Oh, it’s that time of year again! You need the orange scarf for Aunt Minna and the perfect, let’s think, green scarf for Aunt Jean. You decide to go to the department store to try your luck. You’ve gone to this store since you were a kid and you have a misconceived notion that you’ll be in and out of there in 20 minutes.
- You arrive at the parking lot, troll for a parking space. – 10 minutes.
- You go in the front door, turn to the left, go down the aisle and… the accessories department isn’t there. It’s been moved. – 10 minutes
- You look around and finally ask a sales associate in Jewelry, who isn’t sure where the new location is. – 5 minutes
- You go over to shoes, surely Mr. Brown who has always worked there, will know. You wait for 5 minutes only to find out, not only is Mr. Brown not there but the new sales associate, who is all of 17, doesn’t like scarves so he hasn’t a clue. – 10 minutes
- You’re about to leave when a fellow shopper points you over to a bin of scarves near the back door and voila, just what you wanted. – 10 minutes
- It only takes you another 15 minutes to check out, no wrapping thank you. – Total: 60 minutes.
A Clear Path To Sales
Let’s do Holiday again, this time online. Behind the scenes: Early in January, the digital marketing communications team met with the sales team. They mapped out a strategy to begin the planning process for the following holiday season. Marketing wants to form just the right messaging to clearly support the sales objectives. They listen to the sales team and come back with a plan, time-line and direction. Sales is thrilled and the deliverables are created. The digital wizards take over adjusting the wire frame for the new direction, realizing the detailed plan while following the time-line and setting trackable benchmarks for the sales process. Tests are run and it’s all systems go for a great holiday selling season. Fast forward to you.
You need the orange scarf for Aunt Minna and the perfect, let’s think, green scarf for Aunt Jean. In the past couple of months you have been receiving colorful emails from an online store. That is actually where you got the scarf idea. You actually had followed a link to their Facebook Page and ‘liked’ what you saw. They have a mini store on there and you’ve been stalking it ever since.
- You open the latest email and get all giddy because they’re offering free shipping and 1/2 off a second item.
- You click the store link, this remembers the discount and they remember you!
- The search button is right there and you enter your ‘orange scarf’ request and boom there are the 31 choices, you drop one in your ‘shopping cart.’
- When you do, you can also choose the green scarf from the choices and you are off to check out.
- They suggest a monogram, great for Aunt Minna, not for Aunt Jean and gift wrap with a note (custom thoughts for sure) and don’t forget the free shipping.
- They will send a email confirm of the order and keep you informed of the shipping. Happy Holidays! Total time: 10 minutes.
Your wonderful experience took a phenomenal amount of planning and the clear path to the sale was achieved. How can this be applied to your business? Use your marketing strategy to create the clearest path to sales. Do it step-by-laborious-step and your business (and your clients) will thank you.
