The Art of AIDA in Sales

One of the key principles of sales and marketing is to follow a process of attracting a customer, gaining their interest, creating a desire for a purchase, and then action through closing a sale. Even in today’s technological e-commerce age, which is largely content driven and increasingly automated, there is a need for  Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action (AIDA).  The trouble is that marketing and sales often like to see themselves as separate entities than as a team. 

AIDA requires teamwork
Yet both marketer and salesperson have the task of attracting customers, gauging their interest, and/or creating it in a way that they wish to make a purchase. Marketers can help to ensure that those leads are warm – which is particularly important in an era where an opt in to communications with an organisation is so vital to this process occurring. Still, with some markets and products, there is still the need to follow-up with each customer. 

In sales there can never be a presumption that the customer will buy straightaway. The higher the value the purchase, the more time a customer will need to decide whether they wish to buy a product or service or not. Badgering customers for a sale will lose them as much as not following up on an initial customer enquiry or sales call. 

The tone makes the music
It’s much the tone that makes the music, whether it is a salesperson making a call as a follow-up or an email. Each channel and sales method must engage in a way that maintains the attraction, interest, and desire of a customer for a product. 

So, in this week’s newsletter, Phil Hobden, UK Product Lead, at Silverfin, examines ‘Mastering the Follow-Up: How to Keep Your Leads Engaged and Interested.’ Regarding the need to follow-up, he comments: 

“When you’ve engaged in a meaningful discussion and identified genuine interest, your leads will almost expect timely communication. A colleague of mine described it as like having a ‘fast pass at a theme park’, and that’s 100% true. But this advantage is time-sensitive, and as time passes, so does that fast pass, and day-to-day work starts to take over.”

Discover more about how to follow up in an effective way to increase customer engagement and inevitably sales in his invaluable blog article. Also, don’t forget to send Engage Sales your thoughts on the Art of Aida and follow-ups, as well as any other sales engagement topics. 

By Graham Jarvis - Editor