Do You Offer A Test Drive?
Free 10 Step Business Boot Camp
This worksheet will take you through your business planning in 30 minutes and tell you where you can improve your business and achieve the results you want.
The guy from the car dealership walked into my father’s store jangling the set of keys in his hand, and said to my dad, “Gimme your keys. I’m gonna swap cars with you for a week.”
You go to the theater to see the movie you’ve been waiting for, but before they show it, you’re going to watch the trailers for some other movies they want you to see.
You’re in the mall and you walk into the Apple store to buy an extra charger, but not before you pass the table with the new phones, iPads and watches sitting there waiting for you to try out.
The salesperson sees you looking at the sport jackets and suggests you try this one on, “just for size,” and suggests you stand in front of the three-way mirror.
The HVAC company offers a $99 special where they come out and inspect your heating system in the fall and air conditioner in the spring.
From a YouTube video you can get a sample before you plunk down your money for concert tickets. Attending a free or low-cost webinar can give you a pretty good idea about how a speaker might fit into that conference you’re planning.
The “test drive” — literally getting your product into the hands of the customer at little or no cost or risk — continues to be a tried and true technique for people to really experience what it would feel like to own your product or to do business with you.
But many businesses still continue to promote the features, advantages and benefits of their products and services by talking about them rather than finding ways to help customers experience them for themselves.
How can you find new ways to get samples of your products and services into the hands of your customers?
Ask yourself a few questions:
- What problem do customers have that we can solve?
- What would they have to see and hear and feel to believe we can help them?
- What tangible item can we put in their hands at no or low cost that would communicate that benefit?
As seen from the diverse examples above, virtually any product or service — no matter how intangible — can be reduced to some concrete sample experience that communicates the value of what you’re offering. It’s worth brainstorming with your team and testing some ideas.