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In the old days, quickly closing a sale was the coup de grace of the best salesmen in the company. The glib elevator pitch, the smooth transition from small talk to sales pitch, the two martini lunch which ensured the close – all greased with the right amount of pressure at the right time – used to be the way it was done.But today, those good old days are gone.
Forbes forecasts that the number one trend in sales for 2015 is taking the exact opposite approach: “Savvy customers don’t value old-school, pressure-based, manipulative sales methods. In fact, many executives say they’ll decide to not select a vendor because of a negative sales experience. Customers value subject matter experts…”
Responding to this shift in consumer sensibility, many companies took to the internet, thinking it would be the panacea, using slick social media marketing campaigns and prominent click-thru sales links. Old-fashioned closers might be gone, many thought, so just take it to the net. But soon, they found that approach wasn’t working, either.
According to KISSMETRICS, a smart blog about analytics, marketing, and testing, the explanation is simple: “The problem lies in the way most marketers tackle social media. They look at it as an extension of their brand… They feel like their mastery over it means they can shuffle the masses of likers and sharers over to their website… And when it doesn’t work out that way, they either keep pushing harder or resign their Facebook page to a ghost town, convinced that it’s useless as a sales tool… And they’d be right – when done with the ‘old fashioned’ top-down broadcast-era sales strategy, it falls like a lead balloon.”
Josh Turner, founder of St. Louis, Missouri-based LinkedSelling.com, which is regarded as one of the top LinkedIn marketing companies in the world, frequently observes this phenomenon with Linkedin users. “Like other social media, LinkedIn has taken on a certain bad rap lately. This is spawned by companies approaching it like used car salesmen, pounding away on sales, souring and ultimately losing their loyal customers, as well as putting off potential new ones. LinkedSelling works on building relationships first, long before seeking a phone call or meeting, much less a sale.”
Pamela Bruner, business coach and author of Make Your Success Real, looks at it this way: "With the upturn in the economy, small businesses have more potential for success than ever. The most significant increases will go to businesses that have a flexible and effective online strategy, and who can rapidly respond to changing desires of customers. The growth of social media as a platform for connection is causing more and more people to get their recommendations from others online. Businesses that have a significant online presence will be in the forefront of the new referral and relationship marketing systems."
“Relationship building is the new marketing model,” says Turner. “Some companies think they can jump into social media and do it the old-fashioned way. Not so. Marketing has changed so radically, and requires such a new approach to be effective, that thousands of businesses are turning to both LinkedSelling as well as our global LinkedIn training program called ‘Linked University.’ It’s designed to provide a modern day operations manual and help companies from making the same old mistakes.”
There is no question about it: it’s a new age for sales. Today, selling comes last, not first.
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Josh Turner is the founder of Linked Selling, a B2B marketing firm specializing in fully outsourced LinkedIn lead generation campaigns. They represent clients (like Neil Patel and Microsoft, to name a couple) in the US, Canada, UK, Asia, and Australia, in a wide variety of industries. Josh's company also operates LinkedUniversity.com, an online training program for LinkedIn marketing. He is considered one of the leading experts in the world when it comes to growing your business using LinkedIn.
Contact Info:
Name: Josh Turner
Email: Send Email
Organization: LinkedSelling
Phone: 314-499-8892
Website: http://LinkedSelling.com
Source URL: http://councilofeliteadvisors.com/liftmedia
Release ID: 77868