At work, I regularly suggest the team to look at different offline experiences (instead of like-to-like comparison) to learn tried & tested methods to apply in selling services online.

This blog post is an extension of Cross-pollination post I had written earlier this month. The fact is everyone’s recycling the same tactics to sell a product or service online. To a point where most products in the same category look like having the same content.

What if… we ditched the playbook and took lessons from, say, a farmer’s market or a luxury hotel concierge? Yep, selling beauty services like a hotel receptionist or pushing premium tea like the waiter who recommends wine.

Here are some real, doable tactics to make your products or services actually stand out and, more importantly, sell.

1. Selling beauty services?

Observe customer service at luxury hotel receptions.

Luxury hotel receptions provide top-tier customer service. They make guests feel valued, respected, and uniquely cared for. They are always attentively listening, handling requests with care, and almost always offering refreshments. Observing them closely can give some good insights on how to sell beauty services online:

• Make booking process really seamless

• Add elements that make the service “feel”tailored

• Explicitly assure memorable service experience

• Put detailed service descriptions, clear guidance on treatment benefits, and even consultation details

• Mimic the warmth and exclusivity of a luxury hotel with content design

2. Selling custom jewellery?

Observe gallery curators present exclusive artworks.

Art gallery curators are skilled at creating a story around each piece. They emphasise, modulate their voice to highlight uniqueness, history, and the artist’s inspiration. For online jewellery sales, try similar style of storytelling:

• Explain journey of the piece — from design inspiration to final creation

• Make it stand out by referring to inspiration and history to give a sense of exclusivity

• Origin, history & journey emphasis convey value, rarity, and luxury

3. Selling designer handbags?

Observe real estate agents giving you walkthrough of high-end properties.

High-end real estate agents sell a lifestyle along with a property. Exclusivity of access to amenities, neighbours, community and status that comes with the ownership. You can apply this approach to selling designer handbags:

• By showcasing these bags as symbols of sophistication, elegance, and exclusivity, they can become more than just fashion accessories. Online platforms could highlight each bag’s design story, unique materials, and artisanship, creating an image of luxury that appeals to buyers’ aspirations.

• Design graphics, photos to associate with lifestyle and environment, as an emblem of prestige. This will automatically establish the buyer’s personal style and confidence.

4. Selling organic spices?

Observe tour guides at heritage places explain the cultural background of spices and dishes.

Tour guides explain the history and cultural context of local spices and evolution of dishes over generations. In most cases, we end up going to a local restaurant right after the tour. Anyway, study these tours and methods of explaining try a similar approach when selling online:

• Explain the richness of each spice’s origin, usage, and culinary heritage.

• Describe where each spice is grown, its traditional uses, and tips on pairing it with other flavours.

• Try to create a sensory journey for the buyer.

• This cultural storytelling makes buyers see spices as tools for culinary exploration. It almost makes them imagine the flavour and feel that the heritage can come in to their kitchen.

5. Selling sports shoes?

Go trekking and observe adventure guides explain the right equipment for specific terrains.

Disclaimer: I haven’t been in a trek ever but when I was planning for Rainbow mountains in Peru with a friend back in 2015, we ended up watching a lot of YouTube.

Basically, expert adventure guides match equipment to the environment. They highlight features of bags, accessories to be carried, safety equipments and such suited for the specific terrain. A lot of these principles, if studied well, can be applied to selling shoes online as well:

• Describe how specific features — like grip, breathability, or cushioning — enhance performance, comfort in different sports or day-to-day activities.

• Trail running shoes can be called out for their rugged grip, while cross-training shoes can highlight multi-surface adaptability.

• If you’re a regular walker in Bengaluru, a wide sole version of a runing shoe for stability would appeal more than generic running focused content.

6. Selling musical instruments?

Observe book club organisers.

They recommend different genres, different authors depending on the newcomer’s preferences or objectives. Even within a genre they can pinpoint to a specific book basis how easy the reading is, even the pace! If you’re selling to someone who is looking for the right musical instrument, try these:

• Build a recommendation flow for either picking an instrument or a specific model or type.

• A beginner guitar for pop vs. classical. A beginner drum-kit by budget, or if they live in an apartment or have sound insulation.

• You can also try asking how much time they have in a week to spend on practicing? You can recommend them a casual instrument to begin with or an intermediate one if they’re planning to be serious.

• You’ll soon become the go-to for the customer for anything music as it’s tailored and thoughtful, especially for beginners and those exploring a new hobby.

7. Selling gourmet chocolates?

Observe perfume salesmen at high-end retail stores.

These salesmen (or women) describe different fragrance notes to walk-in customers using terms like “floral,” “spicy,” and “woody.” This sensory language helps customers feel the fragrance even before they are smell.

Selling gourmet chocolates online can take similar inspiration:

• Focus the description on flavour profiles, mouthfeel, and aroma.

• In addition to describing notes with “silky,” “bitter,” or “nutty,” share stories about the chocolate’s origins, unique ingredients, and craftsmanship involved.

• The craftsmanship could appeal to connoisseurs, the ones who’d really value it.

8. Selling fitness equipments?

Observe nutritionists explain diet plans and interior designers recommending decor.

Nutritionists give personalised diet plans basis health, fitness goals, and dietary preferences. Interior designers recommend furnitures, even plants considering space, lighting, and aesthetic preferences.

If you observe them closely enough, you can derive a lot of inspiration for selling fitness equipments online:

• Instead of listing all equipments like Amazon, recommend based on user inputs — fitness levels, specific goals, or training needs.

• E.g. recommend resistance bands for beginners or kettlebells for strength trainers. Create a sense of guidance using content tags, text labels, etc.

• Make each equipment make customers visualise how they’ll fit into their fitness routine.

• Consider space design. If you’re selling for home, consider home environment and not gym environment. Club aesthetically similar looking equipments together in a collection.

• Put them in similar aesthetic spaces in your content graphics.

• Buyers are most likely to buy your equipments if they don’t make their home look like a gym.