Creating Buzz: 4 Tips To Grow Sales

A quick note to everyone while I’m battling a rather severe chase of bronchitis.

Between the sweat and chills of fever, the stupor of codeine, and the prospect of being on the mend for several more days, my blogging calendar tells me that it’s my turn to reach out to you.

My chosen topic is how to create buzz in sales. If nothing else, this ought to be an entertaining article! 😛

Now, of course, I could ask my steadfast, superman partner, Danny Iny, to cover for me while I’m on the mend – that’s what partners are for, right? He’s such a rock, he’d do it in a heartbeat, but if you folks only knew how much Danny is already doing, you’d think me criminal if I foisted this on him.

So it’s me today. When I’m done, leave me some feedback if I didn’t make any sense, okay?

Danny’s note: He really should have asked me!

We’ve mentioned before that for a prospect to buy easily, they need to have a strong felt need, which can also be described as acute pain or irrational passion.

Now, it’s nice and dandy if it already exists on a silver platter, but sometimes we need to nudge those strong emotions along. This is part of the art of persuasion in marketing and advertising, and has been since… well, forever!

I’m sure you’ve had the experience of being exposed to a product or service that you needed, but still needing the right combination of marketing materials to get you to actually buy it.

Creating excitement is an important part of that combination.

Four Rules for Building Excitement

Anyone can leverage excitement to get the sale, but here are some rules to follow to make sure that it works for you, and not against you:

1. It’s gotta be real.

Promote only what is authentic about your product or service. If it doesn’t do it, then don’t even think about saying it.

It’s tempting to create excitement by saying lots of nice things, but if none of them are true, then you’re shooting yourself in the foot. You’d be impacting your brand, and – assuming you’re in this for more than just the first sale – you’re toasting your business’ long-term potential.

2. Target what matters.

There just isn’t enough thought given during the sales process to what the prospect’s problem really is. If you want to create excitement in sales, you’ve got to talk about (duh!) what will excite them.

And we don’t mean what *you* think will excite them. We mean what will *actually* excite them.

Take a minute and think about the five pains or passions that they are looking to resolve with your offering. If you aren’t talking about these key issues,then you are off base – go back to the drawing board!

3. Make them feel like part of a select club.

Being part of something is a basic human need. From uniforms to secret handshakes, the “proof” of belonging to a special club is always looked upon with pride if you’re in, and envy if you aren’t.

Can you create a “special club” for your tribe? If you’re offering something new, can you let them know that they’re the first? Can they be “charter members”? Can they be invited to an “exclusive, by-invitation-only” event?

4. Creating Urgency with Your Offer.

There is nothing like an expiration date to get people to take action. (Remember Seinfeld’s bit about drinking milk after the expiration date? It’s terrifying!)

The sense of impending loss is very powerful, if it can be demonstrated that you are missing out on something by not acting fast. It is important to know how useful creating urgency in sales really is. Be sure to attach urgency to every offer that you make. “Expires on Tuesday”, or “12 widgets left at this price” are examples that work well.

There is one caveat with this, however: you have to respect it.

You can’t go back making the same offer again and again. Not only does it lose its power, but you also get knocked down a peg in your audience’s perception. A furniture store lured me in with it’s “end-of-lease” liquidation sale. Well, that must be one heckuva lease, because three years later, it’s still doing the same “end of lease” sale! Am I annoyed? You bet!

Is Urgency justified?

The question sometimes arises as to whether urgency is justified. Is it legitimate to create pressure for people to take action?

The answer is yes – because people sometimes need a bit of a push to take action, and when there is a special offer or opportunity, it is only fair for you to make them aware of it.

A good dose of excitement is always a good thing to generate sales. Just follow the rules to make sure you don’t overdo it.