Dan Galante

There are amazing exhibits at the New York International Auto Show that showcased innovations in the auto industry. These innovations included an increased number of: Hybrid, Electric and Voice enabled vehicles. Mercedes-Benz showcased its Voice enabled vehicles in its Press Conference.

Porsche celebrated the 50th Anniversary of the 911 with the unveil of the 911 Speedster. This was really enjoyable to see.

Ford celebrated National Mustang Day celebrating 50 years of the Mustang.

https://twitter.com/SMktgSMTDABlog/status/1118692196880932864

Porsche and Ford were not alone in celebrating an anniversary.

Nissan celebrated 50 years of the 370Z with a commemorative edition.

https://twitter.com/DanGalante/status/1118505860144066566

Kia had an exciting release with the release of the Stinger and Habiniro.

Mazda released the Mazda 3 and CX-5.

There were so many amazing vehicles on display. To showcase them, I did a live walk through of the show floor where I covered them more in-depth.

Additional Pictures can be found on Instagram.

The show is truly amazing but don’t take my word for it. See for yourself!

The New York International Auto Show is open to the public from Friday, April 19th to Sunday, April 28th, 2019. Tickets cost $17 for Adults, $7 for Children, pricing for groups and tours can be found on the website. For more information go to http://www.autoshowny.com/tickets.

What do you want to see at the show? If you have attended the show, what was your favorite exhibit?

Comment below.

Free or Low-Cost Trials

When creating a new offering, I would offer a free or low-cost trial of your product to the end-users and industry experts. Consumers look for social proof before they buy a product. Now if the product is new, none exists. To lower buyer resistance, you need to make it low risk and feel safe.

In addition to market research and product testing; the free or low-cost trial is a great way to build trust and get feedback. Surveys can be created to ask potential customers about their experience.

If your product helps to solve a customer’s problem they will be more than happy to share it with others; converting to paying users! The product will earn testimonials and endorsements. Testimonials and endorsements will address product reliability creating: loyalty, brand recognition, and Sales for your product.

Loss Leaders

In place of a free or low-cost trial, a loss leader can be an option. A loss leader is when you offer a product at a loss or break-even point to gain business in the future. Supermarkets do this all of the time when a new product is rolled out.

Another place I saw loss leaders was when I was in Field Sales. I was selling Dental equipment at the time. Certain customers were loyal to certain types of equipment. When I ask why they stated that these were the tools that they had used in school. When I called on Dental schools and Hospitals, I found they were locked up with large contacts. My larger competitors sold the equipment at cost practically giving it away. Why would they do this? My competitors were creating life-long customers who were trained on certain tools and refused to switch.

Connection, trust, and advocacy are essential for customer acquisition. It is your job as a brand to turn your customer base into evangelists.

The decision on developing and implementing offering free, low-cost trials and/or loss leaders will be different for each product.

Free, low-cost trials and loss leaders help to Increase Sales and Customer Loyalty.

How have you used free, low-cost trials and loss leaders to create Sales and Customer Loyalty?

Comment and share.

I recently has the privilege to cover the World Business Forum in NYC last week. There were so many great panels and top business minds at the event. I want to highlight some of my favorites.

1. Seth Godin’s talk on Marketing where he discusses How today’s Marketer needs to be both remarkable and generous.

   

In his talk Seth discusses his new book This is Marketing and he discusses what it takes to succeed in today’s connection economy.

The new economy was Made of of the following components

A key idea was that Marketers make change happen.

It was truly an amazing talk.

2. A talk by Juan Enriquez on the topic of trends in technology.

Two trends that caught my attention were:

3. Whitney Johnson’s talk on How to build an A Team where she discusses how to design jobs to maximize both employee engagement and performance.

Companies should strive for 70% employee engagement.

Companies should take chances hiring people who are inexperienced to keep a steady pipeline of employees.

4. Daniel Kahneman’s talk on the psychology of how we make Intuitive Judgments and choices based and why people are more risk averse than others. He also discusses how stress impacts decision making.

The World Business Forum is an amazing event packed with insights and for everyone in Business. If you missed out this year; attend the next one.

All images are Courtesy of WOBI.