Do you sell old fashioned?
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The first part of the post summarizes the evolution of how "customers" (i.e. all of us) buy today and why selling old-fashioned doesn't work, while the second part provides a practical example to help you understand if you're selling old-fashioned.
Just yesterday I saw the title of an article that went something like this:
"Why today we sell differently"
What was in the article? I don't know, I missed it.
But then I got an old-fashioned sales email trying to sell me something.
Just like that. Like when you stumble upon something in the dark that bothers you, but it's so insignificant that you don't turn on the light to see what it is.
Here: selling is no longer like that. It can no longer be left to "chance".
And I say this with full knowledge of the facts.
Cold selling works (worked)
Before studying and then doing marketing I was (proudly) a salesman: I sold children's products, handles, services, consultancy and I also did cold sales in the large-scale retail trade, proposing an unknown IV range brand to managers of self-service shops in southern Italy (I didn't put everything on Linkedin, mind you).
So I think I can talk about sales and especially cold sales, and I'll tell you more:
Cold selling worked a few years ago (10)
Before the purchasing journey became so rich in stimuli, it was possible to pick up the phone, propose something and sell.
Then came the “ fast food advertising” of social media, with the bulimic consumption of videos and content to satiate the social hunger stimulus that we (all) have inside.
Added to this is the concentration of platforms that have cannibalized the time and attention of your, our, customers.
We are all on the same target with different products and services
I write our not by chance, but to remind you that the people you are addressing are also targeted by your competitors, but not only.
They are "buyer personas" (and therefore targets) of dozens of companies, more or less large, and they receive stimuli at the same time as yours .
And here nature takes its course and activates the defenses: you, we, all have become cunning . We avoid stimuli similar to others and ignore what does not interest us, today more than ever.
If we sense that they want to sell us something, then we close up like a hedgehog, like those cute insects that turn into little balls when you touch them.
This is why today we sell differently.
Because today, to sell you must first lower the defenses of your (potential) customers and then build a relationship (this is done except in cases where the purchase is urgent or so simple and immediate that it does not require significant cognitive effort).
This is where all the literature on storytelling, sales funnels, retargeting, marketing automation and so on comes from.
But let's get back to us.
A negative example, but still very common today
Do you remember that I received an email that gave birth to this post? Well, let's analyze it together, also to help you understand if you still sell old-fashioned or not.
The beginning of the email is this:
Well, what can I say:
it arrived at our info@, not personalized and no one has ever heard of this company (a printing house, in this case)
the subject made us think of an email from the Revenue Agency and, no, it's not positive just because it attracts attention
They are given a whole series of useless information about the company, also because they have no idea what our "printing needs" are or in which sectors we operate.
we are talking about irrelevant production details and there is no mention of any benefits for our agency
Zero knowledge of the target
The sequel is this:
What can I say... we don't have any sales outlets, we don't have any products to put in packaging and we don't have to install anything.
In this case the discrepancy is evident, but the message is that even if we had these needs, we probably already have one or two active suppliers.
Right?
And last but not least, we should also invest time (= money) in a useless meeting.
Your point of view
Since you've come this far, let me know! How would you have sold this service? Do you still use cold emails as a sales tool?
Tell us by commenting below (it's easy, there's social login) or keep quiet forever ;-)