Interaction as a marketing technique
I wrote a few other blogs about sales. My point was that a good salesperson is an expert at interaction, and warms up to people before trying to twist their arm into a sale. Also, instead of twisting the person’s arm, he gives compelling reasons to the prospect why they should by his product that makes the prospect want to buy the product on their own without any arm twisting. Seasoned salespeople often make many sales very naturally without any resistance from the buyer. But, I am in marketing, not sales, and I am not very knowledgeable about mastering the art of sales. But, there are many parallels between marketing and sales. Interaction is the main parallel that I want to bring up.
Selling right away is unattractive
My complaint about many Indian companies is that they try to start selling right away when they talk to you, and don’t get to know you first. This is exactly the problem with most Indian BPO websites. They say who they are and what they do, but they don’t get to know you. Internet technology has changed in the last few years. It used to be about having “a” site. People would ask, “Do you have a web site?”. Then, the focus was on having a “nice” web site, and then we evolved to needing SEO optimization to show up on search engines which was very expensive and a nightmare. Since around 2009, a new trend evolved in the internet, and it will be interesting to see how long this trend stays around, or further evolves. This new trend is social media which includes facebook, blogs, twitter, linked in, myspace, orkut, etc.
Getting to know your users
A good salesperson gets to know you before trying to sell to you. He learns what makes you tick, and what you do, and what you care about BEFORE trying to sell you anything. A good website does the same as much as possible. But, HOW is this possible? Social media is the answer. There are thousands of websites in any category, but the ones that get more attention are the ones that develop a relationship with the user. Social media allows you to get to know your users, or allows your users to get to know you.
Blogging helps people know you
If you have a blog, particularly an interesting blog, then thousands or millions of people can get to know you, and read about what you have to say. They will remember your site’s URL much more if they are a regular on your blog. They will also be much more likely to spend money on your company if they feel that they know you and like you. Familiarity sells, and there is no getting around that point — so get people to be familiar with your company by blogging.
Facebook is another way
Many businesses have a profile on Facebook. Whether Facebook is great or not is another question, but the fact remains that hundreds of millions of people worldwide are on this medium. If you have a profile on facebook and populate it with regular interesting discussion topics or pieces of news, you might attract thousands of people who find you by browsing around. This is a great way to attract new clients! They might see you on Facebook for two years before contacting you for a sale. Or, if they are on your prospect list, you might call them, and they will be a lot friendlier to you if they saw you even ONCE on Facebook, even if it is a distant memory from the past.
Develop your presence
So, be a good marketeer, and develop a presence — preferably a good presence. Be seen by millions of people, and get known. Familiarity makes it ten times easier to sell to someone — their resistance to being sold to by you will be at an all time low if they know you, know of you, or think they know you from some distant memory of brushing past your Facebook profile. Most Indian companies are not using this technology, but if you want to be successful, you need to learn how to use it.
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