3 STRATEGIES FROM HOME SHOPPING BOOTCAMP
What’s it like being on a television shopping network? Honestly, it’s the closest my life has been to a movie yet. Down to the will-she-pull-it-off scene the night before, my coach telling me to explain why olive oil soap is life-changing (which it most surely is!) for the sixth time as I give her a not-so-subtle “are you kidding me?” glance. To the pre-show jitters. To the one hour live segment with sold out item after sold out item. To the end of the show when my coach came rushing through the sound stage teary eyed, jumping up and down, lots of photos taken, Instagram posts, and....scene.
The next six months were an exhilarating and nerve racking intensive on what converts interest into a sale with top-level coaches and the most talented salespeople out there, television sales hosts, as my teachers. New watchers tune in every 7 seconds and there is an average of 10 seconds to capture their attention before they’ll switch the channel. Imagine that turnover in an in-person sales opportunity? By the time you say hello and your name, the person in front of you just turns their back and walks away. Add to that the hurdles of watchers not being able to smell, feel, taste, or touch the product AND the prevalence of such buyers using the internet and not TV to make such sales. Even with the odds staked against them, TV sales hosts often garner six figures in sales in an hour : that’s $2,000 + in sales a minute. And, yes, sales are tracked in sales per minute.
The experience completely changed how I talk about products and interact with potential customers. If the strategies I learned work on selling mass-produced leggings, they most certainly can increase the sales of authentic, quality products.
I know that many of us who create products with purpose get an icky feeling when we think of sales and marketing. Like we are lying or pushing or being somehow slimy. So let’s first look at two of the strategies small producers typically use and why they are failing.
#1 : THE NO-PRESSURE APPROACH
So often our approach, because we don’t want to be sales people, is “here is the product if you want to buy it.” With that approach how do people know if they want to buy it or not? They have no information to really make a decision.
#2 : THE LET-THE-PRODUCT SPEAK FOR ITSELF APPROACH
This is the approach of relying just on taste for food or touch for other products. Often products with purpose are more expensive than the alternatives they are trying to replace. So this strategy really limits your reach by attracting customer’s to whom money is no object or who want to “treat themselves” (aka not repeat customers...hence the word treat). For all other customers again they don’t have the information that would help them make the decision to buy.
If these are your strategies, hey, I get it. I was there too. This is the mindset shift I’m offering: I think these products matter. I think the lives of the people making these products matter and that more sales means the maker can pay their rent, cover their insurance, heck, even take a vacation. I think these products will bring ease, beauty, joy to people who buy them. These products, they are legit good for the world. So we are NOT tricking people into buying something, we are giving them information to make an informed decision, inviting people into an experience that we know is awesome. But if we don’t speak up an actually invite them, how will they know to show up.
CONNECT EVERYTHING BACK TO THE CUSTOMER’S EXPERIENCE
I’m starting with the biggest takeaway. Instead of listing adjectives about your product you must talk about how those attributes benefit your customer. So, for example, there is this approach:
“This tomato sauce is made with fresh tomatoes straight from the field.” Pretty good, right? People like the romance of farms. Fresh sounds better than frozen. Yeah, pretty good. But how about this.
“Our sauce is made from ripe tomatoes picked hours before they are cooked. Meaning we don’t have to add any sugar to make this incredible sweet flavor. Wanna try some?”
Do you see the difference? Now the fresh tomatoes are connected to two specific things that impact the customer. First, they are getting great flavor which means less work on their end doctoring up a somewhat bland sauce. Second, they aren’t feeding themselves and their children added sugar. You’ve also let them know that lots of tomato sauces out there do have added sugar and invited them to take your sample and discern the flavor for themselves.
BE SPECIFIC
People crave connection and truth. More so than ever. This doesn’t mean you have to turn your business into a personality brand, but it does mean sharing parts of your story. Being specific engages your customers’ imagination and also lends credibility to you, someone they don’t really know. My example above is specific because I say that the tomatoes are picked hours before they are cooked which is much more powerful than saying just that they are fresh. You can use this strategy in your pitch, packaging copy, and website. Use people’s names. Use exact dates. Make sure that people see that you are real. It's not a story you are stretching like so many larger brands these days, it is one you are sharing honestly to build long-term relationships with repeat customers.
IT’S NOT BRAGGING
It felt really weird to say “award winning olive oil” when I first started my television segments and even stranger to mention which exact awards it had won and which magazines and spas carried the product. I felt like I was bragging. Being egotistical. Should that stuff matter?
Yes! And here is why. Your customer doesn’t know anything about you yet. Once they try your product and love it, then they will start to trust you. But before then...well, we’ve all bought over-priced things that showed up looking nothing like the photo online or that molded quickly in our fridge or were generally plain-old disappointing.
Pointing out your accomplishments and providing testimonials, give a potential customer permission to take a chance on your product. If you have a product that you can stand behind, give them that permission without feeling ashamed. You can calm their understandable doubts by displaying awards your product has won, featuring magazine mentions on your website and social media, featuring testimonials and reviews from happy customers, and mentioning restaurants that use your product. With so many products vying for your customer’s attention, these references help them wade through the options to find the gems to try.
GO DEEPER
I learned so much being part of a product launch on national television that I created this 6-part video series to help you fine tune how you talk about your product. With clips from my television appearances to give you concrete examples and a workbook to take these learnings and apply them to your business. It’s a free mini-crash course (minus the stressful late night soap demo sessions). Listen, home shopping sales goals are in the range of 5 to 6 figures per hour. Nearly impossible to imagine, but I was there to see it. Applying lessons from this well-tuned industry, can have a huge impact in converting interest into sales and sales into lifelong customers. Let’s dig in.