How to sell direct to the customer

"Direct selling is about finding prospects and turning them into customers, it's also about turning customers into repeat buyers and better still, advocates"

You can sell anything direct, from intangible items such as insurance to high-ticket items such as airplanes. Direct selling is simply salesmanship in print...

It allows you to build a direct relationship with
prospects over time, irrespective of geography or opening hours. It also allows people to buy from the comfort of their home or office with minimal effort.

Direct selling is an increasingly popular sales technique because it cuts out the middleman, and many companies highlight this in their marketing.

The power of direct selling

Direct selling can be expensive. To make it work, you need to be able to gain insight into your prospects, isolating them from the rest of the world, seeing and treating them as individuals with individual needs, drivers and motivators. The degree to which you can do this is measured by how convincing and appealing prospects find your offers.

You can also find what works best for you. One great advantage of direct selling is that you can test and then modify your next direct marketing campaign according to the results. You can:

measure the response to particular messages at particular times
measure such things as whether people prefer opening yellow envelopes to blue ones
find the optimum price for the volumes of a product you want to sell.

Pros and cons

You control the message, the medium, the timing, the tone, the offer and the response mechanism.
You can control the costs and therefore the risk.
You can give customers a better service.
By cutting out the middleman, you may be able to offer customers a better price. Indeed, many companies make a point of this in their promotions.
It can be expensive.
If your campaign is badly managed - with irrelevant offers and wrong details - you risk alienating your customers or damaging your brand.

Steps to success

Direct selling is about finding prospects and turning them into customers, it's also about turning customers into repeat buyers and better still, advocates. The key is to build trust and to do this you need to know your prospects intimately. If you are using direct mail, use the right mailing lists. If you are buying space or airtime, use the right media at the right time. If you are using a website, use the right keywords.

There are a number of tips you should bear in mind when planning a direct mailing campaign:

Remember the acronym AIDA - attract Attention, arouse Interest, create Desire and call for Action.

Make people clip that coupon or dial that number now.

Focus on benefits. Describe the features of your product or service in relation to benefits. For example: 'This car has a five speed gear box (feature) for greater fuel economy' (benefit).

Prove your benefits. Cite test results, quote experts, use testimonials - prospects are more likely to trust disinterested parties and satisfied buyers than the seller.

Use money-back guarantees to soothe prospects' fears that they may be making a mistake. Such guarantees encourage impulse buys.

People buy on impulse and rationalise their choices afterwards so identify the key emotions and sales triggers you are appealing to.

Be easily contactable. The less hassle it is for consumers to buy, the more likely they are to do so.

Make ordering easy and a pleasure. Use polite, friendly staff who answer calls promptly and deal with customers efficiently.

Set standards for customer service and fulfilment and communicate this to everyone involved.

Plan how you will handle returns and complaints and set up strict procedures. If you can shine here people will learn to trust you.

Keep customer information on a database and use the information to cross-sell other products and services (making sure you comply with the Data Protection Act).

Test every element of the mailing - timing, content, special offers and discounts etc - but only test one at a time.

Encourage customer loyalty by offering bonuses to loyal customers. These can include membership to clubs, discounts and free gifts.

It is possible to sell direct and use a middleman. Magazines are good examples of this, where publishers sell via news-stands and sell subscriptions direct. Subscribers pay up front but get the convenience of having the magazine delivered to their door and sometimes other benefits. On the other hand, not everyone likes to buy at a distance. Indeed, many people like to touch before they buy and, in the case of subscriptions, may not want to pay a year in advance.

Direct selling is a powerful medium and has made many people rich. However, many customers still prefer to buy face-to-face. To be successful at direct selling, plan, test and measure everything.