Ads Dont Sell - People Do !

More about advertising by BIG Mike McDaniel

Advertising is not a substitute for good salestechnique and superb customer service. Insertingan ad in a handy newspaper to call attention to aline of goods will not sell those goods unless youcan back it up with intelligent, well directedsales efforts in the store. Sales technique andservice must follow advertising and unless it doesadvertising is a failure.

The function of advertising is to bringprospective buyers into the store; nothing more.How you advertise, how much you advertise andwhere you advertise, can all contribute toadvertising's success or failure. Assuming you doan adequate job of promoting your products throughadvertising, the visitors will come. Your job,then, is to convert them to customers.

When the visitors arrive, everyone in your employmust be ready for the task. Any enthusiasm createdby your marketing efforts will cool quickly ifgreeted by sour faces and dour attitudes withinthe store, or worse, expecting the customer tocrawl under the counter or up a ladder to get whatwas advertised.

Some merchants believe a "test" of advertising isto hide the item promoted and make the customerask. If no one inquires, advertising obviouslydoesn't work. People are basically shy and willnot ask, fearing they didn't hear or read the adcorrectly, since the item is not prominentlydisplayed. Rather than risk the embarrassment ofhearing "no, Stupid, we didn't advertise anythinglike that", they will leave the store, perhapsnever to return. The first step to back up youradvertising is to display the advertised productsin a conspicuous location with signage supportingthe ads. "Ah hah!.. this must be what we readabout. Here it is!".

But NOT in the front window.For advertising to work, your visitors must beconverted by your salespeople. If the advertisedproduct is in the window, the visitor can make adecision not to explore further based on a quickfirst impression. At least give your salespeople afighting chance to "one on one" with a prospectivecustomer.

Don't blame the advertising if you can not convertvisitors into customers. Or worse, if you run themoff before anyone has a chance to convert them.

Everyone in the store should know the items beingadvertised and be able to explain or demonstratethem.

Question your advertising if there are no (or few)visitors. Question your sales efforts if there arevisitors but no (or few) conversions intocustomers.

Advertising will pay handsome dividends when theservice within the store is directedintelligently. Advertised goods should bedisplayed prominently and demonstrated easily bywilling workers. Unless you can render suchservice, on a consistent basis, don't advertise.Sell out.

For more about advertising, get my article"Do Your Radio Ads Work?"Mike@BIGIdeasGroup.comhttp://BIGIdeasGroup.com

©2005 BIG Mike McDaniel All Rights ReservedMike@BIGIdeasGroup.comBIG Mike is a Professional Speaker and SmallBusiness Consultant with over 30 years experience,http://BIGIdeasGroup.com

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