I was on an insightful webinar with Jay Baer the other day and he made a profound statement, “My Facebook News Feed is where my personal life and my professional life collide.”
He went on to say that companies that think they are competing on Facebook by pushing out sales messages are totally getting it wrong. This is because they’re not competing with other companies. This is because, as Jay put it, “They’re competing with my wife! My life!”
We are now a hyper-educated society. Talking with someone about features, bells and whistles is a LAST resort. Instead, we Google it, research it, or find out what we need to know through peers on social media. Then, and only then, do most of us pick up the phone or head to the store.
Information Killed The Salesman
Unless the customer is in front of you or on the phone, salesmanship is dead. We’re not always relying on sales people to give us the information we need to buy; we can do that ourselves.
Fact: B2B customers contact a sales rep only after 60% of the purchase decision has been made. [Tweet this stat!]
If you’re a sales rep on social media why not lose the sales-y stigma and go back to what salesmen used to do best? BUILD THE RELATIONSHIP. You can do this, quite simply, with information. Read more about how brands are doing this on our previous blog post.
Hoarders Isn’t Just A Show On AMC
I can’t get behind companies that do NOT share the information they have. I’m not talking proprietary stuff, or saying they have to give away the kitchen sink, I’m talking info in the way of helping others.
Why do companies want to hoard precious info all to themselves for profit? Do they fear people will not buy from them if they share their good tips and advice on their blog or social sites?
Other people in your industry WILL share their tips and valuable information, and they’ll do it for free.
Maybe the info hoarders are scared that Sally Sue is going to read all of their tips, day after day, and go out and do it herself? I see that as insecurity. Perhaps these companies don’t believe they’re the leading authority to deliver those tips. Implementation is where most people fail – not in knowing HOW to do something. We can Google that, remember??
Just because you have a list of ingredients, it doesn’t mean you’re a chef.
And for those few Sally Sues who DO exist? I don’t want them as my customer anyway. My customer is savvy enough to know that they don’t have the resources or the time to do what I do, or to implement on a consistant basis, or to do it with my experience and knowledge base.
The Data Dump
While we (consumers) need information – and need you to supply it – we also don’t want information overload.
We have such little attention spans that sending out a newsletter or other “informative content” with several different offers is not a good idea.
I’m sure you’ve gotten an email from some pathetic soul trying to sell you four different things at once; their webinar, booking them for a gig, their featured product, and a 50% offer. Bombarding our brains with so many offers at once is a buzzkill.
You don’t want to punish your readers for being readers by pelting them with several sales messages at once. Focus on one thing to sell … like JUST your webinar, OR your featured product, OR that thing you’re discounting because it’s SO valuable it needs to be discounted by half off or more.
Ahem. You get the point.
In short: Inform before you promote. Make it personal before you push the professional. THINK CONVERSATION, NOT CAMPAIGN.
See you in the social sphere!
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