1. Uncertainty leads to high loads of buying inertia! So you might want to understand – exactly, what will break that or loosen the purses. Remember, your customer has more difficulty in verbalising what will make them actually finalise & commit.
What worked very well during normal times is unlikely to break ice under today’s circumstances. So, be you may want to be more decisive in your approach, either ways.
2. Most buying may be in the realm of need-based action with immediate-applicability or solves-a-big-problem types.
But then - dont forget that the need for a particular product or service may be seen in as many different ways as there are several buyers to acquire them.
3. The stages of speculation, anticipation & curiosity will play big in the engagement cycle. Treat each one of those instances with decent attention and look at it as opportunities to create an experience of customer interest.
4. When the entire world knows that you have no option but to reduce prices & sales volumes have hugely contracted – making announcements that you have indeed discounted is not going to earn any brownie points and will also not give you any additional conversion factor. It is only going to lengthen your closing window and heighten the speculative phase. It will also reduce the grip on any leverages you may have!
5. Applying promotional techniques of what someone does in one product-segment to elsewhere, without contextual value conversion is going to be waste of monies - more so, now, than ever. Don’t expect a catastrophe to provide the magic carpet for hitching a ride towards getting any extra attention, you may desire! Such gimmicks or any other sabre wielding with overly-concerned-philosophical catchy lines in your pitch will also not help in getting additional benefit/cover for your selling
6. It helps to get ahead of a speculative offer point and be proactively facilitative. You may want to device a framework for the customer to play the game and win in it! Create the casino effect for customer to win.
Measures of eliciting prospective customer driven endorsement in each sale with metrics based transparency determination is essential. Gamifying purchase needs to have the color of a secured buying with optional third party assurance.
7. Create combined & joint offers with partners which reduces the effort & possible fluctuations in cost of ownership to customer – bringing that much more deterministic view of the costs for purchase. This should also clearly create a cost benefit of micro-aggregation buying by customer. Bundling additional services and accessories or associated/complementary products-services at predictable stages in the discussion will only help to
8. Contain your marketing costs and stop all spray-&-pray expenses; A big part of most advertising budgets go into servicing feel-good communication/branding with no adequate results. Anything which does not return benefits in large proportions and with a residual impact outcome, doesn’t fall into the category of needful expense during these times.
9. While you make online options & digital-age alternatives for customer to visualise in addition to providing virtual reality based customer experiences – at some point of time later – you would be able to bring safety measures alongwith precautions for witnessing your products/services in ways which increases the intimacy of that experience. A direct digital connect and interface to the execution points and visibility to project undertaking will go a long way in building that confidence.
10. Some old principles come back with increased vigor usually – it is not about what you offer and what you sell – it is always more about what your current customers experience and how your customers benefit from whatever you are offering/selling – to be able to bring out the value proposition. Your communication & assertions have to emphasise that at every touchpoint. So much of features & offerings get bandied about, that - customers have started expecting most of them as a default, anyhow.
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