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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
A face-to-face sales force is the secret weapon of many thriving corporations. There are many benefits of direct sales, and with the right team interacting with their business-class customers, Fortune 500 companies are able to drive revenue and increase market share exponentially.
Let’s take a look at the advantages of direct selling and 5 reasons why in-person B2B sales is so effective.
Let’s face it, businesspeople are busy! With packed schedules and to-do lists a mile long, they often don’t have time to research new office supply vendors or stay up to date on the latest telecom deals. They also don’t have time for a complicated sales process that takes their attention away from running their businesses.
Business-to-business direct sales representatives solve both of these problems. One of the advantages of direct selling is that reps are able to efficiently educate business owners about specific products and services, leaving out superfluous details and highlighting what might be of real use. Then, with a high sense of urgency and an underlying respect for the customer’s time, customers are able to sign sales agreements on the spot.
Skilled B2B sales representatives do much more than their titles suggest. Rather than simply peddling products and services, they serve as trained consultants with an eye for increasing profits. Another advantage of direct selling is that by sitting down with a customer face-to-face, sales reps are able to ask open-ended questions and suggest solutions that will increase efficiency or provide bottom-line cost savings.
Interactions between B2B direct sales reps and their customers tend to be discussions about strategy, rather than one party “pitching” another. For example, armed with product and industry knowledge, an in-person sales representative might help a business owner determine whether breaking an existing contract might be advantageous in the long-run.
Everyone is bombarded on a daily basis with phone calls and emails – but businesspeople get the brunt of it. This means that marketers’ attempts to reach a commercial market are all the more likely to be ignored. As a result, many business owners remain in the dark about the products and services that might actually be of value to them.
It’s easy for business owners and their employees to screen telemarketers and delete promotional emails. But turning away a friendly human being visiting their place of business is different. By connecting face-to-face, not only do sales reps capture the attention of busy businesspeople, they also get them thinking about cost-saving or revenue-enhancing opportunities that might not have been on their priority lists.
As a whole, business owners are thoughtful, intelligent, and inquisitive people. They shoulder great responsibility and are accustomed to weighing decisions carefully. This is why a knowledgeable in-person sales representative can be extremely helpful. Sales reps are able to guide their customers through the buying process -- answering questions, addressing concerns, and adapting to the pace of the customer. Ultimately, they are able to provide any information or assurances a business owner requires to make a confident decision.
Furthermore, even in today’s digital age, most businesses are accustomed to conducting business face-to-face – which makes this form of outsourced sales a natural fit. The right B2B sales team is professional in appearance and demeanor and is able to effectively connect with their customers in their own place of business.
Last, but certainly not least, direct sales is effective in the B2B channel because as with any channel, relationships built in person are the most authentic and long-lasting. Nothing can replace eye contact, a firm handshake, and a shared laugh.
Interacting face to face ensures an optimized customer experience, which business owners appreciate more than anyone. After a positive, completely customized interaction with a brand, everyone from mom-and-pop shop owners to the heads of large corporations can’t help but to become loyal customers.
Do you agree that direct sales is an effective revenue-driver in the B2B channel? Do you know more advantages of direct selling? We’d love to hear your thoughts! Tweet us @Cydcor and tell us what you think.
As businesses develop their strategies for growth, more and more management teams are recognizing that outsourced sales and marketing can be their secret weapon to achieve their company’s revenue goals. Outsourcing marketing activities can provide significant benefits including fewer costs, faster growth, and greater efficiency. By enlisting the help of a sales and marketing company like Cydcor, businesses can edge out their competitors and achieve their sales goals while focusing their internal resources on key projects to drive business forward.
An expert, full-service outsourced sales company can effectively drive sales growth while also reducing the need to devote as much of your marketing budget and resources to recruiting, training, managing, and retaining competent sales staff. Cydcor can rapidly launch and grow sales programs staffed with teams who are fully prepared to represent your brand, serve your customers, and deliver sales results.
By outsourcing your sales function to a company that specializes in driving sales revenue growth, your company can benefit from having a focused, full-time sales team whose only objective is to sell and help drive revenue. Cydcor’s sales teams understand how to quickly and efficiently make an impact on customers. While your internal team works to develop your business, a dedicated outsourced sales and marketing team will be calling on decades of expertise, experience, and sales cycle knowledge to acquire new customers to fuel that growth.
While it’s certainly important to partner with the right outsourced sales solution provider, entrusting companies like Cydcor, a leader in outsourced sales and marketing services, offers the benefits of reduced financial risk: Your organization will only pay for the results it gets.
Working with an outsourced sales and marketing leader gives your company the opportunity to take advantage of years of experience in direct customer acquisition. Outsourced sales and marketing has been one of the best-kept secrets of some of the best-known brands and Fortune 500 companies in the United States and Canada for more than 20 years. With well-honed, face-to-face and multi-channel customer acquisition techniques, outsourcing can deliver faster, better results through a tested sales approach to help your company achieve its revenue goals.
Outsourcing provides a level of flexibility that might be too costly and demanding of resources to attempt internally. Outsourced sales specialists are built to handle rapidly changing sales needs and can quickly grow programs or shift resources where they are needed most to keep costs down and maximize productivity and results.
Building effective sales programs can take months—if not years—of testing, adjusting, and applying learnings before coming across a winning formula. But by outsourcing to an expert sales company like Cydcor, companies can take advantage of years of experience developing programs that swiftly deliver results. We understand how to quickly gather and apply data, adjust pricing, and create impactful offers and incentives to acquire more customers and increase revenue. Our sales processes have been honed and developed based on thousands of customer interactions, and our clients have been reaping the benefits.
Onboarding new clients and launching new programs can be challenging for internal marketing departments who may not have the infrastructure and resources in place to handle the additional workload. Cydcor, however, has a tested pilot program through which we’ve launched dozens of new campaigns. We can quickly and easily mobilize teams to introduce new products and establish territory. In addition, our experienced, in-house marketing team works in partnership with our internal sales campaign management team to develop a marketing plan including specialized brand materials and sales collateral catered toward our unique customer acquisition approach.
By outsourcing your organization’s sales and marketing functions to a leader in outsourced sales like Cydcor, your company can empower your internal team, while ensuring consistent sales results. Enlisting Cydcor’s help to build a world-class sales and marketing program gives organizations a competitive edge allowing them to save money, acquire customers faster, rapidly boost revenue, and quickly and efficiently growth their business.
Ready to go beast mode? Beasts at sales are energetic, engaged, and capable of accomplishing just about anything! Unleashing your inner sales beast means stepping up your game to succeed at sales. Being a sales beast is a state of mind that drives you to be the best at what you do, but it also has a lot to do with how you behave and the image you project. While it’s important to trust your animal instincts, sometimes it takes a little good, old-fashioned discipline before things become instinctual.
By practicing the five B.E.A.S.T factors – body language, eye contact, awesome attitude, smile, and timing – you can start building great habits proven to help you succeed at sales.
Body Language:Your body is communicating with customers even before you’ve said a word. It’s important to understand the message you’re sending. Leaning on counters, tables, or desks as customers approach sends the message you’re bored and disinterested in speaking to them. It also doesn’t look very professional. Good posture has been shown in studies to make you feel more confident and prepared to make a sale. Facing the customer during a sales pitch can feel too confrontational, instead, stand to their side while you show them information. Don’t invade their personal space by getting too close, and avoid touching them other than a handshake, a high five, or a fist bump. Many people prefer not to be touched by strangers.
Eye Contact: Ever heard someone described as “shifty-eyed,” or have you noticed when somebody won’t make eye contact when they talk to you? It’s never a good thing. Keeping consistent eye contact helps you earn the customer’s trust by demonstrating that you’re confident and that you believe in what you’re telling them. It communicates sincerity and genuine interest. It also allows you to connect with the customer, build rapport, and improve their engagement in the conversation – all customer service wins. By focusing on the customer’s eyes, you encourage them to pay attention and listen to you, and you can gauge whether they understand what you’re saying.
Awesome Attitude: By working in sales, you are helping to connect customers with services and products. Thinking of your role in terms of serving the customer, rather than just selling to him or her, helps you create a better experience for the customer, and most likely will result in more sales. That’s because people like to buy from people who make them feel good, cared for. People are busy, and not everyone is going to be polite when you approach them to make a sales pitch. But there’s no excuse for a salesperson to be rude, and it certainly won’t help you succeed at sales. When you maintain a great, confident, and friendly attitude, a customer who has already said no might change his or her mind later. But a customer you’ve been rude to is lost forever, and he or she might encourage others to avoid you, your product, or your company.
Smile: Studies have shown what you probably already know instinctively, smiling makes people feel good about you. Have you ever been in a bad mood and tried to keep a scowl on your face while the person you’re talking to is smiling. It’s tough, isn’t it? Smiling is contagious. It puts other people at ease, helps to change their mood, and most importantly, it leaves them with a good impression of you and what you have to say. While learning to smile consistently, and in a way that feels sincere and not forced, take practice, it’s probably the simplest thing you can do to improve your chances of making the sale.
Timing: Even when you do everything else right, the success of your sales pitch can sometimes come down to timing. Starting your pitch when the customer is too far away can force you to shout at them. Waiting until they are right in front of you can create an awkward feeling of intimacy. When approaching customers in person, start speaking to them when they are about seven feet away. Don’t wait until they have already passed you, or else you’ll be speaking to the back of their head, which puts you at a disadvantage.
Unleashing your inner sales beast takes more consistency and discipline than the name might suggest. Becoming a sales beast requires developing great communication techniques and professional habits that make the customer feel that you sincerely care about them and have their best interests at heart. The best sales beasts don’t depend on their killer instincts; instead, they use their B.E.A.S.T factors to convey confidence, sincerity, and helpfulness, which add up to the kind of creature qualities customers can’t resist.
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.
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.