How in the world did this guy get his foot into our door?
I couldn’t believe my ears when my husband told me that a soft water salesman was coming over Thursday to give us the results of our water.
A salesman coming over wasn’t really my idea of spending a relaxing Thursday night.
How did he get my husbands attention? That is the question.
It is difficult getting through the front door of someones home let alone having them click on your website. It requires finesse and establishing a need within the customer for your product. Today’s living is fast pace and a constant battle of media and selling. Your customers are tuning out a lot of advertising and “noise”, but you don’t want them to tune out your business. How do you keep them coming back for more especially if times are tough?
Lesson number one:
- Do a FREEBY. His freeby was testing our water. My husband took the bait on that one. I didn’t feel the need to test our water, so the salesman wasn’t solving any problem that I felt we had. My husband just thought that testing our water would be a good idea.
The salesman made it in. It was 7 p.m. and I was getting supper around for the family. I wanted to keep cooking, but I could see my husband squirming in his seat while the salesman went on and on about the water company he represented. He was setting up his companies reputation. SNORE!!
Lesson number two:
- If there is no need for your products establish a reason WHY they would need your product
Then he proceeded in telling us the importance of testing your water and included our water information. He was establishing a point of reference comparing clean water to our water. The salesman gave us information on the potential problems and hazards with bad water always relating back to the water we had.
He was effectively playing on our emotions because of our need and want to stay healthy.
At that point I was all ears. The salesman went on to perform tests right in our kitchen and had a little replica of the actually filtration system that would be in our house.
Lesson number three:
- Establish a relationship with potential customers and their kids if they have any
The salesman did more comparisons with our water and their clean water system. He included the kids in his chemistry experimentation right in the kitchen. The kids were having a lot of fun watching water change color and being involved with his experiments. The salesman even made the kids some kool-aid.
Lesson number four:
- Show or tell them the benefits of using your product
We could see, feel and taste what our water would be like with their system in place. Proof was in the pudding.
Then came the big conclusion. The price of the unit. It was $7000 and by that time I was about to shell it over. I wanted the great benefits of having clean and ph balanced water. My husband (thank goodness) wasn’t taken and managed to get the salesman out of the house. By that time he had been with us for 1 1/2 hours. The kids needed to go to bed.
Lesson number five:
- This is your call- to – action time. You gently tell the customer exactly what you want them to do
The salesman’s call – to – action was telling us that if we ordered the water system today we would get installation and 10% off the total bill. And they would also give us $4000 worth of soaps, detergents, shampoo and lotion.
Sign me up. Luckily my husband had his head on straight and told the salesman we would have to think about it. This goes to show you that with smart selling you can play on your customers emotions by showing them the need for your product.
The door to door salesman did everything right except I was turned off in the beginning. These are steps you can put into your own website. Yes, he sells door to door, but those lessons he used could work with your business.
The steps are known as AIDA. AIDA stands for
- A= attention
- I= Interest
- D= Desire
- A= Action
Many Blessings,
Other Great Reads:
- How Much Do You Love Your Soap Or Candle Business
- How To Start A Home Based Candle Business
- 5 Mistakes In Selling From Your Blog
- Marketing Candle And Soaps Locally
- How To Give Free Samples Effectively