When it comes to sales, there are some products that are high in demand and don’t require much “selling” to get consumers and purchasers to buy. Such things as the Apple iPhone, Coach purses or a flat-screen televisions. These are things that seemingly “fly off the shelves” because consumers actually want these items. They are items that bring in immediate gratification.
But, what about products (or services) that don’t produce immediate gratification? What about products that are not seemingly high in demand? What about products that require people to spend thousands of dollars, versus say a few hundred dollars?
I work at an estate planning law firm and our primary “product” is Living Trusts. To the naked eye, it’s essentially a stack of papers with words on it. It shouldn’t be so expensive, right? WRONG! Living Trusts can run anywhere between $1,500 to $5,000 depending on where you live and what kind of attorneys you have and what kind of services they offer. You’re not paying for the paper documents. You’re paying for the expertise, knowledge and skill of the lawyers putting together the documents to make sure those documents are properly drafted to fulfill your estate planning wishes. Like a doctor, a lawyer takes on a great deal of liability in making sure that he or she is performing at their best for you.
Having worked at my firm for almost 7 years, I have seen time and time again our firm market and sell such high-end products and services to the public—and done so successfully! One way that we have been able to drive in business to our firm, which I have also seen done equally as well in other industries and with other products and services, is through seminar presentations.
Seminar presentations are one way to allow yourself the opportunity to speak to an audience, develop a rapport with them as a speaker and explain the benefits of whatever product or services you are selling.
The entire point of the seminar presentation should be:
- Give the audience something of value, so that if they chose not to move forward with your services, they still feel that they got something they can take with them that is of use to them. This could be anything from free giveaways to knowledge and information that will be helpful to them.
- Build up the benefits of what is included in the products and services you are trying to sell. This way, when you quote the prices, they already know what they will receive for the prices you’re asking.
- Quote your fees! The more knowledge you can give your potential clients, the more power you give them to make smart buying decisions. Rather than wasting your time speaking to multiple prospects about your services and products to then quote a fee and find out they would never have taken up any of your time had they known the prices, why not give a seminar presentation to a room full of prospects and then weed out the serious candidates versus the ones that won’t buy from you?
- A call to action. There must be a push at the end to do something, because otherwise there is a lot of time and money wasted. With something like estate planning, nobody likes to think about it. It’s planning for your demise and having to deal with difficult decisions that involve family and money. If people aren’t encouraged and motivated to make a decision at the seminar, you might as well consider them a dead lead. Drive them to order or book an appointment. Give them incentives to do so now, whether it is through a discount or some other kind of bonus.
Selling higher-priced products and services is never easy, especially when the markets and the economy are struggling the way they have been in recent years. If you know how to talk to consumers about your products and services, tugging at the emotional heartstrings that have driven your current consumers to buy from you, you will find that through seminar presentations, you can effectively closer more sales and reach a larger number of people at one time to do so.
For more sales tips or for training available through Dale Carnegie Training Michigan, visit our Training Schedule.
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