Direct and Indirect Sales Strategies that will Guarantee Purchases

Direct and indirect sales are part of a business model. Even if different ideal client profiles have been developed, you will be able to cross-execute these strategies without any problem.

So that you know more about them and above all know how to identify them, we have created this article.

Direct and indirect sales: Which one fits my business model?

Direct sales strategies are characterized by taking the maximum potential of the product for the customer to acquire it. While indirect sales strategies are based on studying in-depth the needs of the client and how to satisfy them through a product or service.

Direct sales strategies

The direct strategy sales scheme consists of a frontal relationship between the salesperson and the potential customer. This is where the influence of the word “potential” lies and it is that the public that you are going to address must be really interested in this product to see the sale as a benefit rather than a distraction.

That is why it is so important to know the functionality of the product, its advantages and for which specific people the product or service to be sold is beneficial.

In direct sales, the seller goes directly to the customer but also positions himself in a visible space so that the potential customer can walk through and look at the establishments.

This occurs frequently in shopping centers where clothing stores, appliances, food fairs, among other demands, are in abundance.

Types of direct sales

• Multilevel: This modality consists when the employee not only manages to create a sale that gives him a monetary bonus but also receives a percentage agreed by the CEO of the company for each sale made.
• A cold door or face to face: It is when the seller goes directly to the home to offer the products and services. You can do it through a catalog or by taking the sample of the product to be marketed in person.
• In meetings: A specific space is agreed upon where one or more salespeople representing the company or organization are engaged in the sale. These meetings are usually frequent in coworking or workspaces.

Considerations that will help you develop better direct sales

When a person begins to develop in the world of sales little does he know where to start? How should I describe the product? How should I develop the conversation? In this section we mention two considerations that will make your sales success:

Less is more

You do not need to talk too much, or wonders in relation to the product or service. Be objective, know the product from head to toe and you will not have to give it too much to sell.

If, on the other hand, you insist on persuading to the point of overwhelming the customer, a failed sales cycle will occur. Perhaps, hopefully, you will sell the product but you will not be able to retain the customer.

When a product is good it speaks for itself. You don’t need to sound too “convincing” so take this into account when referring to the product or service.

The communicational tone is key

Part of developing a communicational tone affects their customs and humor to be able to function in a certain area.

And with this we are not referring only to the written communicational tone but also to how is the tone of your voice, the frequency, the rhythm. Is it passive? Or altered? The flow of the tone of the conversation directly influences the purchase.

For this we suggest the following:

• Study about body language and how the frequency of the tone can also influence emotions. To know how to use a good communication rhythm, you must study your brand emotions.
• Use humor. You must know how your ideal client uses humor or else the opposite effect will occur, you may sound a bit annoying.
• Use communicational memes. Memes are part of our day to day. If the sale is becoming somewhat tedious you can use one of them. The important thing is that it is one in trend. Not the meme from 3 months ago that you may not remember anymore.

Digitization and direct sales

With the arrival of the pandemic, businessmen feared that this model would be affected. The truth is that digitization, more than a barrier, became the appropriate way to sell, only in this case the communication channels were changed.

In times when there were physical restrictions to see another, digital tools were used that allowed us to connect in real time with our potential clients. Respecting therefore their spaces.

Some of these tools are:

E-mail marketing or emails to connect

The email marketing strategy can be a potential tool if used assertively. To be able to write and develop a value and sales proposition through this channel, you have to be creative, concise and minimally invasive.

Quite an art, right? The truth is that if you manage to add all these features you can get a sale. Probably not in the first email, but if your text is convincing enough, it looks like your day to day, it hides an unconscious need it will undoubtedly end up being part of your guild.

Now, how should these emails be developed?

• Decrease the density of paragraphs: As we have mentioned, a text loaded with paragraphs in the first instance is overwhelming for the reader. The same happens when opening an email, we also know that we all have time counted.
• Be clear. Once you have developed your sales proposal, leave directly what the client must do to specify: The link to your website, online store or subscription. Give him all the actions he must take to get in touch with you without so much procedure.
• Add visual elements: You can add as an extra an image that is attractive enough with your brand colors that it captures the buyer. Images that are appended with a proportionate amount of text promote the interest of the reader.

Encounters through Zoom

The Zoom platform has become a critical tool in the transition from digitized direct sales. Through these meetings, the seller offers the product in the same way that he would do it in person.

Those who use this route to create meetings indicate to the potential client that they only have to download the app. The salesperson will send a code in which the client can quickly access this meeting.

Direct advertising in networks

How do you know exactly what I need? The truth is that advertising is designed to appear to the person who needs to look at you. Either because you have carried out a search from your computer or mobile device or you have been talking about the need for a product or service.

Even I, as a user, come across millions of ads on Instagram every day about conversations I have already had with acquaintances, family and friends.

Social networks have become a leading channel when researching more about a brand.

What is true is that it makes no sense to apply advertising or direct sales on a social network when the following occurs:

• You don’t have enough followers: You have a growing social network and you have 50 users who follow you. You will have lost before you win a trustworthy client because they will leave your profile in a matter of seconds.
• You have no publications: It turns out that this client has been impacted by your paid advertising, it seems to be what he needs and he enters your profile and does not see any information. If you do not have informative posts in relation to the product or service, you will hardly catch their attention.

For these two reasons it is of utmost importance to win a community through the down payment. How do you do it? Continually researching your ideal client and their needs.

Merchandising to focus the customer on the purchase

The main objective of this strategy is that the client enters a total state of concentration where he connects without distractions with the product or service in question.

Merchandising techniques are various and we mention some that you can use online and offline.

Online:

• Take care of having a responsive, intuitive design on your website, adapted to your sector and that can satisfy the needs of your client. If everything works correctly your client will not have to go to the “close” page or will not have time to think about going to another page to find what they need.
• Real images and a catalog of options. The user likes to choose from a repertoire of options, if there are more than 3 much better. If your online store is empty, the user is likely to leave. In addition to this, he likes to observe real images and videos of the products. Don’t forget to humanize your brand.

Offline:

• The way it is displayed: If, for example, we are talking about clothes, they must be on the shelves in an organized way. If you can separate it by colors, much better. This will awaken the interest of observing, touching and of course evaluating the product.
• Odors: Concentration is linked to odors. What emotions does your brand handle? If, for example, your store smells like lavender, you will decrease the anxiety levels in the customer and they will be able to stay longer in your commercial establishment.
• Adding rituals: Brands know the importance of rituals and for this they add elements that generate satisfaction at the time of purchase. An example of this is organizing a wine tasting while clients try on their best clothes.
• Applying a sale price: When as a brand you understand the psychology in the price, you test with numbers that are not integers. In addition to creating brochures that indicate limited-time offers section.

Indirect sales strategies

Just as there is a type of client who likes to be approached frontally in relation to a product or service, there are simply clients who do not.

Or there are also the prospects of clients who have not given them the necessary time to think about what their needs are and how they can satisfy them. This is where indirect sales strategies come into play.

Like direct strategies, its function is also to sell but in a less invasive way.

They are also ideal for generating insights that are nothing more than those feelings where you unconsciously connect with a need. Indirect marketing strategies are more about people than the product itself.

So indirect selling strategies focus more on the person and their needs. Only then can the product or service meet your needs.

Inbound marketing and content that generates value

68% of professionals who work in companies use inbound marketing and consider it to be an effective marketing strategy. A professional blog has become the face of hundreds of companies that bet on the digitization of their brand.

Isn’t a blog the voice of the entire corporation? Sometimes users want to be the protagonists of their own search. The blog must satisfy this primary need, thus creating content that awakens in the reader a sense of understanding and therefore a solution to their problems.

We live surrounded by stimuli but not all of them manage to connect with our deepest needs. When this happens, a miracle happens, which in marketing we call insight.

With an increasingly demanding consumer, our strategies must be focused solely and exclusively on understanding them. Although it is an art, the key is to continually study your client and thus get through words to connect with their deepest desires.

Vide marketing to attract a loyal community

The video marketing strategy is one of the most potentials among the direct and indirect sales strategies.

If you manage to capture the user’s attention, they like how you express the idea, you handle yourself in the same communicational tone and you handle a good story, you will undoubtedly have achieved it.

Some interesting data that we found is that the predominance of use on the platform is male between 25 and 44 years of age. So if your ideal customer profile has these traits, it’s time to consider creating content to generate sales.

And if you do not get them at the moment, it is likely that if you create a community that watches your videos, you will be able to profit from the platform.

Anti-marketing and promoting ethical marketing

Although these strategies are focused on reducing unintentional consumerism, paradoxically they promote indirect sales.

The problem does not lie in consuming, but in what are we consuming? In a society that dictates everything you supposedly need, little room is left for awareness of our own needs.

What is certain is that we continually need products and services to live on a daily basis, such as: Food, food, clothing, drink, medical services, technology, among others.

Anti-marketing and anti-advertising strategies are focused on promoting ethical values ​​and that the brand distributes a transparent and real message about its product or service.

Sales funnels

hrough the intuitive purchase process, the user goes through a series of processes that are perceived as natural and that motivate them to make a purchase.

In case you don’t remember, the following happens:

• Attraction: Through advertising on social networks to the website.
• Consideration: Educate the client with information that you are able to satisfy their needs.
• Decision: The purchase phases have led him to feel confident about your product or service.
• Closing: More than a client, they have become a faithful part of your community.