With the recent passing of Valentine’s day, it seems only fitting that we draw a few connections between the tactics of sales and the traditions of the holiday. Here are a few examples I witnessed over the weekend.
We have the big gestures- this would resemble bombarding her room with roses or the giant teddy bear. This is the surprise dinner and fancy date. The purpose? Two people are celebrating relationship with each other. Does it get cliché? Yes. But is it also necessary? Yes. Same goes for showing that we value our clients. Even when coupons and birthday specials seem boring and overdone, they still communicate a lot to the customers. And perhaps there is a way we can put a new twist on some old ideas!
We have the friendly gestures- such as those sophomores from that club you’re in baking you scones. A note stuck on your door from the person that lives down the hallway. This is a reminder that you are valued and appreciated, outside of one significant other. These people go out of their way to offer a small gesture to all of their friends. How do we tell our regular customers that they are important to us? Giving notes of thanks and appreciation of the relationship can go a long way.
We have the sneaky gestures- like the secret admirer or the anonymous note you got in your mailbox. I enjoy writing ambiguous letters every year telling people they are awesome and stick random box numbers on them. Similar to your cold calling. This is reaching out to suspects that aren’t familiar with your product in a kind manner. These are people you may not have a relationship with yet. Of course, in the matter of sales, you probably want to put your name on it.
We have the honorable gestures- like the guy that asks you for a waltz and then slips a little card into your hand addressed to “the beautiful lady who danced with me”. Or the guy that leaves a rose in the mailbox of every lady he works with. These are the kinds of people who just love to make others feel special. You don’t get a valentine because you are super close friends, but only because someone recognized that you were valuable beyond anything you have to offer. Do we see our prospects with this same value? Even the ones who don’t buy our product? Everyone still deserves to be treated with honor and respect. And if you can manage that- you may just be the most popular business in town.
BoweryJE22
Nice post Alaina – I totally agree. It’s the little gestures that show some thanks and respect for the customer that can make all the difference. It’s kind of like how even though the local diner is greasy, has style from decades ago, and serves sub-par food and coffee, it still does smashing business because of the community it creates. Just goes to show that the flashiest branding and swankiest techniques don’t insure long-term relationships and sales.
I love how these relate and I think there are definitely more techniques and things that correlate between the two which you allude to in your writing. I like how you referred to the different scales of gestures and paired them accordingly in a parallel fashion. It was an effective way to do it.
Great thoughts! Selling really is something we all do on a daily basis. The connection to the Valentine’s Day Holiday is a great one. Plenty of individuals trying to move others with different forms of non-sales selling. Hopefully there wasn’t too much pain on Valentine’s Day this year for all the individuals in the world, even though it is a great sales tactic to find it within someone. Thanks for sharing.
This was an awesome post. I especially liked your last thought about honorable gestures. I think it is important in business to show respect to people even if they do not buy your product. If we can be gracious to people when they reject us, we may attract more customers. Those same people may even come back later if they change their mind. This was a really creative post and brought up a lot of great points.
This post is great and so creative! I wouldn’t have thought about how Valentines Day relates to selling but you explained this really well. I really like that you said we need to make our regular customers feel important because sometimes we overlook the regulars and try to attract new customers but the regulars are the ones who are actually keeping the business alive.