Times have changed. Salespeople are involved in the purchase process by potential customers (in both B2C and B2B markets) only late in the orientation process. Customers first ask their questions to the big sales consultant called 'Google'. Answers to questions must therefore be findable via Google, but how do you do that?
In the late 1970s, two major market changes prompted companies to change their product-oriented sales methods to a more needs-oriented sales approach. On the one hand, it was the greatly increased competitive pressure. On the other hand, free access to information increased exponentially. Potential customers could obtain and compare product information ever faster. Companies saw the need to help customers with the purchase, instead of convincing them of the advantages of the products and services.
Helping customers with 'consultative selling'
What is consultative selling ? In 1975 Frank Watts developed a new sales method and called it ' solution selling '. A sales method in which the salesperson acts as an advisor who guides the customer in the purchasing process. Salespeople were trained to ask questions, listen and look for solutions. In short, ' consultative selling ' is about helping in the form of a dialogue between the salesperson and the customer.
Helping customers with content marketing
In consultative selling it is important to be involved in the purchase process at the earliest possible stage. Research has shown that in most cases the customer is already 65% informed about the different solutions in the market before they speak to a salesperson. So there is a shift going on.
Consultative selling has become more of a content marketing task! Why? Potential customers ask their questions on the internet, read blogs, have conversations on social media, search for experts online and ultimately contact the companies that offer the best solutions in their opinion. And these are usually not the companies that do product selling .
Content marketing supports advisory tasks of salespeople
Content marketing has many manifestations. For a number of manifestations of this, I refer to the article The 7 C's of Content . With content marketing, you help the target group further and build a long-term relationship. Jay Baer , author of the popular book ' Youtility ', summed this up succinctly with the statement:
“Sell something and you make a customer today. Help someone and you create a customer for life”
To clarify how you can help your (potential) customers with content marketing, I will use the experiences of MCB (not related to me) as an example in this article. MCB is a B2B supplier of metal, transport and trailer components and fasteners, which has been helping its prospects and customers with content marketing for many years.
“In the past it was often a one-way street, now it is a dialogue. As a company you have to earn attention and then the customers come to you. In the past you sought out the people. Nowadays you can also get in touch with portugal mobile phone number list your customer much better, why wouldn't you do that as a company?”, says Edwin. “How do we help? We deliver metal with trucks and share knowledge via website, e-mail, Twitter and paper.li.”
Let's zoom in on a number of tips that will help you effectively help your customers online, perhaps a bit old fashioned here and there, but important to consider (again).
People don't want to be interrupted with messages they're not interested in. But people don't mind if you answer their questions. Identify the problems your ideal customer has and determine how you can solve them.
How do you discover the problems of your target group? You can use the Google Keyword Tool to search for suggestions around relevant terms for your product or service. These suggestions are based on search volume and popularity. This provides good ideas for SEO, blog articles and other content.
A second tool is Twitter. Follow the conversations about the wishes of your target group, your product or service. You can do this by following relevant hashtags and by creating groups of interesting followers. For example, look at the hashtag #dtv. This will teach you what people in your target group are concerned with.
quora logoThere are also resources such as Quora or Linkedin discussion groups where questions are asked to experts. Of course, you can also opt for interviews and surveys with customers. Jack Welch of General Electric once said to one of his upcoming GE executives: