In the marketing world today marketing looks entirely
different from 20 years ago...or does it?
Having been in sales and marketing for 30+ years of my
life, I have had the privilege of seeing marketing from the traditional sense
of the word.
In the "old days" the daily routine was to be
out meeting and greeting people in person, door-knocking and cold calling. It
was called meeting people "face to face and belly to belly".
Well guess what! It is still the case.
Here is why.
Whether you meet people fact to face or online, they are
all still...people. As human beings, we need to see each other's eyes and read
our mannerisms in order to really know where to direct our conversations.
All too often I have witnessed people just getting online
with their different social media platforms and then pitching their products
and business all over the place. What this does is turn people off. It makes
people want to delete your message and you from their platforms and from their
entire lives.
It takes time to build trust with people, so we need to
be aware of what we are saying and how we are communicating.
The first thing in our minds should be to build trust
through our relationships. In order to do that, we need to educate, inform and
entertain our readers just a tiny bit.
The statistics I have read by many different authors
state that people need 6-7 touches before they will start to be interested in
your product or service. There are some other statistics that mention that in
order to close a sale, we need to get in touch with people 6-23 times.
Caution on this last statistic, however. There is a new
rule that is coming out in Canada that states we can only call people 3 times,
once we have made the original contact at a meeting or event.
If you meet someone at an event where they entered your
draw for a door prize, you can only call them if they have checked off
"Yes" to being contacted. All the "No's" need to be
discarded.
Then you can take the "yes's" and contact them
through phone or email only 3 times. After that, you need to stop calling,
unless they have agreed to be on your email list for your newsletter.
Personally, I usually invite them to connect with me on
my social media platforms, and that way, they can watch me from afar, so to
speak. They can watch my posts and read my blogs that feed through my
platforms.
Back to the idea of face to face.
We build the relationship online by asking people about
themselves and what inspired them to do what they do. The conversation should
be focused on them, not on you pitching your stuff.
Once they know and like you, then you bring them to a
face to face coffee meeting if they live in your area, or a phone call or
Zoom/Skype call at distance. Try to use a platform with video, so you can both
see each other and read the eyes and body language.
Remember that real business always gets done face to
face.
You might attend a webinar, but that is also a form of
face to face as you watch the presenter.
Face to face is key to building the final trust you need
and want for life and for business.
Building your business is not all about numbers. It is
about how many people you can build a relationship with. If they don't buy from
you, they will tell somebody who will.
Tell me, when was your last face to face meeting?
Christine Till
The Marketing Mentress
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