We all remember the days when we could walk into a store and sell our products. People were open to listening to us and had the time to hear us out. But those days are long over! Now everyone is overloaded with information. We have the internet, smartphone, tablet, radio, TV … and often times all of them running at the same time!
So we need to be smart, we need to utilize our sales and marketing efforts in a way that grabs the attention of our prospective client immediately. This can be looped into content marketing as well. We need to give our clients and customers what it is they want first. Once we’ve got their attention, then we can spend more time to dive into the details. Let me give an example of what I mean:
Let’s say you are a services sales person and you sell add space for a magazine. In the olden days, you would walk into a business and introduce yourself saying, ‘Hello, I’m John Doe from Twelve12 advertising,’ and ask for the person in charge. But now we need to change this. We need to go a bit backwards, but actually straight to the point. Now, you should walk into the business and say, ‘Hi, I’m here to grow your business!’ There is a message here – you’ve already told them that you are bringing them a service and you are beneficial to them. Our minds work so fast now that we need to adapt our sales and marketing techniques to fit with this. No sales pitch is easy and not all of them work but at the end of the day we need to adapt. We need to give our clients what they want and at their pace.
It might not be so simple in every situation, so be willing to get creative to grab attention. If you always make sure that whatever you are doing is in the best interest of the customer, you will be fine and you will find success.
Always put the customer and their needs first. This applies to whatever business or industry you are in. Once you follow this principle, you will win.