The whole idea of the marketing and sales is to play with the
psychology of the consumers. In any campaign, efforts should be made it make it
so influential that the decision making of the customer is totally in the favor
of the company.
There are some tricks to manipulate the mind of the
consumers, which can be utilized by not only ordinary sales person, but can be
used by larger firms. Although they are used unknowingly, there is no set list.
Mutual exchanging is the first and powerful trick. The
company can start with giving something for free to the customer. He will take
it for the first time, but from next time he will feel obliged and will try to
return the favor. Offering the product for free initially can do this. And if
the customer is satisfied with the product, he will buy it for himself from
next time. Some salespersons get confused with this principle. For example, it is ineffective and wrong
according to this principle, to quote ‘Spend over $25 and get a free t-shirt’.
The offer is not free; the customer has to spend something to get the free
product. The product being given should be totally free without any condition
to be fulfilled. For example, the line ‘Get the latest lipstick shade
absolutely free’ will do the trick. If the shade is really good, they will buy
it the next time and might even think of buying other shades of lipstick.
The next trick is to present something as of high value, but
the company should incur only small or no amount in producing it, like
information. It can tempt the customer by saying that the information provided
to them is a big time secret and is not known to anyone at all. But some mess
it up, by saying that they are providing very valuable information, but it
turns out to be another advertisement.
Another example is giving out free sample to the targeted
customers. Again the mistake made here is that companies distribute samples of
poor quality or rejected products. This certainly lowers the customers liking
towards the product and he will assume that’s the way the product is actually
and won’t go ahead to buy it.
Use words, which initiate immediate action, like ‘Limited
time offer’, ‘Offer ending soon’, and ‘Offer till stocks lasts’ are really
motivating. The customer gets the impression that the offer will end really
soon as the products are limited edition and he should go out and buy it at the
very first chance. This works well specially with customers who have an
interest in collecting antiques, collectibles and anything which are not easily
available.
Tricking the customer in making a commitment is another next
good method to increase sales. The trick is to make the customer to take small
steps toward the goal, without realizing about it. Like when the customer
requests for some information, provide them with the relevant information for
free and make them fill a form and take contact information from them. This is
like committing to get offers and information about products in future. Do not
advertise in this step. In the next step advertisements about products and
services can be sent to the customer to the address provided by them.
Conducting surveys is another example.
Lottery is another good method. When a person buys a lottery
ticket, he fills his address on the ticket. This information can be used to
contact the customer in future. In the above practices it’s very vital to not
to advertise in the first step. Only after getting the customer contact
information, should promotional mails be mailed to him. Long advertisements
that are featured in the newspaper are a small twist to this trick. If the
customer invests time to read the whole advertisement, he has committed and
will surely respond to the ad.
