If you are reading this article and you own a business there is a chance that that you also do your own marketing. Like most of small and medium business owners we are marketers, not experts – we aren’t concerned if someone will buy from us but rather are aiming to sell value to customers who eventually will. People don’t care about your personal interests and instead are rather looking for what’s in it for them.
Ads should not be based on getting people to buy your products and information by showing them prices. Instead ads are based on service, they site advantages – they offer wanted information, perhaps they offer a sample, or to buy the first package on their behalf, or to send something on approval, so the customer may prove the claims without any cost or risks.
Good salesmanship does not merely cry a name. A good salesman doesn’t say buy my product; he instead imagines the customer’s side of the benefit until the natural result is to buy.
This is the fundamental principle of salesmanship, but many salesmen forget it. They focus on pushing hard to sell, focus on selling by using their brand and “expertise”, and try to drive people to their stores instead of marketing their products by bring value to customers.
Don’t forget that people can be persuaded to purchase, but they cannot be driven to. You can apply the principle offering something for free by giving a sample – in this manner you can persuade, but you cannot drive someone to your store by advertising how great you are.
