Face to Face Marketing and Door to Door Marketing

Nothing beats the reality that one gets when you can interact with potential clients face to face physically moving from door to door within a community or household to household, face to face field marketing is also called personal selling or door to door marketing, customers are met directly in order to sell their products, using this method of field marketing we rely on our skills and persuasive abilities. During the period where we get to interact with the client face to face we get more chance to pass across edible information which would be useful to all our customers at that time and it’s also an opportunity for us to get feedback and to gauge your opinion about our business.

I did door-to-door sales for nine years, in hundreds of different cities and towns all across the india. Through long, hard, agonizing trial and error, I eventually developed enough skill that I could take any product into any area on any day and make sales.

In the beginning, I struggled. But when I was about to give up on myself and quit (like 99.9% of people that try door-to-door sales do within their first few days), experienced salesperson to give me a chance to get on track.

What I saw that day changed my life forever.

I watched as the experienced salesperson drove to an area where he had previous sales success, and listened as he explained to me why he parked his car in the exact spot he did to start his day and laid out his exact plan of attack.
Within the first 10 minutes, I learned a valuable lesson that not only made my door-to-door sales career much easier, but has also been the key to bringing in millions of dollars in revenue for my own companies, and those of thousands of others I’ve consulted to:

A current customer is the easiest person to make a sale to – many, many times easier (and less expensive) than trying to get new customers.

Most business owners operate a risky, day-to-day, transactional business, believing that the reason for getting a customer is to make a sale. That’s their biggest problem: making nothing more than “a” sale to a customer. After that initial transaction, they simply hope that their product or service or location is good enough that they will get a repeat visit from that customer.

On the other hand, sharp business owners (and door-to-door salespeople!) know that the point to making a sale is to get a customer. We have systems put together to maximize the value of that customer by making future offers to them, so that they buy more of the same product or service, or a different version, or even an entirely different product or service.

In other words, we recognize that a current customer is the easiest person to sell to, and a prospect is the hardest and most-expensive person to sell to. Therefore, we concentrate on maximizing the value of every new customer we get.

If you want to grow your business during these challenging economic times (and even during boom times), your time and effort should be invested in working to turn prospects into customers and retain them to market to in the future.
While your marketing is doing its job to get you prospects, you need to be working on turning those prospects into customers. There are a few key ways to draw them in and seal the deal. You need to be:

Inviting
Informative
Enjoyable

The biggest fear of most new customers is the dreaded “buyer’s remorse.” You want to minimize this as best you can, and if you’ve provided a quality product or service that delivers on the marketing claims you’ve made, the risk will be lower.

However, returns can still occur. Here are the two most effective ways to deal with this:

Offer to refund money — no questions asked
Offer a bonus they can keep even if they return the product

These offers alone will also lessen the impact of buyer’s remorse, because the customer will trust you more just because you showed the confidence in your product or service to offer these options in the first place.

There are number of other ways to turn a prospect into a customer:

Offer a special price as an opportunity for them to test the market.
Offer a lower price with a legitimate reason, such as clearing out inventory to pay a tax bill, for your kid’s braces, or another tangible reason. (Added bonus: Customers love you for doing this, because it makes you so much more human to them.)
Offer a referral incentive.
Offer a smaller, less expensive entry-level product to build trust.
Offer package deals.
Offer to charge less for their first purchase if they become a repeat customer.
Offer extra incentives, such as longer warranties or free bonuses, if they order by a certain date.
Offer financing options, if applicable.
Offer a bonus if they pay in full.
Offer special packaging or delivery.
Offer “name-your-own-price” incentives.
Offer comparative data or other comparison tools.
Offer to let them trade up or upgrade to something better if they want.
Offer additional, educational information to help them make the decision.

The options are really only limited by your imagination and marketing skill. You can use these or other ideas to discover what works the best for your specific business, with your specific products, services and target market.

Even if you ever find yourself doing door-to-door sales.

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Behavioral Segmentation

Definition: Behavioral Segmentation

Behavioral segmentation is dividing the total market into smaller homogeneous groups based on customer buying behavior. Behavioral segmentation is done by organizations on the basis of buying patterns of customers like usage frequency, brand loyalty, benefits needed, during any occasion etc. It is done keeping in mind the needs and wants of a customer based on the behavior that they show.

Importance of behavioral segmentation

Behavioral segmentation is performed so that people showing similar buying behavior can be clubbed together in a single group and they can then be targeted. It helps companies to promote and market their product in a very streamlined manner as they can capture the customer based on his / her needs. Also, as people are becoming more and more conscious about the brands they buy and the amount of competition present, customisation of products and services can also be done based on this type of market segmentation.

Behavioral segmentation is one of the four ways of market segmentation, along with demographic segmentation, geographic segmentation and psychographic segmentation.

Behavioral segmentation parameters

The target consumers for a product or a campaign can be grouped on the basis of their behavioral characteristics which can be as follows:

1. Occasion oriented: When a product is used or purchased for a particular occasion only. The occasion can be repetitive or can be once in a lifetime occasion. This is also known as occasion segmentation.

2. Usage oriented: The grouping can be on the basis of how much a product is being used/consumed by the customer. Accordingly, we call them heavy user or light user groups. Hence the usage frequency is considered as a part of behavioral segmentation

3. Loyalty oriented: Markets are segmented based on the retention rates of the consumers which is a fair indication of brand loyalty among them. A brand commanding a high degree of loyalty has a very high retention rate and does not need to worry too much about acquiring new customers. But a brand with low loyalty levels continually needs to recruit new and new consumers to its basket.

4. Benefits sought: Consumer segmentation is also done on the basis of the different benefits perceived by different consumers. There are certain benefits that a person is seeking from a product. Many such products are available which have different variety, price etc which fulfill the needs of a customer. But a customer opts for only those which gives him or her the maximum benefit. This is also known as benefit segmentation.

The above image shows the parameters or variables used in behavioral segmentation

Advantages of behavioral segmentation

Market segmentation is a critical part for breaking down the market into homogeneous groups having similar behavior which becomes easier for a company to cater to. There are several benefits of segmenting on the basis of customer behavior. Some advantages of behavioral segmentation are:

1. It helps a company identify customers with a similar behavior. This makes it easier for companies to target them

2. Needs of people showing consistent behavior can be catered to as compared to people with erratic behavior

3. Brand loyalty can be further built upon those customers who have shown as affinity towards a brand. Thus behavioral segmentation can create a loyal customer base

Disadvantages of behavioral segmentation

There are certain drawbacks on segmenting the market on the basis of behavior. Some of them are:

1. Customer behavior changes with time, location, occasion, requirement etc and it can not always be predicted correctly. Behavioral segmentation can only give a framework on personality traits and behavior

2. Mostly, behavioral segmentation would be done on the basis of qualitative data and not completely quantitative data. Hence, making forecasts, budgets, expenses etc would all depend on certain assumptions

Examples of behavioral segmentation

There are many ways in which customer behavior entices a person to make a purchase. Some examples are shared below:

1. Occasion based: Across the world, 14 Feb is celebrated as Valentines day. This is where companies like Archies gifts target the customer and use their behavior to sell the products on this occasion.

2. Loyalty based: Affluent people are extremely brand conscious and prefer buying from a brand they have an affinity for. This behavior is captured by companies like apparel brands, footwear, perfume companies, beauty products, salons etc

3. Benefits based: example of low cost airlines depicts how price sensitive travellers travel at the lowest cost as that is the benefit they are looking for. This behavior is captured by companies and they offer then low tickets along with quick and efficient service.

4. Usage based: Companies prefer the habit of those customers who make a repeated purchase. A customer buying a soft drink everyday or having a chocolate daily are targeted by companies for their usage behavior.

Brand Equity – Meaning and Measuring Brand Equity

Brand Equity is the value and strength of the Brand that decides its worth. It can also be defined as the differential impact of brand knowledge on consumers response to the Brand Marketing. Brand Equity exists as a function of consumer choice in the market place. The concept of Brand Equity comes into existence when consumer makes a choice of a product or a service. It occurs when the consumer is familiar with the brand and holds some favourable positive strong and distinctive brand associations in the memory.

Brand Equity can be determined by measuring:

Factors contributing to Brand Equity

1. Brand Awareness

2. Brand Associations

3. Brand Loyalty

4. Perceived Quality: refers to the customers perception about the total quality of the brand. While evaluating quality the customer takes into account the brands performance on factors that are significant to him and makes a relative analysis about the brands quality by evaluating the competitors brands also. Thus quality is a perceptual factor and the consumer analysis about quality varies. Higher perceived quality might be used for brand positioning. Perceived quality affect the pricing decisions of the organizations. Superior quality products can be charged a price premium. Perceived quality gives the customers a reason to buy the product. It also captures the channel members interest. For instance – American Express.

5. Other Proprietary Brand Assets: Patents, Trademarks and Channel Inter-relations are proprietary assets. These assets prevent competitors attack on the organization. They also help in maintaining customer loyalty as well as organizations competitive advantage.

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Articales from http://www.managementstudyguide.com

Build Your 2017 sales Pipeline NOW!

Now is the Time to Build Your Pipeline for 2017

At this time of year it is not unusual for salespeople and sales managers to simply focused on closing business to achieve their yearly objectives, maximize their compensation plans and unfortunately drain their pipelines. January can be a good month with leftover sales opportunities but many sales teams face a weak February/March. Because of this I wanted to share an easy sales driven prospecting system that can ensure your sales pipeline does not shrink-ever!

HINT: This marketing campaign idea could incorporate messaging from your vendors utilizing their marketing materials, email campaigns, telephone scripts and partner involvement, if their marketing website allows you to download quality tools.

Action steps include:

1) Refine their prospect database to reflect the A, B, C Ideal client profile concept. (See previous blogs that define what an ideal client profile is or send me an email for details.

2) Download and review a direct mail letter/postcards/email tools provided by your vendors or develop your own and create two pieces for two campaigns that will be used; these can be personalized with your logo, etc. These should include two different messages based upon your products/services that must excite a net new prospect.

3) Create multiple batches of 20 suspects by salesperson, divided into groups of A, B, C, D, etc.

4) Execute on the following tactical plan:

Week One: Each salesperson sends email/ postcards # 1 to 20 different suspects in Group A

Week Two: Each Salesperson sends email/postcards #2 to the same Group A 20 suspects

Each Salesperson sends email/postcards #1 to another set of 20 suspects in Group B

Week Three: Each salesperson begins to call Group A and set an appointment or invite them to an Executive Forum run by the partner

Each salesperson sends emails/ postcards # 2 to the 20 suspects in Group B

Each salesperson sends email/ postcard #1 to 20 suspects in a new Group C

Week Four: Each Salesperson begins to call all non-contacted member of Group A

Each Salesperson begins to call all suspects in Group B

Each Salesperson sends emails/postcards #2 to the suspects in Group C

This program continues in this manner. As the activity level and pipeline grows, the only change in this marketing and activity plan will be the number of emails letters sent per week, it could drop to 10. The reason we recommend 20 or less names is to keep the contact focus low enough to ensure the salesperson can attempt multiple contacting calls within the third week.

It is recommended that an on-going “Executive Forum” or workshop event is scheduled for the same time/same day each month i.e. the third Thursday at 8am. The purpose of the event is to provide a “call to action” and provide a reason for the telephone call follow up.

HINT: Sales Management must monitor this program carefully to ensure 1) salespeople are contacting the prospects, 2) the messages within the marketing pieces are working or not and 3) what call/contact ratios are effective.

Let me know how this idea is working for you or what other ideas you are using to drive you sales pipelines.

Ken Thoreson “operationalizes” sales management systems and processes that pull revenue out of the doldrums into the fresh zone. During the past 19 years, our consulting, advisory, and platform services have illuminated, motivated, and rejuvenated the sales efforts for organizations throughout the world.

He was recently ranked for the fourth year in a row by Top Sales World magazine as one of the Top 50 Sales & Marketing Influencers for 2015. His blog has been rated in the sales blogs in the world!