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We're All Selling Something

Generating Leads.

How hard is a soft-sell?

selling at the mall
I'm working part time for a mob. On commission. Six days per week. For those of who know me you're probably wondering - but why? I spend so much time promoting Content Marketing, why would I actually go sit in a shop and wait for people to approach me?

It would be a thousand times worse if I had to push flyers into people's hands. But it's nothing like that. I literally just sit here, at a table, hiding behind flyers and leaflets. What I'm actually doing is working on client websites and doing SEO. I do nothing at all to promote the product I'm selling. YOU come to ME. It's a slow sales revolution. Everybody's tired of the intrusive fast sell. Surrounding me are flyers, leaflets and promotional material advertising the services of Climate Roof Restorations. Technical information about tiles, roof cavity heat and sun reflectivity surround me. Sometimes I forget to look up. That actually works best. Am I going out on a limb when I say this: "Doing the opposite of selling is actually turning out to be the best sales technique." No. I don't think so. I get here at around 10am and leave at 5:15pm. Why 5:15? Well, a weird things happens here at 5:15. It's like mad hour. Dads and Mums pick up kids and basically race through various shops as quick as possible. Every now and then one of them sprints up to me and asks about roof restoration. I don't have all the answers. I've read the material. I have been given a rough overview of the process. My job is to take their name, address and phone number. Then I ask the lads to call them.

Avoid the Salesman

Some people actually want the roof guys (Steve and Garry) to call. They come up to me because others haven't got back to them. Other people see me a threat. I get a wide berth. "He's trying to rope me in to a never-ending barrage of sales-calls," I see eyes say. In the first week, I was mildly offended by blokes who came up and just took a pamphlet. I felt like the plastic Taxi Driver ("Johnny") in Luc Besson's "The Fifth Element". Just a mannikin. Looking after a pamphlet box. But today? I really don't care. It seems the more I sit down and engross myself in writing (I'm literally writing a novel between other technical and sales manual jobs) the more people approach me. But there's no real pattern. No real time of day sales can be made. No discernable demographic other than 40 to 60 year olds who care about their roof. Everyone is over 45. I can say that much. They want me to do Ellenbrook next week. Got to get back to it. It's nearly 5:15pm. Let's if the Currumbine Shopping Centre is anything like mad Woodvale.
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