Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Sales, Marketing, and the Exotic Dancer

In my constant search for information around the Internet, I occasionally stumble on something that is as equally profound as it is strange. 10 Sales and Marketing Tips I learned from Strippers” looks at the intricacies of good sales and marketing—two business disciplines that go hand-in-hand—from the eyes of a man that frequents gentlemen’s clubs and, just as frequently, leaves with an empty wallet. He posits that this phenomenon has its core in the greater dynamic of commerce and not merely in the fact that there were scantily-clad or nude women performing for aroused men.

1. Something for nothing. An exotic dancer begins the exchange, the transaction if you will, by flirting with you; doing something to raise your excitement level. This free sample, just like the product demonstrator at Sam’s Club or Wal-Mart, entices you to purchase their good or service. The exotic dancer attains buy-in; your desire to purchase the good increases from a probability to a distinct possibility. If the sample is good enough, your likelihood of patronizing the product or service increases because you perceived utility and outcome are positive.

2. Customer understanding. A good salesperson learns their customers through questions and observations; allowing them to adapt their “sales pitch” and build a better rapport with their customer. The “sales soldiers” in the thickest of sale-and-marketing combat are the used car salespeople of the world: They instantly are working towards building a rapport with you in order to feel out your needs and desires for purchasing a car—that is something that is a bit more than a convenience purchase for most of us.

3. Adapt the sales pitch. The sales pitch is something that can make a potential customer into a paying one. If one sales pitch does not work, then the salesperson will try another one. The right sales pitch is the one that gets the person to reach buy-in; achieved by applying the knowledge of the questions and observations the salesperson translates into likes and dislikes of the person to which he or she is trying to sell.

4. Have a great product or service. Chances are that whatever you are selling can be had somewhere else; in all but a minority of situations there is a substitution product or service—in other words, if what you’re selling doesn’t stand out in some fashion, there is a good chance that the person you’re trying to sell will patronize the product or service from a substitute that offers an advantage to the product or service better than you can. This uniqueness of product or service that you have to offer better than other competitors is called your differential advantage. Certainly, if something is unappealing to you, and the salesperson is unable or unwilling to make it more appealing, then an impasse is often arrived at.

5. Good customer service. Once you are “in the zone” and servicing the customer, it is the duty of the good salesperson to provide good customer service so the patron will offer repeat business opportunities for the salesperson. The more satisfaction, happiness, or euphoria, the better because the stronger emotional attachment will be built into the mind of the person being sold. Good customer service also allows the salesperson an opportunity to up-sell.

6. The up-sell. Standard customer services are where “bread-and-butter” is at—or simply “just making it.” Real profitability relies upon going past the ordinary and into the extraordinary services that you can offer as a salesperson to your client. In the analogy of the exotic dancer, they will sell you the initial lap dance and work towards up-selling you on a trip to the “champagne room” where they have the opportunity to sell you a premium service from her repertoire.

7. Close, close, close. In classic Zig Ziglar fashion, the good salesperson knows how to “close the salewith different techniques. The analogy of the exotic dancer shows that they like to use the complimentary close (most likely via flirting) and the companion close (by getting your friends to help push you into making the sale).

8. Target the right audience. Salespeople sell things to people who are in need or desire their service. The salesperson is always “pre-qualifying the buyer” by gathering information from those in their environment to find people who are more likely to purchase their goods or services than the average person. Good marketing consists of determining, as detailed and accurately as possible, the traits of your target audience.

9. Persistence, persistence, persistence. No matter how qualified an audience is, rejections will always happen. The good salesperson can either overcome rejections or overcome the fear of them and move on to another qualified buyer. An application of the Law of Large Numbers is that the more people you ask, the likelihood of making a sale is also increased.

10. Branding. When you think of waffles, you probably think of Eggo or Bisquick; when you think of personal media players, you probably think iPod; when you think of purchasing a personal computer, you probably think of Dell or Gateway. The emotional or logical connection that you make between these names, their images, and their place in your categorical view of the world is the essence of branding:

In marketing, a brand is the symbolic embodiment of all the information connected with a product or service. A brand typically includes a name, logo, and other visual elements such as images or symbols. It also encompasses the set of expectations associated with a product or service which typicaly arise in the minds of people. Such people include employees of the brand owner, people involved with distribution, sale or supply of the product or service, and ultimate [sic] consumers.

In a future post I will take the above principles and illustrate how we can apply them in everyday life ala authentic assessment.

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