Listen to this blog post:
I was at a local country show last week and was wandering round the stands, no real desire to buy anything, just seeing what was about, when I stumbled across a stand selling blenders… I’m talking all singing, all dancing blenders. That’s it! Nothing else on offer.
Now, I have been wanting to upgrade my blender for the last 6 months or so and have been considering my options so this immediately piqued my interest and I dragged my 14 year old daughter with me to go take a look. Needless to say, her reaction was “Oh seriously!? I do not want to go look at blenders!” but she did come with me and watched the sales presentation, which was, as you’d expect, masterful.
After seeing these chaps create a smoothie, hot soup and an ice cold mango sorbet in the same blender in just 10 mins, all of which tasted delicious and were super easy to do, my daughter was telling me that we HAD to have one of these blenders (to be honest, I didn’t need much convincing!).
So, what has this little experience got to do with branding and being specific? Let me explain…
As you can imagine, this little company had LOTS of people walk straight past their stand with no interest in finding out more. And that is FINE! Because those people are not the right customers at this precise time for them so there would be no point trying to sell to them – it’s a waste of effort.
However, there were also some people, just like me there for whom their product would be a massive attraction. I was straight in there when I saw it and was the perfect person to visit the stand because I not only visited once, I also returned later with a friend who bought a blender and we all joined in enthusiastically with the demos and encouraged others to take a look.
It’s easy to be one of those businesses that does everything, but it’s going to be really hard work to attract clients to buy from you if you generalise with your promotions. The more specific you can be, the easier it is for your potential buyers to spot you amongst the noise of advertising that they experience on a daily basis.
Do you think I would’ve found this stand and even stopped to listen if the blender was one of 100 different items on offer? No, of course not, because I probably wouldn’t have even seen it!
You only have to look around an event like this and you’ll see the same sales technique happening all over the place: Silicone trays Ice cream sellers Chocolate fountains Sausage shops I could go on…
And there’s a darn good reason for it – being specific makes it easier to sell! There are few choices and people walking past can see very clearly what is on offer and if it is of interest to them. If it is they stop and possibly buy, if not they walk on by.
It’s no different to running an advert or having a stand at an event – the more specific you can be, the better your chances of attracting your Ideal Client!
How often do you think “I need a specific thing” and then Google something completely random?
How often do you get in the car with no idea of where you want to end up? It just doesn’t happen.
When we want to find something we look for that specific item or service and if yours can jump out at them and give them a reason to buy now, there’s no reason why you won’t get the sale.
So, with this in mind, why would you ever want to go generic?
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