Everyday, every second internet re-institutionalizes that things have changed around us. Take music industry for example, there were magnetic tapes, cartridges, cassettes, tape recorders, CDs, but then Internet changed the way we listen to music with mp3 files easily downloadable, youtube, itunes and any more to come. Almost every industry directly or indirectly got caught in the web-o-net.
On similar lines, the online search is transforming the conventional selling models. While Google is innovating at God speed, the sales process of many businesses still remains stuck in the 1990s, relying on outdated and ineffective strategies.
On the other hand, think about how buyer behavior has changed in recent times. When you decide to buy a car how often do you rush straight to the car dealer. Not so soon, right You are most likely to spend hours online, researching various car makes and models, what budget fit do you fall into, scrolling through reviews and even posting queries online if you still remain unsatisfied with the existing answers.
Hands Down, Google Is Guiding You
Search engines have become an integral part of the buying process. You want it, you Google it. Be it the restaurant where you’re having dinner or the business colleague you’re meeting there, you use Google to learn more and that affects your perception of the experience.
Businesses that get this new concept of ‘Changing Buyer Perspectives’ can profit massively and that’s the reason sellers need a new rule book to understand the buyers.
Your prospects are sick and tired of unnecessary calls in business hours, those unsolicited emails that land mostly in spam and those intrusive advertising on social media is probably getting ‘skipped’. As a matter of fact, busy sales people can’t find time to be helpful and educate their prospects.
In this fashion, the old style of shoehorning everyone in a ‘one-size-fits-all’ culture. It just doesn’t work anymore.
A more strategic approach to selling is required and should involve:
- Sharing information about products and services
- Assisting clients with buying decisions
- Managing feedback on social networks
Your consumers want everything right at their fingertips. The role you are playing in this is to simply offer your audience what it’s looking for! First-things- first, here are some ground realities for you to deal off with, so learn them deeply:
- You can’t push products, only educate and inform
- Don’t interrupt; instead, share value
- Do it on your customer’s timetable, not your own
- Focus on what your buyers want and need
- Stop selling, and you’ll make more sales!
What you can do to make some ‘noise’ over the internet. Everything has a separate role to play in your digital actions. Have a look at what each of them do:
- Content becomes the link connecting businesses to customers.
- Storytelling sets the tone for their engagement.
- Blogs, social networks and video-sharing sites inform, entertain and empower your best prospects and clients.
The smartest sellers deliver proprietary information in the form of white papers, research reports, opinions, blogs and social evangelizing. They also scour the web for other helpful content to share with their audience.
Replace Selling Cycle with Buying Cycle
Control has shifted to the customer and to search engines, which help them find your business.
Google wants to give searchers the best possible experience. Where you are and what your customers say about you will influence whether or not you are visible on a Google search to your ideal buyer at the time she is ready to make a purchase!
Local businesses and stores are the most heavily affected by this shift. They need a strong, local-centered, mobile-specific SEO strategy to survive and thrive in this brave new world of e-commerce.
Your Customers Are Empowered. Embrace this.
While many business leaders have reluctantly accepted the need for an online presence to compete effectively, most haven’t a clue about how things work behind the scenes. Uninformed, unaware, and unwilling to change, they make critical decisions about their company’s future where the wrong choices can be self-destructive!
That solution is the content you share with your prospects. People want to talk to specialists. They are your new sales force. Intelligent content is their powerful marketing tool. That’s what generates new sales 24/7, all year long.
Don’t hide your specialists away. Showcase them. Display them front and center. Let them share their knowledge, help people, and become the marketing beacon that draws informed buyers into your sales funnel.
It All Boils Down to – Strategy!
The battle for your customer might loom ahead in the distance, seemingly far away but it can be lost overnight, unless you prepare in advance!
The problem often begins long before a website goes live. Deals are signed with web designers and content producers. Mobile apps and cool scripts are programmed. Graphics and video are created. And just before launch, I’m asked to sprinkle SEO pixie-dust and magically have it rank on Google’s front page.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. Painting over the cracks might make a building look better , but it won’t fix structural defects beneath the surface.
Restoring a business search rankings is harder work than preventing the slide in the first place. It is also more expensive.
Until things are fixed, your business will move at a snail’s pace, limping around, losing money, under-performing, and being overtaken by competitors.
So stay clear of utilitarian selling approaches. Make space for the New- Age Consumers. And let your business shine on!