Selling 101
So what is selling anyway? According to
WordWeb, selling is “The exchange of goods for an agreed sum of money.”
Essentially it’s bartering with money as an intermediate. For a barter to work,
the person with the money (the buyer) must believe that what he is trading for
the money is of equivalent or more than the value of the money. The person
trading the good (the seller) however already knows the actual value of the
goods.
Addressing the want
More often than not, when people buy, they
base is on feelings rather than rationality. When the buyer perceives the value
of the item, it is not solely based on the material used. Which car
advertisement is better: 1.a car with the specs slapped beside it, or 2.Two
people sitting in the car, cruising along a mountain pass. Overseeing them is
the beautiful blue beach. The passengers smile confidently while the car
glimmers elegantly when shone by the sun. Paints a different picture doesn’t
it? Ever heard of the saying “Sell the sizzle, not the steak”? Apparently it
bodes true here. Next time, watch how McDonalds promote their burgers on TV and
you’ll know what I mean! So to sell something, always appeal to the buyer’s
emotional side. Sell the experience of using the product, the joys of it. Like
say if you are trying to sell mp3 players, talk about how great is it to stroll
down the streets listening to your favourite tunes while whistling to it. Talk
about how carefree you’ll be with it and how you’ll lose yourself to its
pristine quality audio. Sell the experience and then only sell the specs. No
matter how great the product is, without the “want” factor, it won’t sell. So
that said, the design of the product is perhaps the most important. Mp3 players
sell mostly because designs, not by the specs, hence the success of the iPod.
Design addresses the “want”, it makes it desirable to the eyes. An ugly looking
mp3 player with lots of features won’t sell as well compared to the sleek
looking mp3 player with just the bare minimum features.
Pricey issue
Price isn’t the issue; it never was, since
people buy based mostly on emotions. For example, people will gladly part with
a lot of money for say a branded handbag. The amount of money that is used to
pay is just the perceived value of the goods by the buyers. So if he thinks its
worth that much, he is willing to pay for it. So for a Coca-cola bottle
collector, if he perceives the value of a 1964 coke bottle to be worth say…50
bucks, then he would happily part with that much money. But to a normal bloke
like me, I would pay for a bottle of expired coke! No way! So if you can change
the perception of the buyer’s price of your product, the more profit you are
going to gain. In fact, pushing up the prices will make it look like it worth
more. Here an example, two products, equal in quality, one in a stiff plastic
box packaging while one in a pathetic paper packaging, prices 2 and 3 bucks
respectively. If it was me, I’d go for the better packaged one, since is don’t
know about the quality of the product, I would go for the nicer looking ones!
When you buy milk, will you go for the cheap Tesco brand or do you go for more
expensive brands like Dutch Lady? Isn’t milk the same or is there like inferior
quality cows that produce inferior quality milk? Ha ha! That is why headphones
prices differs so drastically, think about Sony or Philips vs Senheisser or
Bose. Which is more expensive and which do you think is better?
What you think you see is what you get
So why does better packaging and better
branding works? It’s because the human mind will make it what it want to be.
You think that Brand A is better than Brand B, Brand A will be better than
Brand B. However this applies to the more ambiguous factors like taste and
personal preferences, like music. A test was conducted to see which drink
people preferred, Coca-cola or Pepsi. In the first test Coca-cola was
preferred. However in the second test, which was a blindfold taste test, Pepsi
won hands on. So basically what you think is what you get, you look at the
Coca-cola tin and suddenly Coca-cola taste better than Pepsi. The same implies
for packaging, if your product looks inferior to the competition, it will
become inferior, regardless of the actual quality.
How to make it want-able
There are 2 things that people want the
most, that is to feel special and the feel belonged to a certain group, pretty contradictory
if you ask me. But combining those two points together, you get people that
want to feel unique by being accepted into a certain group. Buying actually
help define who a person is. I buy health food because I love my body, etc. Now
think about all the ads that were place in order to take advantage of this,
Sony’s “be.like.no.other”, Volkswagen’s “think small” (with the emergence of
the 1st Beetle, and finally, Apple’s “Think Different”. Basically,
all of them are saying that if you buy my product, you are special and such
belong to this special group where you are unique, different, like no other.
All of us crave for individuality, and we often show that by the things we buy.
Gucci bags are a fashion statement, to show to the world that you’re into
fashion and yes, well to do. You aren’t just selling a product, you are selling
a status.
I’m special!
Exclusivity and uniqueness, is what that
makes people feels special. If there are only limited amounts of that certain
product, like limited edition watches (think high end brands) or dolls, it will
sell regardless of the cost. The rule of scarcity dictates that’s when there is
a limited number of a certain product, it is scarce and thus the demand will be
high for it. With the high demand, people will buy with high price. Secondly is
the unique factor, uniqueness will last for a product until people copies it. Being
unique means to be first in a certain product or feature and that pays of well.
Like Xerox for example, everyone knows that they are the ones which produces
the 1st photocopy machines, and in that instant when their product
is still unique, the sell like hotcakes. Even when the market now is saturated
with other brands, Xerox will still be reputable in this field, a brand that
everybody trusts. It’s like engraving your names into the heads of both
customers and prospective customers alike, something very permanent and that
will last very long. For a more current example, take the Motorola RAZR, the so
called unique phones of its time with the slim looks. It basically achieves an
iconic status in the newly created slim field and got most of the sales then
that a copycat like Samsung will never achieve by following in its footsteps.
When you think of slim phones, Motorola RAZR is the brand that will pop up in
one’s mind. Pioneering features also enjoy that advantage, not just products.
Take the Olympus SP-550UZ, it’s the 1st to achieve 18X optical zoom for a
super compact. Most people will buy this regardless that its image quality of Olympus isn’t that good but for
the zoom. Olympus will enjoy this status for its zoom until someone comes up with 25X
or 30X, then everyone will then rush for it. Since the Olympus cameras aren’t that
strong in image quality, the however make the effort to be the best at other
stuff, like its zoom, it’s weatherproof and it’s shockproof capability.
Price justification
As I’ve said before, price was never the
issue. If a person wanted something bad enough, he will buy it. Always tap on
the emotional side, those that cannot be quantified as that will make your
product sell. There was this incident in the UK
when
people start stealing iPods right? Well if people are as desperate as to steal
for it, don’t you think people will be more than willing to pay for it? Let’s
say you charge a high price, now what? Basically you must help you customers
justify the purchase, now that’s when rationality kicks in, after the purchase!
So how do you do that, well, listing all the features would be great, and don’t
forget about all those unquantifiable ones, like Sony Vaio’s “unique hexagonal
shape” (basically its laptops are chiselled at the side). Yup that means that,
“sturdy aluminium chassis” is also considered a great feature for a camera
(when everyone knows that if it were to drop, it would leave a horrible dent,
or worse!) Features need not make sense, it’s just there to help the buyers
satisfy their rational side when buying something.
Lean on me
Then again, even with all this, if you
cannot gain the trust of the buyer, it is all for nought. Trust will ensure
repeat business. People buy from you because they like you, not much for the
product. What you say will believe. However, if you screw them over once, trust
is not as easy to gain back. Why is trust so important? Again it satisfies the
emotional side of a sale. The same applies for building rapport.
Conclusion
Well to sum it all up, making a sale is to
make the buyer perceive that it is really worth that much for your product. If
you can paint a picture beautiful enough to make the emotional side of the
buyer crave for it, basically you’re all set. Always aim to satisfy the
emotional side 1st, if the product is that desirable, people will go
for it regardless of the rational side. People like to feel special and feel
belonged to a certain group. Buyers buy products that reflect on what they are
and what they hope to achieve. Be unique and exclusive in the market, it pays
off. Price is never the issue, you just need to help the buyer justify it
afterwards. Trust is integral for repeat business. People buy from you because
they trust and like you. (You may not be the cheapest car dealer but they’ll
buy from you anyway!)
Ho, ho, I hope this have been an
informative article. I know that it overlaps sales with advertising and
marketing but I believe that they are all essential parts of selling.
