Many writers with little obvious experience in business suggest that the way for a business to prosper in a recession is to slash prices to the bone in order to lure customers away from competitors.
Such advice is, in a word, moronic.
Low-price providers are almost always driven under by market forces. Businesses which base their marketing around always offering the lowest prices struggle to attract good employees and also struggle to position their offerings as anything other than the cheapest in town.
Several studies have found that price is number 4 or 5 in the list of important factors that get people to buy. Few people buy on low-price alone, and with good reason - how often have you bought the cheapest thing available and been satisfied with the purchase?
People buy experience at every stage of the transaction. Positioning your products and services as rock-bottom cheap with your advertising in fact drives away prospects seeking a higher quality experience.
"If it is so cheap it cannot possibly be very good," they think. In many cases they are right. Even when the low-price shopper comes to look at your offerings his expectations are low.
You can succeed at business or selling your personal services in the recession by positioning your offer so it appears not to offer the most rock-bottom price, but the best value to your ideal customer.
As a marketing consultant I am often surprised by the vague notions business owners have about who their customers are and what is important to them. Just knowing your customers better often brings insights and ideas that can spur growth, even in tough economic climates like the current recession.
Even a one-person business or the out-of-work guy can benefit from understanding this: Positioning yourself as the low-price provider actually makes it harder to make much money. It also ensures whatever customers you gain with such marketing will be fickle and leave you like a worn-out shoe for a still cheaper provider when they get the chance.
And there is the rub. There are good customers who happily pay you well for the value you provide - making their lives easier and more pleasurable... and then there are bad customers - the ones who whine and complain when you increase prices and leave as soon as they find a cheaper provider.
Even in a recession positioning your business or services as the cheapest in town is almost always a mistake if you intend to build a long-term business. Instead you will strive to offer better value than your cheaper competition: making each transaction larger so the customer gets more benefits, satisfaction, and pleasure from doing business with you.
It is a common belief that during an economic recession, business will slow down and there would be less sales. As a telemarketer, whether you are selling a product or service you will need to adapt to the market conditions.
To a certain extent telemarketers are entepreneurs, you will have to search for oppurtunites to sell your stuff. Those that excel at telemarkeing have a keen understanding of market needs and are able to structure their pitch accordingly.
If you can adapt your pitch to mirror your prospects deepest needs and desires, he would resonate with what you say and greatly increase your chances of making a sale.
I will now reveal to you the "Hot Buttons" of your prospect that will address those vital needs and turbocharge your sales success, take these into consideration before you pitch and you will find a dramatic improvement in results:
1. Save Cost - Lets make a comparison, if you invest USD 100 in this product, it will help you save USD 10 000. This is simple, if your offering can save your prospect alot of cost for his company or himself and has the evidence to do so, he would grab it immediately.
Let's say you were telemarketing a seminar and you had this really hot trainer that has consulted for a number of Fortune 500 companies and saved them millions of dollars in the process. Let your prospect know of this, it is proof your product works.
2. Save Time - We are lliving today in a time starved society. We have more technology and better standards of living, yet we have less time then ever before. You know what commodity is even more valuable then money? It is time. I bet if you had the choice, you would rather spend your time at the beach sipping a Pinacolada instead of working at the office.
If your offering has the ability to save alot of time for your prospect,let him know. Let's say you were telemarketing some special edition personal organizer. And this organizer was used by some famous CEOs to organize their schedules. Let your prospect know how much time he can save using your product.
3. Feel Good Factor - When you speak to prospects, they rarely respond to your product features. They would respond to the benefits of your product. But if you boil it down to the very essence of it all, they make a purchase decision on the basis to whether it would increase the chances of them feeling good about themselves. In a very evolutionary way, we are drawn towards pleasure and seek ways to reduce pain.
To give you an example, let's look at credit cards. If you know the millions of dollars spent on marketing credit cards, you will be shocked. What is the marketing message they give you? Subscribe to my credit card and you will be respected, adored, admired, loved and be one of the privileged few. Millions of dollars in credit card marketing are spent each year so you associate its use with pleasure. Use the feel good factor, and you will have prospects itching to sign up for your product.
If you take these 3 "Hot Buttons" in consideration and work it into your sales pitch, you will find your sales rocket. These are universal principles that have sold millions of dollars of products and you too can harness it's power.
Both Himmat Preet Singh & Alan Tan are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Alan Tan has sinced written about articles on various topics from Multi Level Marketing, About Branding and Writing. Alan Tan is a telemarketing expert and author specializing in developing strategies to close more sales through the telephone. Discover how to sell more corporate training events by telephone at:. Alan Tan's top article generates over 18100 views. to your Favourites.