This week, we’ve been talking about consultative selling and how it relates to your web content.
To clarify, when I talk about “consultative selling” in this context, I am not referring strictly to a monetary exchange for products or services. In this case, I am also referring to the broader concept of “selling” your thoughts and ideas as you build your audience online. It is about establishing relationships with your readers and building value into what you have to offer with content.
When I was a sales manager, I encouraged my sales team to stay in touch with their prospects and clients on a regular basis. I told them that if they were going to cold-call on a business one time and never follow up – they might as well spend the day going fishing. (Come to think of it, I think some of them may have taken me up on that suggestion… 
). In our industry, the likelihood of a single interaction translating into a closed sale was very small. It was important, however, to keep filling the funnel and positioning ourselves as the go-to resource when a business needed our type of product. It was a very timing-specific sale, so being “in the right place at the right time” was important.
Staying in touch with our prospects helped us accomplish that.
It is common knowledge in the world of sales and marketing that prospects rarely buy based on a single experience or impression. Instead, it reportedly takes anywhere from 7 to 10 impressions before most marketing messages have an effect. I would venture to guess that number is even higher online. Why? The Internet is saturated with hype and “noise” – and people are naturally more skeptical of offers and claims made by businesses they don’t know and may never hear from again.
This offers an amazing opportunity for you. You can differentiate yourself from all the anonymous fly-by-night web businesses out there by being consistent – and by keeping your readers best interests first.
Ways you can do this include:
- Consistently offer value with original informative content.
- Pass along valuable free or low-cost resources that can make your clients more successful.
- Create an in-depth product review if you purchased a product that worked great for you. (But, keep it real by pointing out its faults, too).
- Send links to live case studies related to their niche or industry.
Look for ways to share tidbits of useful information with your readers. Each offers an opportunity to stay in front of your audience and further build your credibility as an expert in your field. Its a true win-win situation.
Tomorrow, we’ll talk about a couple of ways you can streamline and (almost) automate this process.
Til Next Time,
PS If you have any further questions re: the consultative selling process and how to incorporate it into your web copy – feel free to contact me via the contact page. Also, please feel free to leave a comment or suggestion below with your thoughts on this topic!
