Everything old is new again – at least when it comes to marketing strategy. While you might think of door-to-door sales as a thing of the past, it’s actually a highly effective method for acquiring new customers in today’s modern climate. Many thriving corporations are seeing the benefits of adding door-to-door selling to their marketing mix, and here’s why:

Advertisements are easily tuned out.

Commercials are everywhere these days. From billboards and TV commercials, to social media and mobile advertising, we're flooded with so many advertising messages that it’s easy for all of it to blend together into one ocean of noise that easily fades into the background.

This is why door-to-door sales should be part of your marketing strategy. Unlike any other advertising medium, in-person sales reps create real connections with potential customers. They communicate from one human to another, customizing their sales pitch and even their body language and tone in a way that even the most sophisticated digital advertising and artificial intelligence can’t. Well-trained salespeople are able make the potential buyer feel comfortable, attracting their interest and initiating a discussion, which is the first and most important step of acquiring new customers.

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The competition is fierce.

With so many companies vying for consumers’ attention, it’s extraordinarily difficult to stand out. Even the most creative billboards and eye-catching social media strategies are bound to get lost in the mix.

Door-to-door marketing is a secret weapon for any company looking to carve out space in a crowded market. Not only is it a less common approach to customer acquisition, but it is highly effective at reaching people who have been unresponsive to other forms of customer outreach. Actively engaging face-to-face provides the opportunity to first, inform customers about products they might not have otherwise known about; and second, influence their decision-making process.

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People buy from people.

As much as technology has changed over the years, human nature has not. There is no digital replacement for connecting face-to-face, human-to-human. A commercial can’t ask a business owner to describe the challenges facing his business. An internet ad can’t inquire about the needs of a growing family, make eye contact, or interpret facial expressions. But a skilled salesperson can.

Through door-to-door sales, companies are able to localize their marketing efforts and connect with customers on a personal level. By engaging one-on-one, salespeople are able to learn about the needs, wants, and concerns of their customers throughout the sales process. By building rapport, they are able to establish trust, which in turn translates not only to the consumer’s decision to buy – but to remain loyal to the respective brand.

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It’s highly adaptable.

The launch of a new product or service is expensive and time-consuming through most marketing channels. Whether you’re paying for market research, air time, graphic design, public relations, or anything in between, the expenses add up quickly.

This is another key differentiator of door-to-door marketing. Not only is it more cost-effective, but it’s dramatically faster to implement changes and market new products. When you already have an outside sales team in place, launching a new product is as simple as educating the salespeople about your new offering. The right door-to-door sales team should be able to start selling immediately and at no added cost to your company.

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Success is 100% measurable.

The tricky part about most forms of marketing is that the success or failure of a campaign is often a gray area. While a given ad might enhance brand recognition or contribute to the buzz about a new product, results are difficult to quantify.

Unlike advertising campaigns, there is no doubt as to whether a door-to-door sales strategy has been successful. The number of new customers acquired is crystal clear, allowing companies to track progress, calculate ROI, and make changes accordingly.

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There is a reason one of the oldest professions, face-to-face sales has seen a resurgence over the past decade: it works! No matter how advanced digital marketing becomes, people will always prefer to buy from people. It’s human nature. While the smartest sales strategy is diversify your sale and marketing tactics, including a door-to-door element to your marketing mix remains a highly effective way to increase revenue and drive consistent sales results.

Technology is changing rapidly, but no matter how advanced digital media and market research becomes, direct sales is still one of the best ways to acquire new customers and grow your business. There are just some things a computer can’t do, and until they can, people talking to other people through face-to-face sales is still the best way to build trust, overcome objections, and turn prospects into buyers.

Here’s why face-to-face sales is one of the most effective ways to acquire new customers:

• Building Rapport and Trust: Most customers spend mere seconds reading and watching ads on TV, the internet, and in magazines, but it can be much harder to give a real person the brush off quite as quickly. That means that direct salespeople have more time, and a greater opportunity, to build rapport with and identify the needs of potential customers. They have the chance to make a case for why the person should trust them in a way that other sales and marketing channels simply cannot.

• Answering Questions in Real Time: When a customer researches a product or service online, they may give up if they can’t find the information they’re looking for or if the service doesn’t seem to fit their needs. In-person salespeople, however, can answer customer questions on-the-spot to keep the conversation flowing and to help customers through the purchasing process.

• Addressing Unique Objections: Traditional media and online marketing can address and overcome some customer objections, but they can’t respond to individual concerns that only apply to that one person. Face-to-face salespeople can address someone’s unique situation to get at exactly what is holding them back from making a purchase.

• Educating the Customer: Most people don’t pay much attention to the details when they watch commercials or view ads online, but a direct salesperson can make sure the customer understands why the product or services will benefit them. They can educate them about the product in a way that highlights its value to that individual.

• Recognizing Non-Verbal Cues: People communicate a lot with their faces and bodies, and no online marketing algorithm can replace a real person’s ability to pick up on these non-verbal cues. Face-to-face salespeople can slow down when the customer looks confused, pick up the pace when they look bored, or go for the close when the customer looks excited.

• Putting a Face to a Brand: Marketers spend a lot of money building their brands’ personalities, but no matter how well they’ve accomplished that goal, nobody is worried about hurting Arrowhead Water’s feelings. But when there’s a real human being standing in front of you, suddenly it’s not just a product or a service, it’s a person. A direct sales rep becomes the face of the product, and when customers like the person connected with the brand, they are more likely to buy. People like buying things their friends recommend- buying a product from a salesperson you like and respect is the next best thing.

• Banking on Reciprocity: Studies have shown that people feel a strong drive to return the favor when somebody does something nice for them. This puts face-to-face salespeople at an advantage. When they give their time and energy to potential customers, people feel that they should make a purchase in appreciation of the person’s effort and great customer service. When they don’t buy, some people feel guilty for having wasted the salesperson’s time or they may feel that they are letting the salesperson down.

• Getting Referrals: Referrals are one of the best ways to get new customers, but few people are willing to hand over contact information for their friends and family to a computer or phone solicitor. In-person salespeople, however, have proven themselves trustworthy and likable. Customers feel like they’re doing their friends and family a favor by referring them to an honest sales rep who will offer them great customer service.

Some people may call it old-fashioned, but direct and face-to-face sales work. The reason in-person sales is most effective comes down to one factor: people. People relate better to other people than they do to TV commercials, online marketing, billboards, print ads, or any other form of advertising. It’s natural. Direct sales are built on relationships with a specific sales rep, and it allows customers to feel a personal connection to a product or service. Face-to-face sales build trust, which gives the customer the confidence to buy. That’s why in-person sales are a smart investment for any company looking to grow.

Here is Cydcor's review of Cutting Edge Marketing Analytics: Real World Cases and Data Sets for Hands On Learning by Rajkumar Venkatesan, Paul Farris, and Ronald T. Wilcox:

About Cutting Edge Marketing Analytics: Cutting Edge Marketing Analytics calls itself a practical guide to modern marketing analytics. It looks to introduce today’s most valuable marketing methods and tools by introducing case studies that apply analytic techniques to real problems.

Each chapter of the book provides technical notes that look to show statistical background as well as case studies. All the case studies provided are accompanied by real date and used by the protagonists to make decisions. Methods and tools provided by the author include product analytics, customer analytics, and the effective implementation of such analytics into your business or organization.

The authors look to help people identify the right data and analytic techniques by conducting the analysis and obtaining the insights from those data points. They also look to connect those insights to strategic decision-making.

Head to Cydcor's YouTube page for additional information about the company.

Why Cydcor recommends this to future leaders: This book is an excellent roadmap for managers looking to make the most out of marketing resources. The material presented strikes the right balance of rigorous analysis and strategic relevance.

Our favorite part: Cutting Edge Marketing Analytics takes an excellent look into how the Internet and mobile technologies available have combined to create an unprecedented level of insight into consumer behavior and customer preferences. This mastery of marketing and customer analytics has become the ‘table stakes’ for understanding and pleasing the customer. This is a great book for practitioners looking for real world applications.

Have you checked out Cydcor? Click here to view our Cydcor blog with leadership, business, and sales advice!

This week Cydcor wanted to post a round-up of our favorite content on Cydcor Reviews, our book review site.  Recommended for team members by team members.

Linchpin was written by marketing expert Seth Godin, who believes that finding career success today depends on learning how to market one’s self.  Linchpins are an upcoming role in the world of tech, start-ups and the age of entrepreneurship.  The linchpins are those that come up with new solutions, break the mold, and foster creativity in companies.  Linchpin is about learning how to break out of the systemic roles traditionally in the workplace and implement new ideas where you work.  Often, the linchpins are the indispensable people in the background, empowering others, but staying out of the spotlight.  They often have a less specific role in the company, but rather focus on specific needs as the work scape morphs and changes.  Godin believes everyone has something brilliant to offer, and being able to harness that brilliance and bring it to the workplace can equal success and happiness.

The Tipping Point by Malcom Gladwell is an in depth look at how ideas get made into wildly popular companies, books or trends.  Everything from television shows to teen smoking, popularity of ideas is modeled like an epidemic.  There are carriers, those that evangelize the idea and get people excited about it.  Malcolm Gladwell explains that there are three types of people involved in spreading an idea: connectors, mavens and salespeople.  Connectors are people with a wide social network that are good at creating communities to rally for the concept.  Mavens are knowledgeable experts that enjoy educating the public on their area of expertise.  Salespeople are gifted at drumming up excitement for new things.

Lincoln by David Herbert covers the life of Abraham Lincoln, the 16^th president of the United States.  Lincoln was raised in rural Indiana in a poor household.  The book follows Lincoln’s perspective as he picked himself up through poverty and through political savvy made his way into prominence quickly.  The book examines his character, his key advisors, and reveals his human flaws as well as his greatness.  Biographies and autobiographies are excellent sources of inspiration for anyone looking to achieve professional goals. Lincoln is an especially beloved figure for Americans because he was raised in poverty and came from a disadvantage to well educated men raised in wealthy homes in cities.

Competitive Advantage is a model for creating and managing an enterprise successfully.  Porter offers tools for analysis that are taught in MBA programs around the country.  Michael Porter is a professor at Harvard Business School, and lectures and writes prolifically on managing a business.  Tactics such as the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats analysis teaches critical thinking that is crucial to successfully leading a company.  Porter also discusses strategy at length, and helps businesses to either produce a scale economy or define a niche that will keep them profitable.

Onward is the story of how Starbucks Chief Executive Officer Howard Schultz turned Starbucks around after a downturn in financial performance.  Schultz explains that while the recession definitely had an impact in the loss in profits for the massive international coffee and specialty company, the biggest factor was a shift in company culture.  Onward explains Shultz’ decision to return to the CEO position after a departure to implement a hands on strategy to bring his company to its most profitable year ever.  Between 2008 and 2011, Starbucks was able to find its way again and Schultz continues to lead it to record profits every year.

Want to learn more about Cydcor? Check us out on the Cydcor LinkedIn page for our career advice, job news and more.

This week, the Cydcor team highlights another Seth Godin treasure, Linchpin.  For more Seth Godin wisdom, see our Cydcor review on Permission Marketing.

Description of this book: Linchpin was written by marketing expert Seth Godin, who believes that finding career success today depends on learning how to market one’s self.  Linchpins are an upcoming role in the world of tech, start-ups and the age of entrepreneurship.  The linchpins are those that come up with new solutions, break the mold, and foster creativity in companies.  Linchpin is about learning how to break out of the systemic roles traditionally in the workplace and implement new ideas where you work.  Often, the linchpins are the indispensable people in the background, empowering others, but staying out of the spotlight.  They often have a less specific role in the company, but rather focus on specific needs as the work scape morphs and changes.  Godin believes everyone has something brilliant to offer, and being able to harness that brilliance and bring it to the workplace can equal success and happiness.

Cydcor recommends this book to professionals because: Godin has written many bestselling books on how marketing works and how companies behave, this book is specifically how to manage your career and create success and satisfaction at work.  Godin explains that everyone must strive to be a linchpin, to become indispensable, or suffer.  The job markets today are focused on efficiency and creativity, so only those making the most impact will get ahead.

Our favorite part: “There are no longer any great jobs where people tell you exactly what to do”.  Godin highlights the importance of taking initiative, learning to work autonomously and bridging those gaps between being managed and over-managing.  Flexibility and motivation are the new keys to success.

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 Everyone has friends that say, “Oh I just watch the Super Bowl for the commercials.”  Indeed, big game advertising is easily the largest ad-spending day of the year, up 70% in the last ten years.  Between production cost and airtime, one ad can cost a company $10 million to air.  As a sales company, the team at Cydcor is fascinated by the tactics companies take to build their brands, and the commercials are informative as they are fun. Here are our takeaways from Cydcor:  

Social Media is huge.  Brands and Twitter users live-tweeted the game, commenting immediately on the commercials, sending companies real-time feedback. Many were hoping to strike lightening and garner new followers and make headlines the way Oreo did last year.

‍Generation Y loves nostalgia and sarcasm.  From the hilarious “commercial that never was” online campaign from Newcastle to seeing the men of Full House on a Chobani ad, the marketing this year was clearly targeted to children of the 90’s.  

People will engage with your brand for a chance to win.  Esurance led the biggest post-game trend by announcing it was giving away $1.5 million to a tweeter using the hashtag #EsuranceSave30.

‍Puppies are still a viable tactic.  Even one of the most masculine brands could not resist using puppies as a ploy.  The adorable story of a puppy that is best “buds” with the iconic Clydesdale horse was enough to make anyone swoon.  Sometimes just being cute pays off.

‍The bigger the purchase, the bigger the ad.  Car commercials were the biggest production, featuring Jaguar comparing their product to the cunning and precision of British villains and James Franco being dramatically awesome for Ford.  It makes sense that companies asking consumers to make such a large purchase would have the most memorable ads.  It’s a good reminder that larger sales prospects require more effort.

What did you learn about sales and advertising this weekend? Did you have a favorite commercial? Let Cydcor know on Twitter!

To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others

Cydcor team members recommend this refreshing look at what it means to sell in To Sell is Human.

Author:  Daniel H. Pink

Description of this Book: Daniel Pink’s To Sell Is Human is about the art and science of selling, not only professionally but also in our personal lives. Selling is not just person going door-to-door selling products, or someone trying to make a commission quota. Everyone in society is now in sales in some particular way: selling their ideas, personalities, or projects that they want to get done. Pink looks at all aspects of the modern workforce and comes up with a great guide for anyone struggling with taking on the identity of a salesperson today.

Why People Should Read This Book: The book offers many concepts with actual statistical data and scientific evidence to back up points. Pink’s book succeeds at clarifying the typical view of sales as a negative connotation. We often motivate ourselves for all the wrong reasons when it comes to selling, and that’s not just for selling products. The book is very accessible and easy-to-read. Although this topic has been discussed to lengths in other sales books, Pink finds a way to put his own spin on the theory of selling in our world today.

My Favorite Part: Pink stresses that the old selling environment has changed significantly. Buyers now have the same information that sellers have, which used to give salespeople an advantage. He comes up with a new phrase for successful sales called Always Be Closing. Along with that comes the new ABCs: Attunement (perspective of audience), Buoyancy (handle rejection well) , and Clarity (help others see the whole picture). Other advice he offers is six successors to the elevator pitch, which allows a seller to propose something interesting to compel a conversation.

Want more recommendations from Cydcor?  Check out this similar Cydcor review of Crucial Conversations.

Cydcor Reviews: Onward

Author: Howard Schultz

Reviewer: Gail Michalak, Cydcor VP of Marketing and Communications

Description of this book:  Onward is the story of how Starbucks Chief Executive Officer Howard Schultz turned Starbucks around after a downturn in financial performance.  Schultz explains that while the recession definitely had an impact in the loss in profits for the massive international coffee and specialty company, the biggest factor was a shift in company culture.  Onward explains Shultz’ decision to return to the CEO position after a departure to implement a hands on strategy to bring his company to its most profitable year ever.  Between 2008 and 2011, Starbucks was able to find its way again and Schultz continues to lead it to record profits every year.

Why people should read this book:  Gaining insight into how a multinational corporation is managed is a powerful experience.  Howard Schultz not only reveals his focus for how to drive Starbucks back to glory, but is able to admit mistakes in his character and company strategy.  The book reads more like a memoir than a business book, making it interesting for anyone with a larger than life character and an obsession with producing superior product.  This is a great read for any manager looking for insight into how to deal emotions, negative push back, and implementing changes in corporate culture.

My favorite part: Howard Schultz frequently admits how personally he takes criticism against him, even over something as simple as seeing a competing cup of coffee in the hands of a stranger.  He isn’t afraid to be self deprecating, exposing a very passionate and very realistic person behind the success.  There are many examples of the book when Schultz acted on impulse—from writing an emotional internal memo that was leaked to the press, to throwing temper tantrums over breakfast sandwiches.

Gail Michalak is the VP of Marketing and Communications at Cydcor in Westlake Village, CA, where she overseas efforts in marketing, corporate communications, public relations, and events for Cydcor.

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Extending its results-proven excellence in outsourced sales services, Cydcor is expanding services into the retail channel through in-store marketing initiatives designed to improve client customer engagement and sales results.

Growing client interest in Cydcor's retail expertise requires the company to add resources and expand to meet retailer needs. Cydcor offices grow top-line sales results through in-store marketing programs, incorporating innovative strategies and leveraging Cydcor's experience in outsourced face-to-face sales engagements on behalf of market leaders.

"Cydcor delivers sales results, and our capable marketing representatives know how to engage, motivate and win new customers for our clients in a range of environments, including in-store,'' said Jim Majeski , Cydcor President. "The outstanding experience and performance of Cydcor's retail sales teams provide a unique marketing package that is measurable and that efficiently produces results.''

"In a challenging economy, retailers must focus on improving the end-to-end shopping experience and winning customer loyalty,'' said Randy Alleyne, Cydcor Vice President of Retail. "Cydcor provides well-trained, retail-branded representatives to help make that happen through quality, results-oriented in-store customer engagements.''

Cydcor meets full service, seasonal support and niche product needs through store-within-a store models. After engaging with Cydcor, territory management teams and retail product experts collaborate with client staff to identify objectives and expectations, and then create and implement scalable, custom programs that translate customer engagement and service into sales.

"In everything we do, Cydcor is focused on serving customers with excellence, serving our clients with distinction and generating results,'' Majeski said. "Our in-store retail support complements the outsourced face-to-face sales work we do that continues to earn us accolades, and achieve results for our clients.''

Last year, Cydcor earned top honors overall for Sales and Marketing Outsourcing in Brown-Wilson Group/Datamonitor "The Black Book of Outsourcing" 2009 annual survey. Among other elite vendor and performance ranking honors, Cydcor earned the survey's highest overall client satisfaction, ranking at 93 percent. Cydcor placed first in 9 of 18 key performance indicators evaluated as part of the annual survey. In four "vendor function'' categories, Cydcor earned top honors in two categories: 1) sales team outsourcing and 2) sales support service.

Cydcor is recruiting talented salespeople to support new in-store marketing initiatives. Interested candidates should send a resume to retailjobs@cydcor.com.