Title: Who Sells the Most - Your Ads or Your People?
Length:535
Author:BIG Mike McDaniel
Email:Mike@BIGIdeasGroup.
Category: Small Business Advertising/
Copyright 2006
Web Address: http://BIGIdeasGrou
PERMISSION TO PUBLISH: This article may be published in
magazines, newspapers, newsletters and on web sites
provided the copyright and resource box are included.
OK to edit for space and audience requirements. Please
use an active hyperlink on websites.
Complete Article with Resource Box follows
Who Sells the Most - Your Ads or Your People?
from Small Business Advertising Expert BIG Mike McDaniel
Advertising is not a substitute for good sales technique and
superb customer service. Inserting an ad in a handy
newspaper to call attention to a line of goods will not sell
those goods unless you can back it up with intelligent, well
directed sales efforts in the store. Sales technique and
customer service must follow advertising. Unless it does
advertising is a failure.
The function of advertising is to bring prospective buyers
into the store; nothing more. How you advertise, how much
you advertise and where you advertise, can all contribute to
advertising’s success or failure. Assuming you do an
adequate job of promoting your products through advertising,
the visitors will come. Your job, then, is to convert them
to customers.
When the visitors (they only become customers when they are
buy something) arrive, everyone in your employ must be ready
for the task. Any enthusiasm created by your advertising
efforts will cool quickly if greeted by sour faces and dour
attitudes within the store, or worse, expecting the customer
to crawl under the counter or up a ladder to get what
was advertised.
Some merchants believe a "test" of advertising is to hide
the item promoted and make the customer ask. If no one
inquires, it proves advertising doesn't work. People are
basically shy and will not ask, fearing they didn't hear or
read the ad correctly, since the item is not prominently
displayed. Rather than risk the embarrassment of hearing
"no, Stupid, we didn't advertise anything like that", they
will leave the store, perhaps never to return. The first
step to back up your advertising is to display the
advertised products in a conspicuous location with signage
supporting the ads. "Ah hah!.. this must be what we read
about. Here it is!".
But NOT in the front window.
For advertising to work, your visitors must be converted by
your salespeople. If the advertised product is in the
window, the visitor can make a decision not to explore
further based on a quick first impression. At least give
your salespeople a fighting chance to "one on one" with a
prospective customer.
Don't blame the advertising if your staff can't convert
visitors into customers. Or worse, if you run them off
before anyone has a chance.
Everyone in the store should know the items being advertised
and be able to explain or demonstrate them.
Question your advertising if there are no (or few) visitors.
Question your sales efforts if there are visitors but no (or
few) sales.
Advertising will pay handsome dividends when the service
within the store is directed intelligently. Advertised goods
should be displayed prominently and demonstrated easily by
willing workers. Unless you can render such service, on a
consistent basis, don't advertise. Sell out.
Read hundreds of small business advertising articles at
http://SmallBusines
© 2006 BIG Mike McDaniel http://BigIdeasgrou
BIG Mike is the Small Business Advertising Expert and
author of "Grab 'em and Close 'em, the Art of the
Elevator Speech". This book explains the importance of
crafting a dynamite 13 word speech about what you can
do for them. More info at http://tinyurl.
--
No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.5.430 / Virus Database: 268.13.32/523 - Release Date: 11/7/2006 1:40 PM
Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required)
Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest | Switch format to Traditional
Visit Your Group | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe
__,_._,___
No comments:
Post a Comment