No matter how wonderful the product or service you’re offering, your business is unlikely to thrive if your prospective customers are unaware of it – or completely ignorant of its merits. That’s where field marketing techniques can be extremely helpful. A specialist field marketing company will be able to provide you with a number of services that can help to get your business out there – as well as providing you with valuable feedback on how you might make your stores more effective.
If you’re a retailer looking for a reason to hire a field marketing company, then why not consider some of the factors listed here?
Product Demonstrations
If you’ve got a product whose appeal isn’t immediately apparent, then you’ll need to provide the public with some information about it. And that information should ideally be presented in a way that’s going to accentuate the merits of the product, and persuade people to actually buy it.
This sort of persuasive ability is a skill that can’t be acquired overnight. Fortunately, specialist field sales firms have been perfecting this skill for a long time – and they’re more experienced than anyone in grabbing attention and converting it into sales. They’ll know when to push and when to back off – and they’ll be able to provide you with realistic expectations about the efficacy of any prospective campaign.
Product Sampling
The easiest way to demonstrate the effectiveness of a product is to allow a would-be customer to use it for themselves. That’s where product sampling comes in. Of course, this is a technique which is much more effective with certain products than with others – a product whose merits can be quickly appreciated will tend to fare better than one that’s arcane, and so a chocolate cookie will fare better in sampling campaigns than a book.
The best product sampling campaigns, like the best product demonstrations, are those which are as targeted as possible. By seeking out the customers who will be most inclined to buy a specific product, we’ll stand a better chance of creating conversions. A specialist field marketing company will stand the best chance of success in this regard, as they’ll have a base of experience and expertise to draw upon.
Mystery Shopping
If you’re running a store, then you’ll appreciate the value of customer service. Customers that feel dissatisfied with their experience are likely to tell their friends, who in turn are likely to tell their friends. News of terrible customer’s service, then, will spread like wildfire. While the same is true of very good customer service, it’s much rarer – and so focussing on maintaining a certain level of service across the board is essential.
Unfortunately, if you’re the owner or manager of a retail outlet, you’ll be among the last people to know if the service there is terrible. After all, your staff are unlikely to volunteer the information – and when you’re around, they’ll improve their performance. What’s more, you’ll be too close to the project to be objective about its shortcomings.
The only way to glean an accurate impression of the quality of your service, then, is through the help of a dedicated mystery shopper. This anonymous person will visit one of your stores (or many of them) and fill out a questionnaire detailing their experience. You’ll be able to collaborate with the field marketing company when devising this questionnaire, and so you’ll be able to focus your enquiry on the areas that are most important to you – or those which you suspect to be weakest. This will help you to gather valuable information about your business’s performance, which can be used in future decision-making.
Retail Audits
In order to gain the most accurate possible picture of your store and its performance, then you’ll want to perform a retail audit. This sort of audit is much like a financial audit – except instead of examining a company’s finances, it examines the company’s retail-front end, and comes to recommendations about how best to improve the business, attract more customers, and make more conversions.
An outside auditor is the best candidate for the job for a number of reasons. To begin with, they’re objective and impartial. But more importantly, they’re specialists who perform audits on a regular basis, and have access to technology and skills that’ll allow them to get the job done quickly, efficiently, and effectively. They’re therefore a sure way to get the information you need about how to improve your business.