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Create DEMAND for What You Sell
7 High-Impact Strategies
(But You ONLY NEED ONE to Create Demand for Your Product or Service!)
The 7 strategies for creating demand are based on the book Create DEMAND for What You Sell, which is available for FREE (for a limited time) when you join Sales Success Club.
1. Competitive Divergence
What is Divergence?
The old sales playbook tells you to differentiate yourself from competitors. But that advice keeps you stuck in the competition game. The problem is: differentiation inherently involves considering competition. Differentiation confines sellers to established market norms rather than encouraging departure from them. Instead of truly getting “outside of the box,” differentiation keeps sellers inside, making it more difficult to distinguish themselves.
Differentiate:
to become unlike or dissimilar within a group of like things
Divergence:
to separate; to tend into a different direction; to be dissimilar from a group
Why Divergence?
Diverging from conventional practices allows businesses to stand out, attract attention, and create demand. It promotes innovation and positions businesses uniquely in the marketplace.
2. Strategic Partnerships
What is a Partnership?
Creating demand for your product or service may need to go beyond traditional advertising and marketing. A partnership is a strategic collaboration between businesses designed to achieve specific goals. Often the goal is to directly or indirectly increase sales. By joining forces, businesses can leverage the strengths of the synergy. The synergy sparks buyer demand through something made exclusively available to buyers through the partnership.
Why Partnerships?
Partnerships expand reach, enhance brand credibility, and create unique value propositions. They accelerate market penetration and customer acquisition while mitigating risks and shared costs.
3. Alignment
What is Alignment?
Alignment drives demand by understanding and resonating with the true motivations and interests of buyers, beyond traditional needs-based selling. It involves connecting emotionally and psychologically with customers' sense of self. In the past, the concept of alignment revolved around “presenting the right solution to the right customer at the right time.” Active listening was employed by salespeople aiming to understand a prospect’s “pain points” and desired outcomes through “probing questions.”
While the basic idea of Alignment retains some merit, there’s a more relevant application for the concept. And it’s based on this fact: buying decisions are often influenced by a complex interplay of emotional, psychological, and social factors.
Why Alignment?
Alignment builds authentic connections with buyers, promoting trust and loyalty. It accelerates the sales cycle by addressing genuine buyer motivations and aspirations, beyond surface-level needs.
4. Peripheral Selling
What is Peripheral Selling?
Peripheral Selling drives demand by associating a product or service with topics or interests indirectly related to the primary offer. It leverages emotional and psychological connections beyond straightforward needs-based selling.
Our buying decisions are often influenced by peripheral selling. That is, we often sell ourselves on, or are sold on, buying something through indirect or unrelated reasons to buy, reasons other than the direct or surface reason to buy.
Classic examples of peripheral selling are the:
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Status or brand name purchase
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“Everyone has one " purchase
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Mid-life crisis purchase
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“You only live once” purchase
The Peripheral Selling strategy can be seen every day, in commercials…
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Buy this car = people who love their family drive this car
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Take this pharmaceutical = be happy, fulfill your dreams
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Men, buy this deodorant = attract women to you
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Women, buy this shampoo = be the envy of your friends
Why Peripheral Selling?
Peripheral Selling expands outreach strategies, sustains prospect attention, and builds emotional connections with buyers. It helps differentiate your brand by tapping into deeper motivations and interests beyond functional benefits.
5. Perceived Value
What is Perceived Value?
Perceived value, as commonly understood, is “the worth a product or service has in the eyes of consumers.” It’s not just about the tangible attributes—the features and specs—but also the intangible factors like brand image, reputation, and emotional connection. These shape how we feel about an offering.
Perceived value involves creating demand by shifting the focus from cost-to-gain to cost-of-loss for buyers. It goes beyond the traditional view of value as merely the benefits and attributes of a product or service relative to its cost. Instead, it considers a buyer's subjective assessment, influenced by factors like quality, convenience, brand reputation, and emotional appeal.
Why Perceived Value?
The importance of perceived value in sales lies in its ability to shape buyer assessments, influence decisions, and enhance differentiation from competitors. Understanding the buyer's deeper motivations beyond surface-level product features is vital. Sellers who align their approach with the buyer's broader interests, priorities, values, and goals can enhance engagement, sustain attention, and ultimately drive sales growth.
6. Stage & Position
What is Stage & Position?
Stage and Position is a strategy that generates demand by guiding interactions with potential customers.
In any sales scenario, interaction occurs within a specific context. This is the stage. Also involved are roles and perspectives, or positions, that shape the buyer-seller relationship. For e-commerce, your website is the stage where you present your business and offerings. However you sell, the goal of the Stage and Position strategy is to leave a positive impression on potential buyers and build their interest to buy from y
This strategy emphasizes that every interaction in sales involves roles and context. Neglecting these elements risks misunderstandings or leaving the buyer-seller dynamic to chance, which isn't advantageous. Instead, sellers who proactively shape the buyer's experience can influence sales outcomes through cueing.
Why Stage & Position
Creating a Stage and Position strategy can profoundly impact sales, since all sales involve some kind of interaction and a dynamic. By proactively shaping these interactions, sellers can frame discussions, address objections preemptively, and ensure establishing credibility and value. This strategy keeps potential buyers engaged with the seller.
7. Sales Narrative
What is Sales Narrative?
(Have an ecommerce business? The book “Create Demand for What You Sell” explains how to apply this strategy to businesses online.)
A Sales Narrative is a structured and compelling story or presentation used by sales professionals to engage potential customers. It aims to highlight the benefits of a product or service, inspire action, and guide prospects through the sales process effectively. The narrative typically includes elements such as identifying customer needs, demonstrating how the product or service addresses those needs, and providing examples of successful outcomes. Its primary goals are to establish rapport, build trust, and ultimately lead to a sale.
Why Sales Narrative?
The value of the narrative is significant for the support it provides to marketing and sales efforts. A compelling sales narrative allows you to connect with potential customers on an emotional level, differentiate your offering, and create a memorable impression that drives sales.