Nuvota

Do you feel uncomfortable boasting about yourself, your company, your products or your services? Do you have a hard time actively approaching potential customers and “selling” them on what you have to offer? Does it feel like begging to you?

You are certainly not alone if you feel this way! It is actually very rare to find small business owners that truly enjoy going out there and approaching potential customers face to face. This typically results in mediocre sales, since you are projecting what you are feeling. Remember, up to 93% of your communication is non-verbal including tone of voice, eye movement, posture, hand gestures, facial expressions and more (Source: http://www.positive-way.com/body.htm)

There are several ways you can deal with this issue:

• Improve your selling skills and overcome the uncomfortable feelings by attending training seminars and coaching sessions
• Hire someone to do the selling for you
• Create demand for your products and services indirectly, without telling your potential customers “Buy this product!”

Let’s have a look at the last point, indirectly creating demand, and what it means in the marketing world. We call this the “Pull Strategy”. It means getting the word out about your products and services without directly marketing them, causing interested potential clients to reach out to you instead. Here are four key ways you can implement the Pull Strategy without spending money on advertising:

1. Speaking

The beauty about being an expert in your field is that you have a lot of knowledge and information to offer. Empowering your listeners with new information during speaking engagements and truly trying, without selling your services, is very powerful. People will immediately consider you an expert and seek you out if they ever need help in your specific area of expertise.

You can find speaking opportunities at your local chamber of commerce, trade associations and many other organizations.

2. Writing

Getting the word out about your expertise can also be achieved by writing – especially if you are not feeling confident about public speaking. Find out what types of associations and clubs your ideal clients belong to, as well as what types of publications they read. Then think about topics you want to write about – always having your ideal clients’ needs and interests in the back of your mind – and send out a proposal for an article or guest contributor role to your chosen publications.

3. Networking

Ah… the art of networking! So many books have been written about this subject. In order to use networking from a Pull Marketing perspective, the main thought you should have in your head is “I am not here to SELL my services”. It’s about meeting new people and first thinking about ways that you can assist them. Maybe you can refer them to someone who might need THEIR services. Or maybe there is a great piece of information about their industry that you just have come across. By giving without thinking of what you can get back in return, your whole demeanor will become much more relaxed and genuine. And think about it – if they ever need someone with your skill set, who do you think they will reach out to?

Finding networking opportunities is endless – business mixers, trade shows, parties and more.

4. Other

..other people that is. A very powerful way of creating demand for your products and services is to let other people do the talking – and the selling – for you. This can be done via PR (public relations) which means that you reach out to reporters and other influencers, such as bloggers, so they know about your company and products, and potentially use it in one of their stories. Another way of letting someone else do the selling is through referrals. Let your existing clients refer you, and give them an incentive to do it. In addition, provide them with an easy way to do the referral – such as a ‘refer to friend’ button in your email.

By using some of these tactics, you will reduce your need for direct selling (hard selling). It does not mean you can totally ignore it, but depending on the type and size of your business you will be able to strike a nice balance.  And think about it – most of these indirect tactics are free. All they require is your time commitment and consistency.

Buzzwords demystified:

Pull strategy – the focus here is to create a high demand for your product – be it indirectly, as explained above – or via direct promotional efforts. This will then lead to “pulling” the product through the production chain. The opposite would be “push strategy”, where you push the product into the market. An example of this would be flooding the shelves in supermarkets with your product in the hope that customers buy it.

Public Relations - It refers to the communication that happens between a company and the public. The company tries to positively influence public perception by providing the public with information.