Have you ever heard about personal selling strategies – some tactics that you can directly apply in a conversation with potential customers and sell a product to them? Building long-term and meaningful relationships with customers is the main goal of this approach. If you are struggling with how to retain your prospects, this article is definitely for you!
Check out our top personal selling strategies and find the best ways to sell products right below!
About personal selling strategies and why it works
Approaching a large amount of target audience is a common tactic that every business can do, but have you ever communicated with your customers and directly solved their problems?
According to Hubspot, personal selling strategies are a personalized selling process to a specific customer instead of simply launching them in the mass market. Although this type of marketing strategy is time-consuming and costly, there are also numerous benefits for you to take into consideration.
First things first, personal selling strategies are among the most effective ways to enhance communication with your customers. By applying personalization in your selling, you have an opportunity to understand your customers’ demands, interests, or shopping habits.
Plus, this process can develop from a short conversation to a long-term relationship, from a product testing experience to developing further marketing strategies to retain customers. The feedback that you are able to collect after the selling will be a valuable resource for you to upgrade your products or service.
7+ Effective Personal Selling Strategies To Foster A Relationship With Customers
1. Uniquely present your product or service
Starting a conversation is never easy. However, if you can successfully create a good impression on your customers, you are halfway through your personal selling strategies. Remember that this process is not about re-illustrate all the content you’ve already put in the product description but connecting it to your customers’ problems and solving them.
So, how to present your product in a unique way to not make your customers feel bored?
Let’s assume the personal selling process is similar to an “elevator pitch” experience: In less than 2 minutes, you have to persuade your customers with unforgettable and one-of-a-kind information. The key for you to take away is to try to make it relevant, adjust your speech and be as relaxing as possible.
2. Improve the conversation based on buyer personas
So the beginning of your conversation has just been smooth-sailing; what’s next?
After chatting a little bit with your customers, you will realize some of their personas that may affect the buying decision. It’s time you go with the flow that your customers have created. Depending on different personas, you will have numerous distinct ways to talk with them and sell your products. For example, if you are dealing with a decisive customer, you cannot take it slow in the conversation or try to explain your ideas several times. The conversation will vary in various ways depending on how you understand your customers’ personas.
In order to master this strategy, we recommend you start little by little in communication with your friends and colleagues first. The experience you gain from your daily life will be a great resource supporting you when launching personal selling.
3. Plan a customer-focused tactic
Sympathizing with your customers and understanding their current lifestyles will help you conclude a solution to help them. We’ve already discussed above that product benefits are more vital than its features, and it can be much better if you can pay attention to your customers’ benefits as well.
While educating the buyers about what you’re going to sell to them, it is advisable to mention your customer service policy or what kinds of advantages they will receive when they choose your product and service. In case your customers are losing interest, it is time you prepared some outstanding testimonials and reassured new prospects of your dedication skill.
After the conversation, customers may feel that they are cared for and shown respect when your company asks for their feedback. Therefore, don’t forget to collect some suggestions so that you can stay in touch with them more.
4. Become a storyteller
Becoming a storyteller here is one of the effective personal selling strategies to develop your conversation and create new relationships. By sharing your experience, you can encourage your customers to unhesitatingly talk about their issues with you.
Since you are the seller, it is quite unbelievable if you make up a story of how you overcome your problems with your own products. Therefore, you can try to enhance the conversation by “borrowing” another story from your previous customers: how the product has changed their life and why you are still in touch with them as a friend. Perhaps your customers may have a sense of empathy towards your story, thus increasing the possibility of their buying decision.
5. Play the “expert” role
What if you cannot become a convincing storyteller, but your knowledge can amaze the prospect?
While developing the conversation with your customers, you can “show off” or demonstrate some piece of information that you’ve collected and make it connected to their stories or their problems. What’s more, storytelling and playing an expert role can be a perfect combination. This makes the conversation not “too theoretical” and enhances customers’ trust towards your products. However, this tactic is also relatable to the personas we’ve mentioned earlier. According to your customers’ reactions, think about how you can adjust your tone of voice and which words to use to communicate with them.
6. Follow up after the conversation
Whether your customers immediately want to buy your products or delay their decisions, the purpose of launching personal selling strategies is to build a long-term relationship with them. Therefore, being unable to sell products after the conversation doesn’t mean you fail in this experience. If your customers are willing to give feedback and leave the contact for your company, there are chances that they are inspired by the amazing talk they have with you and want you to solve their problems together.
7. Launch email marketing strategies
Email marketing also plays a pivotal role in personalization tactics and can be helpful in the follow-up process after your personal selling conversation. Make your email content outstanding and relevant based on the insight you gained from experience with your customers.
Furthermore, email marketing can also be applied to generate potential customers, increasing a chance for you to continue developing personal selling communication in the near future. Consider utilizing any software that can notify your company when new prospects read their emails so as to know who is engaged and who should be in your personal selling.
Wrapping up!
Although personal selling strategies are not such cost-effective methods, they can create a great impact in terms of fostering relationships and generating new prospects. Perhaps after reading this article, you are able to identify which are the best tactics to retain your customers. Combine these strategies with other marketing approaches to achieve your business goals successfully!
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