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When retailers give out bags with the name of their business printed on them it has cost them money.

They don’t do it just to get their name seen, that’s not going to give them a good return on the cost of supplying the bags. The retailer is aligning that customer with their business, in the eyes of everyone that sees them carrying the bag.

It’s similar to sponsoring a celebrity or sports personality to use your products.

We will never know if these famous people actually use or even like the products they advertise, but we associate them with it. And that’s the important part of aligning a business or a product at any level.

These sales and marketing techniques work at all levels. From international marketing campaigns with multi-million dollar budgets, to small business sales techniques, and even by sales individuals that want to create an image that will help to increase sales.

2 Reasons why alignment marketing
techniques work

The 2 main reasons why these sales and marketing techniques work, and why small business sales and individual sales professionals should use them:

1. People look to what others are doing to make decisions on their own actions.

2. People listen to and copy experts and people they want to be like.

1. We look to the actions of others

You are in town looking for which bar or restaurant you should go into. Faced with one full of people and one empty which do you choose?

For most customers it’s the one full of people. Most of us don’t want to go first. We look to others, and the actions they take, and use that information to make our decisions. This behaviour has served us well while growing up when we learned by copying the people around us.

2. We follow the actions of experts

A celebrity that looks good recommends a hair product and people go out and buy it. Celebrity endorsements have been proven to work by the increased sales after marketing campaigns.

But it’s not just celebrities and sports personalities that are seen as experts. You see someone that looks stylish, carrying a shopping bag with a retailer’s name on it, and if you want to be like them you visit the store.

You see them as an authority and you copy them. Add that to the marketing power of example No1 and you, as a small business or sales individual, can learn to get a double hit.

When businesses, sales individuals, or products and services are aligned with the right organisations or people, potential customer’s actions will be influenced.

How can you use this marketing alignment technique

Always display your name

I cannot stress this enough: Always display your name, and if appropriate your contact details, on your products, vehicles, and anywhere and anyway that aligns your product with customers that have bought from you.

Local tradesmen that visit customer’s premises should put up a notice that says:

We are coming,

Another that says: We are here,

And afterwards one that says: Do you like what we did.

They can be safety notices, warning signs, or a message thanking neighbours for their understanding during any inconvenience.

If you sell something big, MAKE YOUR LOGO BIG.

Do not let a marketing consultant with new and unproven ideas, tell you that you need a design on your logo or products that doesn’t have your name and contact details.

I have seen sales operations of all sizes lose selling opportunities because they do not have clear name and contact details on their products..

Let potential customers see that they will not be the first to contact your business, let them follow the crowd. Let them see that your customer, the expert, has bought from you.

Align yourself with an expert

Align your self or your business with an expert.

How? One way is to send regular information from an expert to your sales prospects.

Are you in insurance sales, financial industry, car sales, or any market where there is legislation.

Are there legislating bodies related to the products and services you sell. Your customers and prospects will see them as experts and if you pass on information from them you will be aligning yourself with experts.

With the various ways of sending information you can do this for no cost. Emails, texts, social media, a newsletter or magazine …Like the one you are reading now.. are all great ways to communicate with prospects and customers.

It doesn’t have to be a sales pitch, the magazine you’re reading now isn’t. It is a way to connect with your prospects and keep them coming back.

When you read the Sales Buzz, as you are now, you know you are one of many sales professionals around the world doing the same. Would you have picked it up from a stall or marketing promo if no one else had before you.

I want what they’re getting

How does your product or service get delivered to the customer. How do they get it home or to their business location.

Printing a retailer’s name on shopping bags costs money. One benefit the retailer gains is that their name is seen by anyone that sees the carrier bag. But there is another much greater benefit that uses our alignment marketing techniques.

The customer carrying the bag will be seen by many other people as they leave the store and continue shopping. Notice I say the customer and not the bag. If another shopper sees the customer they know someone else has visited the store and may follow their lead.

They may also like something about the shopper, such as their appearance, they may consider shopping where they shop. The customer carrying the shopping bag has been aligned with the retailer.

With a little thought and creativity this marketing technique can be used for all types of business, not just retail. The more creative, clever, and flexible you are as a sales person, the more you will gain from it.

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