Marketing Aquaculture Products — 1

For example, let’s say I’m selling fresh trout fi llets
at a farmer’s market; here is a very elementary
example of an interaction with a customer:
First stage: “Fresh fi sh is really good for you.”
Respondent comments and you continue;
Second stage: “I always feel great, but never
over stuff ed aft er a meal of these guys. Th ey are
so delicate. I like to lightly sauté them in a pan
in some olive oil and a little pure butter with
some fresh herbs, or perhaps with a mushroom
sauce and a little fresh asparagus on the side.”
Respondent again comments and you continue;
Th ird stage (dropping Th e Question): “I bet
you have someone you would like to wow with
a great meal?”
In the Second stage you can see where having
a point-of-purchase (aka. point-of sale) device,
counter card with recipes, would help the sale.
It seems simple, but it is not, unless you work at
it and keep the stages (steps) of the progression
in your mind. Now let’s try a more complicated
scenario. In this one let’s consider meeting with
a small independent grocery operator:
First stage: “You know, Mr. Smith, these days
buy-local or regionally produced produce and
other products are really getting attention; and
besides, everyone knows that fresh fi sh is really
good for you.” Respondent comments and you
continue;
Second stage: It seems that consumers are
willing to pay a little extra for a that special
meal now and then, and these guys are about as
special as you can get; especially if we promote
them by stressing that they are locally produced
16 — Marketing Aquaculture Products
with an emphasis on the highest quality; super
fresh, they were not trucked in from the west
coast. Also, we will provide a neat little pointof-purchase
counter card that shows the ponds
at the farm and recipe cards to help the sale.
We really like to work closely with you to give
your customers a unique high quality product.
You know, I like to lightly sauté fi llets in a pan
in some olive oil and a little pure butter with
some fresh herbs, or perhaps with a mushroom
sauce and a little fresh asparagus on the side.”
Respondent again comments and you continue;
Th ird stage (dropping Th e Question): What
do you think? How about we set up and staff a
nice little in-store event here in the next couple
of weeks?
(Why would anyone say no to that?)
Th e idea behind this technique is to build credibility
and identify the needs of the client at the
same time. It works for any business, service
or interpersonal communication situation. Th e
idea here is not to take the above examples as
stand-alone templates, but to study the concept
and adapt it to your particular product and the
uniquely positive things you wish to convey
that sells your operation. Gitomer stresses that
the object to the lesson is to compel the prospect
to think and respond to you. Th is creates
a unique relationship. It also is what compels
the prospect to become vested in the relationship
with you as a trusted supplier that sets you
aside from the competition. Th e key is why
listening to the other person; you can see why
that would be far more important to this process
than having some kind of phony canned
response that you are throwing in someone’s
face.
Gitomer suggest that if you are going to successfully
use this technique, write out the three
stages, compose diff erent scenarios, and then
practice to work out the rough spots. He says
that aft er about twenty-fi ve attempts, “you’ll
own the technique.”