People Do Business With People They Like

In the offline world, consultative selling is all about building relationships with your prospects and clients. It is about taking an interest in them beyond simply trying to make your next sale. With consultative selling, you become a trusted resource to your clients by really getting to the heart of how you can solve their problems.

In short, consultative selling is about earning the right to progress to the next step (whatever that might be) – but only after you have taken the time to understand the situation and find the appropriate solutions.

Obviously, the dynamics of accomplishing this is different in a face-to-face environment than it is online. In person, you can use both verbal and non-verbal clues to assess how things are going and adjust your presentation accordingly. For example, if you are dealing with someone who is very direct and to the point, you should avoid the “warm fuzzy” approach and instead supply only the facts and figures they need to make a decision.

Cutting to the chase in that situation will significantly decrease the odds you’ll annoy the heck out of that person, too!

Online, you don’t have this luxury. Here, your content is your primary means of establishing and building a relationship with your audience. Think about that for a second. Your words have the ability to make or break your business online. Granted, your business model may involve live webinars or teleseminars that allow for more personal interaction  – but the bottom line is you won’t reach that point without first establishing a relationship with your readers through your content.

One great way to engage your audience with your content is to infuse it with your personality. Don’t hold back or hide behind stiff and formal sentence structure – instead, write like you would talk. It can be really scary to put yourself out there like that – but believe me, it works. After more than 15 years in outside sales, one thing I can assure you is that people do business with people they like.

And they won’t know if they like you if you never show them who you are.

Plus, revealing who you are is also a great first step toward establishing those all-important relationships that form the core of consultative selling.

Tomorrow, we’ll look at more ways to leverage your content to build better relationships with your customers online.

Til Next Time,

PS Blogging is one of the absolute best ways to establish a relationship with your readers through content. Blogs are usually more casual and informal than other content formats, which makes them perfect for expressing who you are. If you want to start a blog – but have gotten bogged down with where to start – check out Beginner to Blogger in 4 Weeks. This comprehensive course will get you up and running before you know it. Better yet, try the DVD version which will allow you to accelerate your study time for an even faster launch date!  I wish I had had access to it when I first started – would have saved a lot of time and money… and A LOT of frustration!