Using psychology to increase sales may seem a little underhanded, but in reality it’s all about giving your customers what they want. When you formulate your business marketing and publicity campaigns, or train your employers in customer service, you will benefit from using the psychology to increase sales, build relationships and ultimately, increase productivity of the company.
Do not confuse your customers
Whatever strategy you use for marketing and promotions, make sure that you do not confuse your customers. Confusion puts people into a kind of mental paralysis instead of aiding them in decision making.
So, the trick is to keep things clear.
If you have lots of flowers to offer, categorize them based on different factors such as colour, occasion and price. This makes decision making easy for the customers and they have a pleasant experience shopping with you.
Shift focus on gains
Customers are looking for good value for their money. So, talk about what the customers gain from buying the flowers instead of focusing on the offers or discounts you offer. Psychologically, customers prefer value to cost saving.
It is not all business
Selling is not all business. You need to build a relationship in order to gain the psychological edge. So, when you talk to customers, spend a few moments interacting with them. Add value to their shopping experience by sharing useful tidbits about flowers.
Implement ways to stay in regular touch with customers with a view to retain them for long term. Essentially, make them feel like they are a part of your business’ success rather than one time customers.
Make the experience interactive
Plan and implement strategies that elicit a response from customers. One of the best examples of this strategy is social media. Encourage customers to join your online circle and community.
Interact with clients regularly. This gives you three benefits. First, customers feel connected to your business. Second, they feel ‘oneness’ with the company since you are all a part of a single community. Third, they become your brand ambassadors and get their friends to shop with you.
Build trust
Deliver what you promise if you want to build trust. For instance, if you claim to deliver only fresh flowers, avoid delivering faded or wilting flowers. This is extremely important not only to sell flowers now, but also for long term growth of your business.
These are great tips. I think they lend particularly well to the floral business.
More often than not, people are making purchases that are emotionally driven. They want to have confidence and certainty that what they are purchasing for the recipient is appropriate and will be expressive of their feelings.
And as for not confusing the customer, I am all for that, too. As one who sometimes shops for floral arrangements at the last minute, being able to do it fast and systematically is very helpful to me. I will leave a Web site if I can’t scan and find what I have in mind quickly. I’m sure I’m not the only one.
That’s an interesting thing to keep in mind, that consumers prefer value over cost saving. When I’m writing ad copy, I also try and start with a question, followed by a call to action. Something such as a question makes the consumer stop and thing for a moment, as opposed to just making a straightforward statement. The call to action helps draw them into your conversion funnel as well.
Thanks for the useful advice. You remind me how we all like to be treated as customers.
I don’t think it’s underhanded to use a little psychology to make sales and help your customers. As long as the sales person is friendly and acts concerned about me, I always appreciate it when a store gives me some guidance. I think this works for brick and mortar stores, as well as online stores. If a website has things categorized well that goes a long way toward making me purchase. If I can also find educational tips and social media connections on a site, I am more likely to stay longer on the website. The longer I stay, the more likely I am to purchase something.
These are excellent tips! They actually apply with any business, you always want to build trust and a relationship with your customers. Quality customer service should be top priority for any business that wants to thrive.
I personally like to create mood themed blends of flowers. Arranging flowers together is very much an art and I like to show my customers the creative side of things. It makes them feel like they are purchasing an artistic visual experience, instead of just plain old flowers.
It is definitely important to keep up on the quality of your products, I personally love to be known as providing high quality products. I also always make sure that all of my products are completely organic. It may seem like it doesn’t matter to some people, but I have found that it matters a lot to a lot of people.
While psychology IS used and useful in customer interaction the sad reality is that most often, the big companies are the ones that use it most. They are the ones that train employees in customer service and find all kinds of ways to interact and please the customer.
In the case of small businesses psychology is most times a side effect, meaning that when someone is using it they don’t actively try to apply certain aspects, it just happens. Take for example the owner of a small business, a florist. He is interacting with the customers, makes some small talk, gives advice and builds trust – but does so not because he thinks psychology is important but because he’s just taking good care of his customers.