Lost at C , 5 P’s of Marketing now 5 C’s of Content

Content is king, to attract the right customers. Customers are People not numbers(from the old Yellow Pages, Golden Pages )

The days of breaking down doors, pounding the pavements and cold calling are thankfully gone. Just caused a lot of #stress on the #salesperson and the #Customer. Often this machine gun approached to #selling just chased away the Customer.

With Customers more up to date, well informed, looking at peer reviews and doing extensive research before they buy the modern sales person has to be a lot more strategic with their #sales and #marketing

Trust was always a key factor in selling so how does the modern sales person build trust ? People believe peer reviews in preference to adverts. But the advertising industry is catching up with Clever, Creative Content and video for mobile etc

https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/lovable-video-marketing-campaigns#sm.00001dexxregqse9ju9vpwvtcd058

Then there’s the classic John Cleese parrot sketch with good olde fashioned Customer service / sales at its best / worst  :

 

 

Sales tip : don’t P on yr Customers

Can you really earn what you want to earn?

My sales manager years ago used to say”you can earn what you want to earn”

”you’re in control of your own destiny”

To a certain extent this is true. But we all know that health, technology changes etc can change our position. We have to adapt to be lucky and often we need some support and strong networks to get us back on our feet.

When leaping into your own business it helps prevent failure to have supports to help with business planning, sales, marketing, net working and finance.

If your reading to taking that leap, look before you leap with this  springboard course at Docklands Innovation hub :

http://www.springboardcourses.ie/details/3761

Trust is key to selling in a digital age

Digital selling retains many of the elements of face-to-face sales

Treasure your customers

Relate to their needs

Understand their needs and different buyer personas

Satisfy their needs with helpful solutions

Try to help them solve the problems they face

Don’t use the machine gun approach to selling, you’ll kill the customer!

Remember all customers are people not numbers on a spreadsheet. Customers need to to treated as intelligent human beings who have feelings.

Too many salespeople are so keen to reach sales targets that they just see customers as numbers and revenue making units. To succeed sales people need to have a more tailored approach based on careful listening to the customers needs.

Instead of being a pest on the phone become a helper and problem solver for individual customer needs. Social media can help once it’s not seen as spam.

Sales Tip : Are you too focused on self promotion?

Finding the right customers can be like finding a needle in a haystack. With all the sales channels  available it can be hard to know how to focus your sales strategy. Self promotion on social networks such as tweeting your great offers doesn’t work. You need to add value, be interesting or informative. With time, effort and the right sales and marketing strategy you’ll find sales coming you.

How much time should you spend on social media?

This depends on where your customers are and what you’re selling.

Participation on Twitter, and especially Facebook, is high, companies may find that other networks (and their ad products) are a better strategic fit. Pinterest, for example, has become essential to women’s lifestyle publishers, accounting for as much as 10% of their monthly referral traffic. WordPress, Instagram, Tumblr and LinkedIn may also be worth exploring, depending on your target customer demographic and other needs.

As a consultant trainer LinkedIn is a valuable way to help build more business contacts.

Offline networking and activities can be very important for high value goods and services.