they needed to be convinced. They needed
a spark. They needed to be given a reason
to consume.
The awareness to adoration journey is a
power game that starts from your head,
then to your heart and finally ends up
walking all over your body. At the initial
stages, the customer has the power and
the company has to work very hard
to convince him. As the relationship
progresses, a customer slowly loses that
power, and when fully on the other side of
the power spectrum, the product won’t go
to the customer, but the customer will go
looking for it.
There is a time Safaricom used to hawk
their airtime cards. Now they don’t. What
happened? They slowly penetrated into
your skin, your heart, and your mind. Now
they walk all over your body like Jonnie
Walker.
My phone is duo SIM. That means I
can access Airtel and Safaricom services
The awareness to ad-
oration journey is
a power game that
starts from your head,
then to your heart and
finally ends up walk-
ing all over your body.
At the initial stages,
the customer has the
power and the com-
pany has to work very
hard to convince him.
As the relationship
progresses, a custom-
er slowly loses that
power, and when ful-
ly on the other side of
the power spectrum,
the product won’t go
to the customer, but
the customer will go
looking for it.
from one handset. For the Airtel line,
credit is loaded by my company monthly.
Safaricom is my personal line. My Airtel
credit runs out way before the month ends
but I never actively bother to top up. On
the other hand, when my Safaricom credit
runs out, I will quickly load it from my
Mpesa or walk around shops looking for
it.
The same way I wouldn’t bother to go
looking for Airtel airtime, is the same way
Pilsner customers couldn’t go looking for
the beer if it wasn’t available in their local
pub. If the relationship has not tilted to
your favor, customers will not go that extra
mile to buy or consume your products.
They will only buy when you make it
extremely convenient for them.
I would be willing to buy Airtel airtime
if someone came selling it to me. I would
even demand that they scratch and load
it for me. Am I mean to Airtel? No. I am
just not sold in!
At the initial stages of a relationship, the
needy must invest. John invested his time
and worked hard to impress, Safaricom
hawked simcards and airtime.
Besides the investment, and doing other
right things, companies must also monitor
how the relationship is unfolding. Is it
plateauing to become a normal friendship,
or is it gaining fire to become a hot burning
love? John was late to realize that what he
was building was a nice cooker and gas,
but without ignition. The relationship
between Pilsner and its customer had long
gone cold.
Persuasive selling is a more organized,
meaningful, and successful technique to
trigger action. Often you will find that no
instant decision to action by a customer is
possible. Therefore, to ensure progress, get
agreement to the next step.
Many times, we sell an idea or proposition
and it requires action to get things
started. If action is required, then we
should suggest something we can do to
get things started rather than something
the customer can do. Let us not leave the
customer to be the one to suggest this
action.
That spark is the key to action. Make it
convenient for customers to take that
desired action. And if your brand hasn’t
reached that adoration threshold, you
have to go that extra mile of creating
convenience. Airtel customers need
convenience. Besides convenience, Pilsner
customers and John’s lover, also needed to
be nudged, to be excited, to be pleased in
order to reignite. So, don’t just sit there.
Do something!
Herman Githinji is a seasoned
marketing practitioner and law
graduate from the University Of
Nairobi. Currently the CEO Bidco
Land O’Lakes Company that makes
quality Animal Feeds using American
Technology. You can commune with
him on this and related issues via email
on: [email protected].