Jerry Leventer

In Robert T. Kiyosaki’s best selling classic, “Rich Dad, Poor Dad”, he teaches, “Make an offer to everyone you meet.” Generally, this is good advice but there’s a lot more to making a sale than simply making an offer!

Here’s a story I read recently about a customer whom we’ll call Jim, who took a trip to his local Pet Store to shop for an aquarium.

Jim walked in the door and the owner was there to “make him an offer”. Jim decided that he was going to pay particular attention to how the store owner conducted himself to see if he could learn anything to improve his online marketing. Jim reflected that this particular pet store had been in the same small shopping center for quite a while and had survived a couple of recessions. It seemed good evidence the owner must know something about marketing.

“Good morning!” said Bill the store owner, greeting Jim cheerfully as he walked in the door. That’s the first thing to note. His greeting is the equivalent of the Headline. Create a great headline to grab the customer’s attention.

“Is there something I can help you with?” Bill asked. That’s the Discovery. Trying to discover what your prospect’s needs are. Then, like the expert marketer he was, Bill told stories about the aquarium in which Jim had shown an interest. He didn’t talk about the size or the volume, but rather he pointed out the benefits, not the features. “The filter is the best part. It’s so easy to clean”. This was a marketer who knew how to relate to his customers.

“Your goldfish will love this tank,” Bill continued, “they will play among the bubbles from the air tubes.” Jim was enjoying listening and picturing how happy his fish would be. It was a play on his emotions. Every sale is based in large part on emotion, not just the logical and reasonable. If you can appeal to the emotions of your customer, then your sale will go much more smoothly.

Then Bill said, “I’ll make you an offer. It’s past the holidays, but I’ll give you a special price,” he said. And Jim ended up buying the aquarium. But the sale wasn’t quite over just yet. In fact, in a way it had just begun…

Jim was feeling happy to have gotten such a good deal, but then Bill suggested he needed fish food, and gravel, and a special solution to balance the pH of the water, and perhaps a few more fish would be a good idea as well.

That was the back end sales tactic. Let your customer buy the first product at a discount on the front end - then make the follow up offers, the up sell, One-Time-Offer, and back end sales. Good marketers know that it is good marketing strategy to be willing to lose a little profit at the front end but make up for it at the back end. Bill definitely knew his stuff.

Jim ended up with plenty of gravel, rocks, fish food, medication, algae cleaner, and other accessories to last several months. But he was satisfied and pleased that he had met Bill who showed him how to be a great marketer.

But it still was not over. In fact the owner-customer relationship had just begun. “Be sure to come back this Friday,” Bill said, “we’ve got some exotic fishes coming in from a special breeder that you won’t want to miss.”

Building a relationship with periodic and scheduled follow ups means more continuous sales for months and years to come.

The lessons to be learned from all this are - Have a great heading, Discover your prospect’s intention, Talk to them about the benefits of your products, Appeal to their emotions, Be willing to lose a little at the front end but be prepared to make sales on the back end…

And finally, keep the relationship going on a regular basis for continuous sales.

Technorati Tags: Internet Marketing, Headline, Back End Sales, Upsell