Est. Read Time: 8.5 Minutes
Okay, so I will be truthful with you and say there really is no perfect approach to sales psychology, and most likely never will be. And that is because sales tactics are based on the market, which is constantly changing.
Just think about the last two years!
Marketing and selling has vastly evolved just over the time of the pandemic. Consumers require more touchpoints (meaning they come accross your brand more than once), more from you, and more trust in you.
You can no longer just post a pretty picture and start to gain traction. Now you need to test out live videos, short videos, carosels, photos, and everything in between!
So how do you sell while trying to build trust?
You provide value to your audience. Which I will tell you more about when we go through the different ways to sell.
When it comes to selling there are two main categories: hard sell or soft sell. You need to learn the difference between the two so you know when and how to do either! For yournmarketing you will want to utilize both, but you’ll need to know which one is appropriate for when.
Hard Selling and Soft Selling
Hard selling can be a broad category as with soft selling, but in simple terms, we can describe hard selling as a direct short-term sale while soft selling as an indirect long-term sale.
By short-term sell, we mean that you want to get the sale as soon as possible, while a long-term sell is done over a long period of time.
Now you may hear many experts say soft selling is the way to go, but I’m here to tell you that both strategies are equally important. Which one you use will depend completely on the situation.
Let’s dive deeper into these strategies!
What does hard selling look like?
Hard selling looks like an ad to put it in the simplist of terms. It is an outright and obvious sale.
Hard selling gets a bad rap because it looks like cold calling, door-to-door sales, or unwanted pitches.
It is designed to get the customer to purchase a good and/or service immediately without any time to contemplate.
Now recently I also viewed hard selling as slimy and greasy. I thought that those people were pushy and didn’t really care about anything but the sale –HOWEVER, recently I was listening to Emily Hirsh’s podcast, Not For Lazy Marketers, and she was talking about how people are shying away from hard selling when they should be stepping into it.
If you are offering a quality service or product, why shouldn’t people know that you are the person they want to see? Why shouldn’t you put your name and product/service out there?
You have worked hard to get to where you are and you deserve to tell people all about it –in fact, your audience needs to know about what you offer so that when they are ready to take the plunge they will be coming directly to you.
Hard selling advantages
As we are recognizing now, the average customer tends to delay purchasing when it comes to the decision-making process, especially when it’s a more expensive product or service.
The hard sell strategy forces the customer to immediately see the positives of the product in hopes of outweighing its cost.
Hard selling also helps in eliminating the risk of losing a customer to the competition as the immediacy of the sale prevents the customer to look elsewhere and consider other alternatives to your product or service.
Hard selling allows you to get straight to the point without having to tiptoe around.
Now I wouldn’t recommend that you hard sell all day every day, that gets old really quick. But rather, pepper it into your marketing strategy.
There is a time and place for everything, including hard selling. So does it belong on social media?
Hard Selling on Social Media
In short, yes! Hard selling definitely has its place in social media aside from an actual advertisement.
But keep in mind that hard selling is best for short-term sales. If you have a downloadable, limited-time offer, product, or anything else on the ‘lower ticket’ side (like under $500) this tactic would be a great one to leverage.
Just make sure you are not overselling to your audience. And not just overselling, but selling the same product with the same messaging and the same creatives….especially after the boom of Tik Tok, people require new, often.
And in today’s market people are more interested in genuine people, not a salesperson pushing a hard sell just for the money.
People like people.
And when you come off as a genuine person who cares about your customers you will gain long-term customer relationships. Just remember that when you are selling you are sharing the benefits with your customer, do not focus on the features.
How will your client/customer benefit from buying what you are selling?
Focus on this and your hard sales won’t be so salesy.
What does soft selling look like?
Subtle and casual tactics are what soft selling is all about – working to build that long-term customer-buyer relationship, eventually persuading them to make the purchase.
In today’s modern market, soft selling is one of the popular strategies to use. When competition is high, it’s important for a business to stress other areas besides product quality, such as what makes you unique? What are your credentials? How do people feel when they work with you?
Soft selling on social media looks more like a regular post. I like to put soft sales into memes that are relevant to what I’m trying to sell because the meme is eye-catching and entertaining, so when they’re reading the caption and I slip in my soft sell, they’re more inclined to take it in and not go right into the defence.
This technique speaks to your customers in a more authentic and genuine way as it prioritizes your customer’s needs, information, and most importantly their trust. This goes hand in hand with your Know, Like, and Trust factors – you want your customers to trust you, know you, and like you, and that in turn creates long-term relationships with your customers because that is what builds long-term relationships.
The soft sell shows you that you can still persuade customers to buy without being pushy and risk driving customers away over a quick sale. Because if you do come across that way, it could shed a bad light on your business…
Soft Selling Online:
Companies that work towards creating loyal followers or being branded as family-orientated or friendly will thrive off soft sales.
Of course you want to sprinkle in hard sells (I like to do a hard sale weekly or bi-weekly depending) but I like to have as much soft sales as possible.
The key is to put a soft sale into RELEVANT content.
For example, we just started a Social Media Content Template Group for Realtors. To do a soft sell I would share a real estate marketing meme showing someone stressed out. In the caption, I’ll mention that if they’re feeling like the person in the meme they can free up time and stress less by taking advantage of our template group! If THEY WANT TO learn more they can find the link in our bio.
This is a soft sell because it’s casually mentioned AND there is no pressure to buy! I only direct them where to go if they ARE interested.
So Should You Soft Sell or Hard Sell?
The type of sales strategy you choose depends on several factors including:
- Are you selling a product or service?
- How much does it cost?
- Does it have a time limit?
- Who is your audience? –Some audiences are sensitive to hard sells, so make sure you know who you are selling to!
Of course, there are more factors, but those are a few of the main ones. While planning and strategizing you may even decide to make use of both strategies!
There is no real wrong answer unless you know for a fact that your audience reacts better to one over the other. You need to use your better judgement.
In Conclusion
To quickly review, the difference between soft selling and hard selling is the intensity and urgency.
Hard selling is a direct sale while soft selling is indirect. Hard selling looks like an ad while soft selling looks like content.
You’ll want to utilize both in your marketing strategy, but you will want to make sure you’re using them for the right circumstances. What’s most important is that you are thinking about your audience when you are creating your soft and hard sales pitches.
The number one question that you NEED to answer in your sales pitch is:
HOW DOES YOUR AUDIENCE BENEFIT FROM YOUR SALE?!
Talk about how they will feel and how it will better their life. Focus on YOUR AUDIENCE.
When you know who you’re serving you’ll know how to sell to them!
So good luck with your sales, friend. I hope this gives you clarity and confidence so you can continue to be successful, prosperous, and happy as ever!!
-Madisen
If you’re struggling with maintaining your social media for your brand you should reach out to the Razzle Marketing team! We would LOVE to help you 😁 EMAIL RAZZLE NOW
