A proven marketing or sales tactic is to directly ask someone to buy. When I tell this to some businesses I can see them cringe. They don’t want to be pushy. They don’t want to be annoying. They think, “If they want it they will purchase.”
So let me explain this in another way.
I have a daughter who is a Girl Scout. She was recently selling cookies at a table outside a local grocery store. As people left the store with their full carts you could see them notice the cookie table from the corner of their eye. They’d grip the handles of their cart harder and push a little faster, looking straight ahead. I wondered what the thoughts were in their heads. “Ugh. Someone selling me something, can I just get past this fast?” or “Ooh cookies. No I must’n. Or should I? Maybe? No. Or? Oh well now I’m past the booth and there’s my car. No cookies today.” Mostly no one would stop and no one would look our way.
But when my daughter would piped up in her cheery little voice, “Want to buy some Girl Scout Cookies?” the panic in their eyes would change. Sometimes they’d mumble a no, but usually they stopped. And once they stopped, they bought. For fun we kept testing this. Sometimes she’d ask and sometimes she’d be quiet and patient. Over and over it was clear — a direct ask was far more effective.
The power of a simple ask. Ask for it in your brochures, on your website, in your emails. Chances are you’ll get more sales than if you don’t.
Small Business Advertising Ideas © 2011 Glynns Thomas and Advertising Spark. All rights reserved.
