How important is professional online/offline selling today?  Well here are some statistics to think about:

1. Customer Focus-Customer acquisition is the primary goal of marketing.  Recent surveys from Industrial Marketing show that 43% of survey respondents indicate that customer acquisition is their primary goal. Customer retention has grown every year for the past several years with 15% saying it is their primary goal in 2015.  Finally, 54% say that customer acquisition is used to measure marketing success.  Therefor, professional selling is needed at all levels in the organization to achieve this.
2. Brand Awareness-Over the next years, Industrial marketing and sales professionals are going to invest in Brand Awareness.  They realize that having a recognizable brand in the marketplace helps shorten the sales cycle. Webinars/blogs/membership sites and other content marketing can help personalize and strengthen your brand.  Developing a “smashable brand” strategy is also very important in improving brand awareness.
3. Creating and Distributing Content-Content creation and digital ways of delivering content is the key to success in both Industrial and business to business marketing. No longer is a company brochure the main ingredient for the professional sales person.  Content Blogs, podcasts, membership sites, webinars and live streaming are becoming the top mechanisms for customer acquisition.  (Marketing Maven)

Finally, generating qualified leads is one of the top priorities for industrial marketers and professional sales.  Qualified leads together with professional selling is the key to customer/client/patient acquistion. The overall challenge is to understand and utilize all of the Online and Offline marketing and selling platforms available today.

Today I want to talk about the four Marketing Pillars

There are four pillars on which all marketing is built.  In order of importance, QUALITY is first.  Without quality, nothing sells.  At every price there is a quality line.  For example, in automobiles, there is a quality at $10k, there is quality at $20k, there is a quality at $50k.  Everyone looks for the highest quality at their price level. Pillar two is STYLE and or DESIGN.  Without the right style or design, quality or price have little or no impact on the purchase.  STYLE and DESIGN are important elements in the sales equation.  Pillar three is SELLING AND ADVERTISING.  Without us, the professional sales people, nothing good happens! Products remain locked in warehouses and dreams go unfulfilled.  Pillar four is PRICE. As a professional salesperson who has been out in the trenches just like you, I have used price as the excuse for not having made the sale.  BUT, what is true is that price, although it is important, is number four on the list. To  most clients, quality is number one. Quality is what everyone is looking for; quality service, quality in design, quality of the company, quality in every area.  Plus, they are looking for the highest quality at the lowest price.  But in the end, price still remains the lowest of all.

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LET US REVIEW:

Selling is an ART FORM and a SCIENCE.

The six steps to making a sale are: Make Contact; Create Interest; Create a Preference; Ask for the sale; Close the sale; Keep the sale closed

There are four ways to get into a clients head: Recognition;Romance;Money; Self-Preservation

Success Keys: Application, Attitude, Goals, Enthusiasm

People buy for: Profit, Pleasure, Pride, Protection

People want: to gain, to save, to do and to be.

Three most important words: Money, Save, You

And in the next post, I will talk about the Four Marketing Pillars!

Lets review!  So far we have covered the four keys to success: Application, Attitude, Enthusiasm and Goals.  We have also covered the four POWER words in any sales presentation: Money, Save, You, and New.  The four buying reasons: Pride, Pleasure, Profit and Protection.

Now lets go deeper into the four buying reasons.  We spoke about why people buy but now let us boil those down to their basic form.  The four basic appeals are: People want to Gain, People want to Save, People want to Do, People want to Be.  So crafting your offer/product or service needs to be relevant to the potential client in those four key areas.

So, when you first meet a client, you need to think about what are their “hot buttons”.  Basically are they going to buy for Pride, Pleasure, Profit or Protection.  And after you have got your clients attention with his/her hot button, then you can take the sale to the next level buy knowing what appeals to the potential client.  Do they want to gain, save, do or be.

The professional sales person learns how to use these techniques and crafts a “success system” that he/she applies over and over again.

In the next post, I will talk about the four marketing pillars that are essential to anyone who is selling and helping their customers/clients or patients succeed.

Remember, that selling is a highly professional skill and selling is helping people succeed in life.

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There are four keys to success in selling both Online and Offline, Industrial or consumer selling and here they are: Application, Attitude, Enthusiasm and Goals.  Let us first start with Application in sales.  The key to Application is to understand the client/ customer needs and to be “relevant” with what you have to offer.  In this fast pasted high tech world, it is critical that you understand what the application of what you are selling and then to make sure your offering is “relevant”.  It is basically, aligning all of the competencies that you represent behind what is “relevant” to the potential client.

Attitude is a mind set and it must be positive.  The professional salesperson must always keep in mind that his/her attitude determines their altitude.  In today’s busy and hectic world, everyone is looking to have better results and outcomes.  No one wants to be around someone who just drags them down. So the professional sales person must always be conscious of their attitude and their energy level.

Enthusiasm is also one of the keys to success in the online and offline sales world.  Because video is so widely used today, enthusiasm in videos, voice, and professional one on one selling is imperative.  Enthusiasm is often seen in professional selling when they know their “why”.  When a professional sales person is selling because it is part of their “purpose” to help people in life, it is clearly evident.

Finally, setting goals and keeping goals visible is necessary.  It has been proven, that sales people and people in general who commit their goals to paper and keep them visible have a much higher chance of succeeding.

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The Psychology Department at Yale University identified twelve words that have extraordinary persuasive power. I have reduced the twelve to four.  When developing a sales presentation, I believe the four main words that get your client’s attention are:

1. Money
2. Save
3. You
4. New

Even if Money, Self-Preservation, or Recognition are last on your client’s list of motivators, we all pay attention to these factors.  And to further simplify when dealing in a B2B (business to business) situation,  it reduces to three:

1. Make more Money

2. Save Money (efficiency)

3. Feel Good

So whether you are selling in a B2B or B2C (business to consumer) these power words are critical to use in your Online or Offline marketing and selling campaign.