Approaches and Styles - How Do You Want to Get Your Sales?
Hot or Cold, Aggressive or Passive, Short Term or Long Term
So, I wasn't planning to write this post until I saw this post:
Reading the comment thread got me thinking. What's best for my end game? Am I better off coming in hot, being aggressive and going for the short term results or should I come in cooler, be a bit passive and shoot for the long run? Are they even exclusive?
I'm sure there can be a mix of tactics and I could even use both, maybe on different sites but I think it all comes down to my own personality. If my end goal were simply to make the sale, I'd totally go for the aggressive, time's running out, you better hurry, approach.
It can be off-putting to some but, in the end, it tends to get immediate results. However, that's not my goal. I'd love some immediate action but I want to be sure I'm setting myself up for long-term success.
My Take
I want to build relationships and trust with my visitors. I want them to view my opinion as having weight. I truly believe this will lead to more repeat business in the long run and help me to build a stable, platform that will endure over the "OMG, you better do this now or it will be too late!" quick sale approach.
That said, not all products or services lend themselves to the long run. Suppose you're selling event tickets. Sure, there's definitely a sense of urgency, especially if the event is coming up relatively soon. The same can be said for getting in on the ground floor of some stock or business, etc. I can see the more aggressive approach being of use here.
Then again, I'm one of those people that doesn't respond well to the pressure sale nor do I do ultimatums. Anyone coming at me in such a way will lose my business before they ever get close enough to pitch their product. But that's just me.
On the other hand there are those who have a fear of missing out to such a degree that they'll bite any bait that suggests they will. This makes figuring out the appropriate approach difficult at times.
A Place for Each Approach
In the end, I believe both approaches work in different scenarios. It can vary by product or service, target clientele and so on.
As I alluded to before, date based events tend to lead themselves to a more urgent approach, assuming the event is scheduled to come up soon. Trying to build a long term relationship with your visitor when the event is only 1 week away, simply isn't going to work. Coming in a little hot to make that first sale but then sticking with them to build the long term might be a better way of getting things done.
Now, if you're building an affiliate marketing site with products that will be around for a while and want your visitors to trust your opinion and so forth then you might want to take the more passive approach. Give them free information. Help them along the way and, once you build that connection, start making your recommendations.
What I don't really know is an easy way to use both approaches together to get the best of both worlds. If you have any ideas on this, please let me know by commenting below.
How I Currently Operate
I push information to my sites multiple times a week. I don't charge for it and I speak from the heart. My content is my actual opinion. I do this in hopes that others actually read my content and connect with it.
There will always be those that have opposing opinions and I'm fine with that. My hopes are that, those that do agree with my views, start to trust my opinion and, those that don't, tell me why and get a conversation going. That level of interaction will only lead to a better article over-all (unless they're just rude and being obnoxious).
We can go back and forth as to why we feel as we do and I'll either sway their opinion, they mine or we may just never see eye-to-eye. That's OK. Whatever the outcome, the interaction is welcome. Hopefully others will engage as well, as I did in the thread listed above.
It's engagement like that that leads to, for lack of a better word, enlightenment. Until the post linked above, I wasn't even aware of Russell Brunson or any of the products and services he's linked to. Frankly, I think he's quite aggressive but he's done very well by being so. Now, I have a ton of new material for one of my sites! All because I read the comment thread and it got me thinking.
What Do You Think?
What's better, hot or cold? Do you get invovled in the comment threads, in such a way, either here or on your own sites? What are the pros and cons of coming in hot or cold that you can see? Which one is going to offer the best long term results for those of us looking years down the road?
Thanks for taking the time to read. I hope you take the time to comment,
Scott
Recent Comments
11
I read the aforementioned post. Hold my hands up, I had never heard of either of them so it was all new information in regard to the people concerned. The concept of either is not new, however and I tend to agree with you that they both have a place.
My approach is part of a long term plan. If I had to be ruthlessly honest I would say that I don't envisage being able to see the results for at least five or more years. Then again, it's not your 'run-of-the-mill' concept I'm working on.
The hard hitting, pressured approach would not work for me. That said, it might well have a place when it comes to 'date' specific events that may well become part of the bigger picture.
Much of the 'business' technical stuff is a bit above my pay grade.
As the phrase goes "Horses for Courses"
I prefer the cool approach. This is probably because I don't react well to the hard or hot sell.
I often find the hot sell leaves you selling one product and people removing themselves from your list before you can promote anymore to them.
Derek
My approach is the "cooler" approach, because I've been more interested in putting the information out there than I have on pushing for sales. I put something up for sale on every other post, or sometimes on every third one. That being said, that's my niche website. For my WA website, I'm being more aggressive, making sure every page has links. However, no "now or never" tactics.
I love to interact with commenters on my site, and do so with every one I receive. Thinking of doing a giveaway in such a way that folks have to comment in order to get the gift. Any good ideas on how to do that?
I don't see either method as being better. I think they depend largely on the personality and intent of the seller.
I like the incentive to comment. I wonder what kind of quality such comments would be.
I'm not sure how to go about that short of manually sending the reward to the commenter's email address. I'm not sure an automated way exists for the commenting system. It would be interesting to find out.
I don't have all the details worked out but I did order in an extra box of books, so just have to figure out how and when to do it.
I don't know of any existing plugins that automate comments in this fashion, not to say there aren't. But you could go to Fiverr and find someone to write you a plug-in or some PHP code to insert into your existing theme. Shouldn't be too hard to send a bonus via email upon
your comment approval.
If you manage to make it happen I'd be interested in the how you accomplish the task and the results. I'd be happy to help you recoup some of your expense on it for a copy of the plug-in or the code.
Cheers
Michael
I'm like you unless it's an upcoming event, the buy it now or it will disappear forever approach won't work. I get it all the time in my email. When I see the urgent headline, I delete it.
I've seen so many of those that I've grown weary of them. I've saved some of those so-called last-ditch effort links later, only to find that they were still active and promoting the same buy it now offer that was supposed to go away at midnight that same day/evening.
For me, that leads to distrust. I didn't try the links one or even two days after, but weeks after the promotion was available. To me that kind of marketing says, I don't mean what I say, so why should I want to buy what they sell?
I agree with you, and those fake countdown to expiration ones really aggravate me.
It's so true, it's definitely off-putting when you feel like you've been lied to.
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Enjoyable read and my own style is steady consistent passive aggressive which seems to work