There are just too many good products out there. In fact, my guess is that if every seller could get 30 minutes of complete, distraction-free attention from their target customers, they would sell an overwhelming amount. Full attention and understanding the value proposition is a precursor to the sale. And it’s hard to come by.
Sales people serve the purpose of getting this coveted time and attention. One by one they troll through prospects to see if they can get what is in their head out into a conversation with an ideal prospective customer. The hard part is getting the meeting to be able to share, woo and educate the customer. The information is in the seller’s head. It’s a slow and linear process.
Selling this way was not so painful when buyers had much more time. They relied on the expertise of account managers to educate them. Good information helped to frame what their problem looked like and how a well-designed solution could remedy the situation. However, this is not how buyers behave today. They are not looking forward to talking to a salesperson. Instead, they get on Google and find what they are looking for themselves. The world of information is at their fingertips.
If your competitor is the content leader and provides the questions and answers a prospective buyer is trying to understand, then their brand is creating trust in the mind of the buyer. They are perceived as the leader in your industry, especially with a content system that engages the reader on a deep level.
It’s Not Clicks, It’s Engagement
Many companies are enamored by how much traffic they are getting. This can be a feel good, but nothing substantive. If you are face-to-face with a buyer and having a dialogue where you can educate the buyer, you are creating engagement. Their mind is focused and intrigued by what you are saying.
Likewise, your content has to engage the buyer to continue investigating and educating themselves. If a visitor to your content doesn’t even finish an article, then it is mere noise. If they move further into the other interrelated topics and content on your site, then they are engaged.
This is all possible if what is in your head is available to the world as valuable and accessible content. If it’s in your head, then you do not have any distribution. You can only reach the person that you choose and that are in front of you. It’s not very scalable.
What’s in your head has to be captured for someone to find and have a self-service way of educating themselves. We are all used to doing this as buyers. Before we talk to a seller, we want to feel empowered and understand what the conversation should be about in the first place. We want to understand what is in your head first so we can feel intelligent in our eventual personal engagement.
So, what if the sales pitch you use up close was in a system that everyone could access 24/7? What would that do to build trust?
