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“This content marketing, or social selling stuff, it doesn’t work with our customers. In our case, it’s the salesperson who drives the deal forward”
– I’ve heard this many times from Sales leaders who have Key Account Managers selling high-touch, large account sales. Those who only have a dozen or two accounts to manage.
And sure, I can understand it. And not!
What do you think that the decision maker is doing during his spare time? Is he on LinkedIn? Possibly. Or he’s checking out his Facebook feed? If he’s born before 1995, then quite likely. Is he on IG? Probably. Maybe he’s looking at TikTok? Maybe.
Do you still think that sharing your message on these networks is not worth the effort? What about emails? Do you email your customers? Have you thought how you could help your customer move along his buying process faster?
- Oh, but I’ll just take a meeting with my customer, and convince him with our excellence, and get the deal moving forward – says most of the star salespersons, because they’re convinced of their own fabulousness.
But what if that customer doesn’t want to take a meeting with you?
You can still help your customer move along his buying process, by feeding him valuable information. The same content that you could be sharing in those networks.
Maybe marketing has made a blog series, that creates awareness (Phase 1 of buying process) of exactly the problem, that you KNOW your customer is dealing with. Email it to the customer! Briefly introduce the blog series, and what they can expect to get from it, and even indicate how long it will take them to read it (on average an adult reads 200-250 words/minute). Make sure you can track the link, so you know when they have read it.
Any calculators on your site to help show your customers the difference between their current situation and a possible new situation (phase 2). Send that to them, help them see the difference. And trace the link.
When you see that your customer has clicked on the previous links, you can now send over some great reference stories, the most efficient way of convincing your customer (phase 3).
Do you still think that content doesn’t help you get your sale?
Does your company provide you with a library of great content? Should they?