This post was written (and voluntarily researched 🍹) by Kate Hudson—HubSpot strategist for Hubbly and sales enablement pro.
There is one universal truth in life: Americans love Chilis.
Perhaps it is the one thing that truly unites us in divisive times. So naturally when I was killing time, doing anything but what I should be doing, and stumbled upon the life-shattering knowledge that Chili’s cocktail of the month was endorsed by none other than Kelly Kapowski herself, Tiffani Thiessen (light Googling will tell you she dropped the “Amber” in the year 2000 if you want to feel old), I knew I had to try it.
Better yet, I knew I had to convince the leadership team at Hubbly to let me write about it, so that the entire experiences (yes, I went multiple times, and you will understand that in a minute) could be expensed.
So friends, clients, and people who opted in to our mailing list and can’t quite remember why, I’m here to explain what the Chilis May Cocktail of the Month, the Radical Rita, can teach us all about sales enablement.
It may shock you, but not everyone in the world knows, or even cares at this point, who Tiffani Thiessen is. Yes. There are people out there in the wild walking around, not understanding what a bad girl Valarie Malone was, or how much many of us wanted to be, or be with, Kelly Kapowski.
So what does this have to do with your own sales process? Know your audience! People who don’t know who Thiessen is probably can’t legally buy alcohol. So why bother to appeal to them? They’re not the target market.
The number one thing you have to reiterate in building out a process is: meet your audience where they are, not where you want them to be.
This is why the alliance between Thiessen and Chilis is brilliant—the people who you want buying your $6 pre-made drink of the month know who she is, and love her. Automatic alignment between messaging and process. That’s sales, baby!
One of the appeals to the Radical Rita, is that you get a ridiculously garish swizzle stick that looks straight out of The Max, the Saved by the Bell hangout everyone seemed to spend more time in than their actual school. Now, in my experience, you only get one swizzle per visit, not drink, so there is a natural inclination to go back to collect them all.
What this means for you is that giving away something for free to drive more business works. I always tell the clients we’re working with, "give your expertise away for free." Don’t gate it. Your first reaction may be to tell me that’s a terrible idea but hear me out: if people could do what you can, they would already be doing it. The knowledge of how you do it changes nothing. They’re still not you.
To step away from the comparisons that at this point, you may think is a paid advertisement for Chilis (it’s not, I just really love that place.) Take for instance a recipe for a cake. Anyone can follow it, but whose cake would you rather eat: Martha Stewart’s or some random person’s off the street with no real experience in baking or light insider trading? Exactly. The experience is what you earned, but it’s how you apply it that leads clients to buy.
Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. And in this case, the Radical Rita is only available at Chilis for one month. Which is probably a good thing, because if you must know, it’s very sweet and I suspect gives me a headache, but that’s neither here nor there.
The point for you is that artificial scarcity drives business. Now, I’m not telling you to go out and launch a limited time only partnership with Tiffani Thiessen, but if you do please let me know because we have a lot to talk about.
I am telling you that limited-time promotions drive sales. That can be in the form of a discount code, a free consultation, or even allowing your clients/prospects to buy at a low, locked-in rate. This is why Black Friday is such a big thing–a day only sale. Think of how you can apply this concept to your own business, and suddenly, you have a comprehensive sales program starting to take shape.
Look, Chilis knows who their people are, and what they want, which is why they priced this drink at $6. Is it the best cocktail you will ever have? Probably not. But it is a garishly ‘90s colored drink with a free swizzle stick and branded to a ‘90s icon, so it sells. I would not be telling you to rush out and purchase it if it were $25 (although your mileage may vary at an airport Chilis, as you know, it’s the wild west of pricing once you’re past the TSA line.)
The point is, the price is dialed in perfectly, and that’s something we all can learn from. You don’t have to be a major conglomerate to figure out the right price. You can do A/B testing in HubSpot. You can test different price points for different prospects and see what makes them say yes, and what makes them say “new number, who this?” It’s trial and error, but once you hit that sweet spot, you’re golden. Or should I say neon pink?
Sales is serious business, even if this post wasn’t. If you’re interested in discussing how we can help you dial in your sales, increase your bottom line, and help your team (even if it’s just a team of one, aka you) take it to the next level, email us now!
We’re here to help, and also, reminisce about the time Jessie Spano got hooked on diet pills, because we all agree that’s the best episode of Saved by the Bell, right? If you disagree, also email us. We have to talk.
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