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Increase Sales by Getting Strangers Coming to You

Guest post by: Cheryl A. Clausen

Article Overview: When you were little weren’t you told, “Don’t talk to strangers?” Of course you were. The adults around you told you this to protect you from harm.

Increase Sales by Getting Strangers Coming to You

When you were little weren’t you told, “Don’t talk to strangers?” Of course you were. The adults around you told you this to protect you from harm.

Now that you’re all grown up with far less reason to fear strangers you still don’t like approaching a complete stranger. And you don’t like complete strangers approaching you unless they follow the rules. You expect a stranger to be polite, respectful, and helpful. The instant a stranger asks you for something you’re strongly repelled unless there is obvious peril for the stranger if you don’t come to their rescue.

So here you are in sales and if you don’t get some strangers to buy from you you’re going to starve out of the business. The thought of calling or dropping in on a stranger paralyzes you. Are you done for?

No, there’s hope and an easy solution. Get strangers contacting you. All you have to do is follow the rules and add a couple other elements.

Open the connection by presenting a way to learn more about what you already know they want. You see this done all the time. An ad offers a free report. A letter directs you to a website to get a comparison chart, and many other examples. Even government agencies and hospitals use this easy technique to get strangers to contact them.

And you can too. The key is the information you offer has to specifically address what they’re most concerned about in relation to what they want, what they don’t want, or what they want solved. Once they’ve reached out to get this information you know they’re interested in your offer.

By requesting the information you’re offering they’re raising their hand and saying, “I’m a prospect for you.” Just like you wouldn’t ask a complete stranger to marry you the first time you met you can’t expect every prospect to be ready for an appointment. That’s ok. Simply plan out a natural progression to start a relationship with the prospect so they’re no longer a stranger and don’t feel like you’ve violated the stranger rules. Then help them progress step-by-step until they become a buyer.

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  Match Your Marketing To Your Relationship With Your Market
  Think of Others First If You Want to Increase Sales

Article Tags: adults, appointment, comparison chart, easy solution, elements, government agencies, hospitals, natural progression, peril, relationship, stranger rules, talk to strangers



Related Forum Posts
Simple way to avoid Cold Calling - Gary, A chiropractor I work with hates cold calling (me too!) and he uses a technique to warm people up to using his services - it's so simple! In Sales your dealing with 3 pools of people: 1. Strangers 2. Prospects 3. Returning Customers You need to move people from one pool to the next. We'll concentrate on #1 and #2 as it's most relevant to your question. My Clients does the following (you just have to tailor it to your situation - be creative). My Client (we'll call him Bob) Bob leverages his time and resources to only get people that need his offer (pain relief) to put their hand up. Dealing with Strangers can get expensive and they don't like to be told what to do as they have no trust or relationship built with him. So to get Strangers to put their hands up he writes up an offer with a free report on a particular pain relief - let's say lower back pain (note: he can simply just change lower back pain to neck pain and have a new report). and uses multiple marketing vehicles to promote the Free report - magazines, newspaper, forums, postcards, private clinics etc. The only people picking up this information are the very people Bob would like as customers as they have Lower back pain. Bob's Free report ends with him stating his services and includes a Free in-house Consultation with no obligation. You'd be surprised at how easily Bob converts Strangers into Prospects. Note: They become prospects when they ask for the Free Guide and in exchange provide their contact details. This gives Bob unlimited opportunity to contact them for the Free in-house consultation with no obligation to continue using him. At this stage Bob's ability to close the sale lies in his office providing good customer service, Bob's ability to help the prospect and provide value at the free in-house consultation. Notice, he hasn't had to pick up the phone to COLD-CALL his Stranger pool or his Prospect pool. Hope that example helps to increase your prospecting!
Online Sales and Marketing vs Traditional - Hi Evan, I am noticing that many of the posts in the Sales/Marketing section deal with online marketing, SEM and and SEO and Affiliates. I was wondering if it might be a good idea to separate that section into two; 1) Online Sales and Marketing; 2) Traditional Sales and Marketing
Re: Online Sales and Marketing vs Traditional - [quote="ltrahan":31w9r2iz]Hi Evan, I am noticing that many of the posts in the Sales/Marketing section deal with online marketing, SEM and and SEO and Affiliates. I was wondering if it might be a good idea to separate that section into two; 1) Online Sales and Marketing; 2) Traditional Sales and Marketing[/quote:31w9r2iz] I second the request...
Re: Your Gmail Account can be hacked! - Very informative post , thats why i don't like to use free services for My own business , but still i'm using gmail for some Product Promotion and talking with Strangers And after reading your post i'm going to change my gmail setting right now , Thanks again for sharing
Re: pitching - Friendliness is closely related to the concept of "permission marketing" as articulated by Seth Godin. The subtitle of his book says it all: "Permission Marketing: Turning Strangers into Friends and Friends into Customers." The old method was "interruption marketing" where you suddenly get an ad in your face whether you want it or not...


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