Knowing how to position a given product in the marketplace to enhance its desirability to the consumer is the core skill required for high level sales employment. A product may also be positioned as being the most durable (if applicable to the product), as the ''right'' choice for a certain demographic and so on.
Many sales and marketing professionals use price point as an element of product positioning: either the price point is low and this is emphasized to help overcome resistance or it is high and this is also emphasized to build an image of the product as a luxury item. But what about when the price point is zero? How do professionals in sales jobs approach this challenge?
Just because a product or service is cheap or even free doesn't automatically mean that it is desirable. In fact, there is a certain amount of resistance to accepting goods and services which are offered at no cost. The problem is that they are perceived to be of no value if they are free of cost. Try stepping out to the nearest corner sometime with say, a box of items you were planning to donate to a charitable organization. These items are likely in good condition and have obvious value - but you almost certainly won't be able to give many, if any of them you give away to passers-by.
There is one method which some who perform jobs in sales which involve online marketing and sales use to overcome this sales resistance to a product which comes at no cost while getting something in return from the consumer: their email address or other contact information. These giveaways are often in the form of a downloadable e-book or other informative content. The contact information provided by the consumer may not have any monetary value to them; but to marketers, this information is a goldmine.
There's another old saw in the marketing world which anyone who has spent any length of time in sales employment will also be familiar with that explains why this information is seen as so valuable. It's the saying that it takes seven contacts to make a prospective customer into an actual customer. Having the contact information for people who have already shown enough interest to visit the site provides these marketers with a relatively focused mailing list of people who can be assumed to fall more or less within their target demographic. There's then plenty of time to make all the contacts they need, establishing their brand image with this audience and laying the groundwork for a sale and if done properly, lasting brand loyalty - the Holy Grail for any people working in marketing or sales jobs.
