Tradigital Selling is Fun and Games
One of Columbia’s top salespeople is Sarah Hill. Her ability to tell compelling and entertaining stories has helped sell a lot of mortgages for Veterans United. With her new venture, Story-Up360, Hill will tell stories using virtual reality tools, worldwide connectivity and components of gaming to make her stories even more compelling.
Although you might not have access to all the top tech tools to sell your story, you still have something to sell and a slew of new tools with which to do so. The technology available to salespeople has changed dramatically since I started selling, but people haven’t changed at all. Whether by virtual reality, social media or word-of-mouth, selling is still about getting the right message to the right people at the right time — preferably in a fun and entertaining manner — and then asking them to buy.
I call this convergence of new technology and old behavior “tradigital selling.” You need to know about tradigital selling and how to make it work if you want to remain relevant to consumers. If people aren’t receiving your message in a digital manner, they will not be receiving your message at all.
- Sell status. We all care to have the best, and attaining status is a game to many people. How does your offering improve the status of the people who use your services or products? Look at how well the Machens dealerships do with their Mercedes and BMW brands. You see a lot of fine German engineering driving around Columbia. But did you know Mercedes-Benz has more than 2.6 million followers on Instagram? They’re the same great cars and same status symbol as always but with a very new method of promoting products and developing a fan base.
- Build social connections. People crave a group of friends and acquaintances with whom they can share experiences, compete for status and have fun. Why do you think so many brands are spending so much money advertising on social networks? Coca Cola’s recent #shareacoke campaign with names on its bottles is a huge hit on social media and in stores. Columbia’s own KOPN radio station sustained its information and entertainment services through social connections before online social networks existed and now has connections and donors around the world on Facebook and online streaming.
- Help people acquire. People still love to acquire things. How does your offering help people satisfy the need to acquire? How pleasurable or fun is it for people to put your offering into their collection of things? If you’ve built a good story about your business, people will want to acquire what you have. That’s easier than trying to sell something to them, isn’t it? Make it easy for people to buy from you.