The soft sell is a marketing conversation that omits the ask. The conversation may still be about a product/service, but the call to action – purchase – is only implied.
Soft selling focuses on cultivating relationships with your customers. A relationship becomes a precondition to the sale. This not only extends the sale process, but also makes for repeat business. Soft selling suits especially business-to-business companies and complex products or solutions. The number of clients and sales is lower, so the quality of relationships matters a lot more than in retail or business-to-consumer industries. Cultivating relationships is at the core of sustainable marketing, particularly its social aspect.
Your soft sell conversation will likely take place over a number of touches and it will last longer. The sale only happens when the customer is ready, not when you the seller want it. Soft selling sits on the border between push and pull marketing. It avoids the pushiness and forcefulness of the hard sell. As the seller, your initiate the marketing conversation, but the customer initiates the sale transaction itself. The pull aspect of the soft sell also fits into the definition of sustainable marketing.
In creating the pull, your soft sell relies on valuable content to inform prospects about your product/service and how it may solve their challenges. Content marketing is a sustainable marketing strategy. By the same token, soft selling uses stories to make its case – success stories of customers, not an about-us stories of you or your company. Stories motivate action and create context and meaning for the product or service. Storytelling, too, is a sustainable marketing method.
Social media engagement lends itself well to soft selling. Demonstrating thought leadership, showcasing expertise, and cultivating relationships are just a few uses of social media to consider for generating the pull for your soft sell. Social media aligns well with sustainable marketing.
Does soft selling work?
“Kardes and others have concluded that a soft sell with an inferred conclusion rather than an overt hard sell can often be more persuasive. Soft sell is also less likely to be irritating to consumers.” –Reference.com
Amen to that: more persuasive and less irritating, how can you go wrong?
What examples of the soft sell have you seen, experienced, or executed?
