the client than competitive ones where the sales person just talks about the service.
- Take people out of an organization and there is not much of significance left, so directing an argument in a way that involves them always makes sense.