I'm a little late for Friday posting but sliding in at the end of the day! Today I'm going to be talking about one of my pet peeves and an uncomfortable situation most of us have experienced at one time or another. The Hard Sell. A girlfriend of mine paid for a make-up "class" with Dior make-up. Well, I guess they didn't have enough people sign up because each person who paid for the class was invited to bring a guest. I had been feeling a bit stir crazy and needed to get out, so when she offered, I jumped at the chance. It would be like a make-over, right?
Wrong. While the class itself was very informative, the object was for us to put on our own make-up and learn the proper way to use their products. They did a demonstration and then we all got the opportunity to use the make-up ourselves. Each table had a sales consultant that was there to help. The main problem? The woman sales consultant at our table was about as intense as they come. At least I really hope they don't get more intense because I was extremely uncomfortable. She was pushing products on us, even ones we declined using. The woman I was with had taken her make-up off before arriving, having anticipated the need for a clean face. Yet, the sales woman insisted she "needed to use the cleanser". In the end, I bought two products. However, I probably would have bought three if the woman hadn't pushed me to make a decision at the end and made me so uncomfortable. If instead of pushing, she had informed, she probably could have sold me on more than that. Maybe not. I have a very tight budget, but I was in a impulse buying mood. The woman was doing the hard sell and in the end it probably cost her commission in the products I DIDN'T buy.
Now, I see writers all the time working the hard sell. I see it on the forums I join. I see it on twitter. For example, I had a woman follow me on Twitter. Now, as a rule, I look at people's profile and recent tweets before following back. If the person is a fellow writer, generally funny, or at least looks like they have conversations with people on twitter, I usually follow back. If the person looks like a bot, has recently tweeted something I find offensive, or is all about the political/religious tweets, I tend to not follow back. I have my political view and religious views too, but I don't need to broadcast them. So, I went to this woman's profile and found she was a fellow writer. I thought her 'about me' blurb was clever and was about to follow back based on that alone, but I looked at her recent tweets... Every. Single. One. was about her book or her blog. Not one reply to someone else, not one subject that wasn't about her. I passed on following her back. Without following her, I knew everything she would ever say to me and I felt no need to see it five times a day in my twitter feed.
Now, I'm not saying don't promote. I promote. I send a tweet about Arctic Winds every now and then. But I also make friends through twitter. I have conversations, talk about current writing news, promote and retweet other authors, and participate in hashtag discussions. The point I'm trying to make is, the hard sell doesn't work in real life... why do people think the internet is different?
What do you think? Do you agree/disagree?
I agree with you wholeheartedly. I actually have a hard time straight promoting. I promote links to my blog a lot because I feel I have something to say that others will want to read (and for free!) but otherwise, I feel uncomfortable asking people to spend money. I like to connect with people, just like you. Funny story, I saw this link of yours on twitter and clicked it. :)
ReplyDeleteBut at the same time, I suppose I understand those people trying so hard to sell their books. If you're trying to make money in this industry... it's HARD. There are so many other people trying to do the same thing, sometimes it feels like you're bashing your head against the wall. I suppose that's why I focus on things I find interesting and try to tweet links, again, to interesting posts. Buy links? Once per release for the publisher, once per release for Amazon. Maybe ARe if I really feel in the promoting mood, otherwise not.
I suppose I might come off as a "hard sell" on my facebook account. I don't particularly like facebook and only have a fan page. As such, I only post things pertaining to my writing career. Even so, I only post once per link and skip days sometimes. I suppose it's all about the medium. Catch me on my blog and I answer every comment with care.
Guess I'm in the mood to talk tonight. :S Sorry for writing you a book LOL
Hey Lindsey, thanks for stopping in. As someone who follows you on twitter (and facebook?) and has been to your blog, I can say that you are NOT hard selling. Posting updates for your blog when you post something new is different. Hell, I don't even mind people who post links to their books on amazon once or twice a week. I do it probably once every other week. I personally am turned off when that's ALL you talk about or when it's done so much and so hard that I'm uncomfortable being around the person (like the make-up sales woman). Although, I'm sure everyone has their own opinions on what qualifies as a hard sell, and some might think posting a book link at all is a turn off. It's certainly hard to find a balance.
ReplyDeleteFacebook is different in my opinion. If someone follows your fanpage, they're doing so knowing you're only going to post about you. It's not really a conversation friendly platform (again in my opinion. I could be wrong) unless you're "friends" with someone.
And never appologize for writing a book in the comments! I love comments!