4 Lessons On Selling Strategies From Real Life Stories

During the hot summers in Dubai, I would often find myself entertaining my son by taking a stroll through some mall.

Those excursions made me realize that the mall was an apt place to see a variety of product growth strategies in action:

1. I'd often encounter a perfume salesman in the wide corridors on my way to another store. They'd greet me with a warm smile & offer to spray a little on my clothes or would just hand me a perfumed strip.

I never bought from them, even though I liked the perfume.

2. Once I went to an electronics store to check out a printer. A salesman promptly arrived to give me this flamboyant demo & how this printer was so good that it could re-print destinies.

I was impressed but needed time to think before I took the plunge.

3. Then, there was a time when we passed through a toy store. My child found an overpriced scooty lying around & gave it a go. Minutes later, I found a salesman cheering him on.

My kid threw down a tantrum & demanded I buy it. I tried pushing back but eventually I gave in.

4. Finally, I'd often visit the bookstore. My son would get busy with some puzzles while I got time to pick a few books of interest & start reading the initial pages. If a book resonated with me, I'd have to make a decision whether I was leaving with or without it.

If it felt valuable, I would put down the money.

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These strategies closely map to what we see in the SaaS world.

The perfume salesman is the typical outbound sales-led strategy.

The spray (pun intended) & pray approach that tries to coax people to try the product, often in an out-of-context environment.

Thus, the top-of-the-funnel (TOTF) remains constricted & deal volume is low. (although rumor has it that a single purchase a day is sufficient for these chaps)

The printer store is your sales-led strategy.

You come in looking for a product. There's a salesman in the way who gives a detailed demo & wants you to buy now. You instead mull over it, read some reviews/comparisons & then issue a verdict. The TOTF is moderately loose but deal velocity is still slow.

The toy store is a special case of product-led strategy where the user & buyer are not the same.

The user (my kid) fell in love with the product but he still had to transfer those vibes to the man with the wallet (me).

Thus, he chose to fill the void via influence (tantrums) till I transacted. Wider TOTF & deal velocity depends on how loud the kid is.

Finally, the bookstore is aligned to a classic product-led strategy.

No salesman involved. An open invite to explore items of value. If you find the right book within your time there (aka free trial period), chances are you'll transact.

However, this is highly dependent on the bookstore carrying the right books & organizing them in an intuitive fashion.

If they get that right? Super wide TOTF, high deal velocity.