Do You Use Very Subtle Selling Like These People?
I’m sure you know there’s several ways of selling something to people (whether it’s an idea, or a product).
For instance, there’s the “hard sell” approach used by salespeople, where after the pitch, the closing techniques are brought into play, to clinch the deal. (And yes, these techniques do work - I’ve earned some nice product commissions this way.)
And then there’s what I call Very Subtle Selling. Let me explain…
I’m doing research for a product I hope to launch in February 2009, and I came across a beautiful example of Very Subtle Selling:
It was a ScanAlert press release from 2007, in which they announced the results of an analysis they’d done on 2.6 million online sales transactions - and according to their studies, shoppers were taking 80% longer to buy things in 2007 than in 2005. (You can see the press release here - it’s in PDF format.)
Anyway, while the content was useful for the product I’m working on, what particularly fascinated me was the gently persuasive way in which they showed how “cautious shoppers” were on the increase, and one of the ways of increasing sales was to increase trust.
They never explicitly made the connection, but right at the end of the press release was their company’s “bio”, which explained that they provide a HACKER SAFE trustmark for sites to display, as one of the ways for a site to increase trust.
The press release thus provided valuable information for those who sell on the Internet, but it also provided a justification to potential buyers of its products - that increasing the perceived trust can increase sales!
To my mind, this is a brilliant example of Very Subtle Selling. Nowhere are they throwing tantrums and demanding people buy now or else.
The subtle communication of that press release is, “Hey… here’s a good reason you might want to consider using trustmarks (which we happen to provide).”
Think about the people who buy trustmarks. Many of them are going to be in corporations, and answerable to someone higher up in the corporate ladder. The press release gives them the justification they need to spend money on a trustmark. If their boss asks them why they’re spending the money, all they need to do is pull out the press release - nice and simple!
Very Subtle Selling isn’t the best way of selling in all contexts (i.e. a salesperson probably won’t make a whole bunch of commission just being subtle), but there are times when it can be much more persuasive than an “in-your-face” sales pitch.
A good toolkit usually has lots of tools in it, of different shapes and sizes - because one tool doesn’t always do the job. Similarly, being an Optimal Persuader is partly about knowing lots of different ways of doing things, and knowing when to use (or not use) a particular technique or strategy.
So make sure your toolkit has more than item one in it, and get hold of your free copy of 7 Secrets To Optimal Persuasion to give yourself the advantage that others don’t yet have.
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