How to Break through Your Customer’s Doubts

Expert marketers and sales people know that product resistance is often part and parcel of selling your products and services. It may be because of a particular concern on the product that’s preventing your prospective customers to buy from you. Or it may also be that they’re hesitant on how effective it can be to their situation.

Most of the time, your target audience will be able to express it verbally. But when resistance is non-verbal – meaning, your target audience’s face reflects confusion – you just need to read between the lines, and interpret the body language and expression.

While managing your target client’s hesitance to your sales speech, it would indeed be very difficult for you to do that. Nevertheless, experienced marketers would tell you that such reaction is actually a good thing. It means that even with an objection, your target clients are actually considering your product if not for a few concerns they have. These then should be properly addressed in order for you to turn then into buying customers.

Trained sales agents know this. And as a business owner you should too. Most often than not, the concerns brought up by your target audience may not be the actual issue they’re concerned with. In fact, it may just be that they’re not sure of how they should convey what they need to know from your products and services. This then makes it difficult for your target clients to agree to what you are offering. Unless you understand and overcome the issues pertaining to their objection, you as a business owner will never be able to get your target customers to agree to buy your product or avail of your service.

This is what is important when handling customer resistance to your product. Your prospects are simply unwilling to make a commitment to buy from you. This is certainly the hardest part in any selling process. When you ask your prospect to agree to a sale, yet the prospect hesitates, or worse, responds with a resounding ‘no’, you should be able to overcome that. Most successful business owners can vouch that when you are able to rise above the rejections, you’ll more likely to get customers who are not only one-time buyers, but repeat business clients as well.

What you need then is communicating with target clients in order to convince them to consider your prodcuts and services despite the issues. You can do this by requesting a commercial color printing company to produce marketing tools that would best clear up the issues in the client’s minds. It’s all about providing assistance so that your prospect can finally make a decision – which is hopefully to your advantage.

The good news though is that not every customer can resist your offer. There were many times those buyers close a sale even without you convincing them to do so. Since they are convinced that the product is good for them, you don’t even have to introduce or say your sales speech. All you got to do is to point them to the right direction and you’re on your way to being successful in your marketing campaign.

Kaye Z. Marks

Use the Right Words to Get a Better Response

So you have got a great medium to reach your audience. Your ad has all the graphics spiffed up to attract attention and you have a great eye-catching photo. You know people are looking at it. But no one is responding. What’s going on?

Your copy is falling flat, that’s what. You need to use active language, and powerful words that get and keep attention. Here’s how.

Use your headline. Headlines are the most important copy-related parts of print ads. If you have a dull headline, like the name of your business, you’re wasting precious space and money. That space could be used as a call to action or to give a benefit of your product. Keep your business address, phone number and other boring, but important, information in smaller font and towards the bottom of your ad. By using the space to brag about your largest, most impacting benefit, you could increase response by 300 percent.

Focus on the customer. Use “you” rather “we” or “I.” People want to know how you can help them, not about your great employees. Of course if your business is a service that employees provide, then yes, tout your employees. But tout what they can do for your customer, and what they’ve done in the past for similar customers. Show the customer that you have something that they need that will benefit their lives.

Include a call to action. People won’t visit your store if you don’t ask them to. They won’t be motivated to visit your Web site unless you tell them you have one and give them the Web address to get there. Word your call to action as a command: “Visit our Web site today.” “Call today.”

Use power words. Use sexy words that will stay with readers. Words that evoke movement and excitement work best. Concrete words will also give you a leg up. Use “erase wrinkles” instead of “get rid of wrinkles.” Use persuasive words such as “give,” “hurry” and “invite.” Use words that evoke trust: “tested” and “proven.” Use words that flatter the reader like “wise” and “special” when describing them.

Avoid overused words. Don’t use words that people have heard over and over again in advertising. Generally these words have only held false promises in the past. People remember words that burned them before. A few to avoid are “quality,” “value,” “service,” “caring” and “integrity.”

Do not waste your budget on commercial printing materials that are boring and that aren’t going to work for you. Spend more time and money on creating your message upfront, perhaps even hiring a freelance marketing writer or a consultant that can help you create a powerful message before you choose your color scheme or photo.

Kaye Z. Marks

Sending a Great First Impression to Customers

If you are a salesperson, you are always seeking ways to sell more. If you are a businessperson, then you are a salesperson, no matter what your business is. You are selling your product or service, and so you should always be seeking ways to sell more.

How do you make customers feel at ease with you, and your product, enough to make the sale? Obviously, there is no one right answer, or else every salesperson and businessperson in the world would be employing it. But there are some guidelines that you can follow which will put you on the right path.

If you did not already realize this, now is a good time to make you aware: perception is reality. This is especially true in the world of sales. If the customer perceives you to be a swindler, or a less-than-reliable person, then that is what you are. If the customer perceives your product to be of poor quality, then it is. You have to make the customer feel at ease, and convince him that you (and your product) are legit.

Often, the first representation of your business that a customer will see is your advertising output. The flyers, posters, and brochures that you have created will give the customer his first impression of you and your company, which, as we noted, is vital to your success. You absolutely must project positively from your ads.

Therefore, it is worth your while to invest in quality commercial printing for your advertising campaign. Do not try to save money by doing it yourself. And certainly do not try to save money by printing less-than-stellar materials. Go to a reputable company, such as PrintPlace.com, and get full color materials printed. These things will look so good, and give customers such a good image of your business, that you will quickly make up the money you spent in getting them printed.

Nothing tells a customer that you are a professional – that you know what you are doing – that you care about your product – better than attractive, colorful ads and flyers. If there is one guideline that I can give you that will help you with your customer relations, it is what I have been stressing throughout this article: never, ever skimp on your advertising budget. Make a company like PrintPlace your friend, and use their services often.
If you do, chances are customers will perceive you as being of high quality, which means that is exactly what you are!
Kaye Z. Marks

How to Create Culturally Appealing Ads

Culture is the beliefs, social norms and traits of a group. Culture affects everyone in everything they do. From personal relationships to the business culture at work, the way we conduct ourselves is defined. Culture helps us understand each other.

When you are creating your advertising strategy, you need to think about your target audience and the cultures that define them. Cross-cultural communication tries to lessen the negative impact of clashing cultural differences by assembling common frameworks for people of different cultures to interact in. In the business world, cross cultural communication is used in areas such as negotiations, human resources, Web site design, and of course, advertising.

Products are generally designed and marketed at a domestic audience. When companies want to take their business international, they generally take their advertising campaign with them. However, the advertising campaign used domestically will rarely work internationally. Different perceptions and values exist abroad, which leaves the original advertising campaign obsolete. Therefore, it is vital to any cross-cultural campaign to understand the cultures you are going to advertise to.

Here are a few things to consider when launching a cross-cultural advertising campaign. Language. Okay, duh. You know that there could be language barriers or nuances that need to be worked out to get your message across. You should consult with a native speaker, if possible, to check that none of your language is offensive and means what you think it means.

Even the big guys make this kind of mistake. For instance, Ford marketed the Pinto in Brazil. Sales were falling rapidly and they did not know why until someone told them that Brazilians did not want to drive a car whose name means ‘tiny male genitals’ in their language.

In addition, the ideas behind the language used needs to be suited for many cultures. Mainly religious cultures disapprove of one game manufacturer’s slogan to “Challenge Everything.” Religious cultures do not challenge their religious leaders and their gods.

The way you communicate. How you present information can make cultures cringe or accept your message with open arms. For example, you can communicate explicitly or implicitly. Explicit advertising communication assumes the customer does not know any background information or anything related to the product. The United States uses explicit communication. Implicit advertising communication assumes the customer is well informed about the product and related topics, and that the customers will understand the message from what is implied. Japan uses implicit communication.

Colors, numbers and images. Just like colors can mean something to gangs, in different cultures, colors have meanings. For instance, in China, red is considered a lucky color. In Japan, black is considered unlucky. If you use color printing, or even if you do not by using the standard black and white motif, be careful where you use these colors.

Numbers can also be considered unlucky or lucky. In the United States, the number 13 is considered unlucky and is not usually used in advertising. In Japan, the numbers four and nine are considered unlucky because of their pronunciation.

Images or photos can also offend cultural norms. Women in bathing suits on billboards are common in the United States, but infuriate people in the Middle East.

Consider cultural values. If a culture values its religion, it is best not to poke fun at any religious leader or image. For example, if you want to advertise in Asia, it is not a good idea to poke fun at Buddha. If a culture relies on and values family, do not downplay family values or promote individuality.
Kaye Z. Marks