“Solve Don’t Sell” – Marketing in Wagga

Have you ever felt overwhelmed by a sales pitch the moment you walked into a store or clicked on a website?

This is a funny post as the title of my website is Get Leads and so you’d expect I’m all about selling. In today’s market, the hard sell is less effective than ever and with a small regional community like Wagga Wagga it’s probably not surprising that most customers come through word of mouth and not through a hard sell over the phone or on a website. This blog explores why focusing on solving customer problems and building relationships is a far more successful strategy and also why local Wagga marketing wins the day over some random in Sydney or part of a large company where you’re a customer number.

The Pitfalls of Premature Selling

Ok, I’ve done it a million times, I’ve started with the sale, you need a website sure I can do that it’s going to be x amount of dollars. What I’ve learnt is when businesses push products too early, customers often retreat. It’s a natural defence against feeling pressured. Then how should marketing in Wagga work to be more effective?

Is it a customer you want anyway?

Again a quick sale might boost immediate revenue, but it rarely leads to lasting loyalty. In contrast, building a relationship based on trust and understanding can create a loyal customer base. A customer is often on the edge of switching from a previous provider in the first place so persuading them to switch is easy peasy but the reason they were on the edge could be for a range of issues in marketing Wagga. This often comes down to expectation management. How are you setting your clients expectations for your products and services?

Three examples of the use of marketing vs just solving problems

Example 1 – The Bookstore owner

Back to the main topic of why not to sell but solve, consider the story of a local bookstore that shifted from aggressive promotions to community engagement, resulting in increased customer loyalty and sales. Marketing in Wagga a local bookstore seems a bit ludicrous when most people probably go online to buy the book they want. Imagine if you don’t know what book you want and your speaking to the bookstore owner about the types of things your interested in and really can’t find the book your after. They suggest a book that you love, it costs you more but you’re willing to go back time and time again and even get on a first name basis. This is how we make regional communities thrive. By valuing each others problem solving skills instead of just leading with price. (different topic for a different day).

Example 2 – Buying a camera bag from a Shop

Another example over the Christmas period 2023 being away with my family I was searching for a camera bag. I put loads of research and time into online purchases to find the best solution usually of which would save me $20-$50 on my purchase. I walked into a Camera store in Penrith and asked the sales rep what camera bag he would recommend for all day photoshoots where I might want a drone and a bunch of lenses with me. He suggested a bag that he uses himself and provided me reasons why it was better than all the others. I could of gotten this information from Youtube or an online review but I was blown away by the sales rep wanting to solve my problem without trying to get the sale. As he spoke to me I’d never heard of the bag he was suggesting but I quickly got to the point that I just wanted to buy that bag and own it. He solved my problem, formed a relationship and had me even go back and buy an extra lens for my camera.

Example 3 – Email marketing Wagga clients using a cold email

Last year I went through the process of marketing my old business to clients who I thought might need some help given their previous agency had announced to the world she was closing shop. I sent them all a one off personal email to say hey I’m here to help if you need me. No strings attached would just love to help. One thing I learnt from this and I knew it anyway but it reinforced it “Cold” is harder than “Warm” marketing even with marketing in Wagga locally.

Let me explain, I went in with good intentions not to sell but what people heard was give me your money, it couldn’t be further from the truth, I understand the scepticism from another perspective. It looked like I was taking the opportunity to steal customers from an agency that was going under. Not surprising that agency built themselves on SquareSpace and over the years I had many clients ask me for SEO services once she’d finished building their site. (different topic) Cold is hard because theirs no trust and even when their is don’t lead with a sale, lead with solving their problem. Wait and be patient for them to ask you to send them a quote or invoice. It will come, they will feel unforgettable about wasting your time and grateful for your services.

Understanding Customer Needs: The Foundation of Trust for Marketing in Wagga

1. By truly listening to customers, businesses can understand their needs, fears, and desires. This understanding is the first step in building trust.
2. Showing genuine empathy can transform a customer interaction from a transaction to a relationship.
3. Highlight a case where a company’s empathetic approach turned a skeptical customer into a brand advocate.

The three examples above are excellent examples of how we build our strategies for all of our websites. This is very much along the lines of the marketing ingredients needed for a StoryBand website.

Solving Problems First: The Key to Lasting Relationships

Solving a customer’s problem creates intrinsic value, making them feel cared for rather than sold to.

That last part about caring, I truely do care about all my customers and would easily give them my time for free if it meant I could still pay my bills. Maybe I’m not a good marking or business man, but not being sold to feels so much more natural to me.

“When customers see that a business prioritising their needs over making a quick sale, trust is established.“

An example of relationship and trust, one of my customers Farmer & Son, a fruit grower and retailer sell’s his produce in Sydney. I took over managing his site about a year ago in 2022. I really like these guys and they show their appreciation not just through paying their bills on time but also are extremely generous and lovely to deal with. These are the customers I’d love to find more marketing in Wagga or Griffith or the Riverina. They aren’t professional services but I’d fix their problems first before upselling them on a new site. Actually over the past 12 months I’ve got to know their business before they’ve asked me to do their site for them now in 2024. There’s alot I’ve done for free to build our relationship and offer them value.

Transitioning to Sales with Trust and Consent

Get Leads truely seems like a name just about sales but it’s really not. It’s about getting the person looking for marketing in Wagga or a new website in Wagga and solving their problem first and mostly to get them more leads. I do this by solving or showing them how I can solve their marketing problem.

Once a plan is there to solve the problem, the transition to discussing products or services they will need feels natural and unforced. Often though a customer will lead with can you give me a quote even though they can see you can do what they need. Price is also important, if you solve a bunch of problems for a client and spend time to care for them and give them advice and they just simply don’t have any budget for you you’ve wasted your time or have you?

Often these clients can refer you or build your brand and reputation in the community. While marketing Wagga clients on price, you’re cheaper than the other three guys in town it’s a race to the bottom where nobody wins in the end. I’d prefer rather than doing a 10k job for 2k after the trust is there to do the project in phases so that phase 1 get’s them some value and solves some of their initial problems.

I’ve often felt it’s important to learn to read the signs that a customer trusts you enough to consider your products or services. If you get a bad gut feel then it’s probably legit.

Implementing a Trust-Based Selling Approach in Your Business with your Marketing

I suggest emphasising the importance of training your team in empathy, active listening, and problem-solving.

The era of hard selling is giving way to a more relationship-focused approach. By solving problems and building trust, businesses can create lasting relationships with their customers. We encourage you to adopt this approach and see the difference it makes in your customer interactions and long-term success.

Extra marketing resources worth a look

Every Christmas I take a break for a few weeks and read books, do courses, write content for the year ahead. I work on my business instead of working in my business and I’ve done this for probably the last 3 or 4 years. It doesn’t seem like it’s a drag and I have a lot of fun learning. Below I’m going to suggest 8 books I’ve either read or listened to that has value for marketing in Wagga. So if you want to work on-your-business instead of “in-it” here we go with 8 of my favourites:

• 100M dollar leads by Alex Hormozi – I’m sure you can see why I read this one only just this year, also bought the book it was that good.
• Building a Story Brand by Donald Miler – This guy is a must for anything marketing in Wagga, his courses are also great which I have worked through over the last 12 months.
• Atomic Habbits by James Clear – is a good one also available on Spotify this will help with communcations
• Crushing It by Gary Vaynerchuk – You can’t go past Gary V for telling you exactly how it is with business and in particular how to influence either through marketing or other methods.
• Marketing Made Simple by Donald Miller – Again this is his later book, I love the formulae here uses here with his marketing and use it with all my websites strategy.
• Launch by Jeff Walker – it’s been ages since I read his book, maybe three years, but I have loads of notes from this. It’s more about influence than it is solving.
• $1,000,000 Web Design Guide by Rob Anthony – This guy really focuses on solving problems first for your customers and I think whether your building a website or running a business this one’s worth a look.
• Start with Why by Simon Sinek – I’ve read all of Simon’s books, because he really focuses and makes alot of sense on “why” people do things such as “why” marketing shouldn’t just be focused around selling but solving a persons problem.