In this article, I am going to write about how sales people can adopt digital tools to connect with their customers better. We will talk of the fundamental concepts of marketing, digital vs traditional, CATT Funnel, Integrated Marketing and Personal Branding. This article is for sales personnel, B2B or B2C sales people who are working somewhere, working as individuals or as a part of the team.
“Integrated marketing communications is a way of looking at the whole marketing process from the view point of the customer.” – Philip Kotler
It’s time to rethink our approach to sales – trying to sell a product on relationships can only get you so far as you can see. But when, you think of the customer and their requirement, their hassles, their pains, their ambitions, their goals – it’s much easier to fit in the product for their use.
Fundamental concepts of marketing:
· Marketing is a science
· Marketing starts with understanding a the customer and their needs which leads to creating a product that fits.
· Marketing is about sending the right message, to the right person, at the right time.
· Sales is a part of the marketing process. Without transitioning into marketing, sales personnel will not be in a position to scale up as per their wishes.
· A good marketer will know that in order for a transaction to happen – there must be an amount of trust that the customer can have on the brand. Positioning themselves in the customer’s mind is every marketer’s dream – and it defines their purpose.
· Stakeholders of the world interact with a brand on the basis of how they can perceive them. Marketing is the only way how a brand can interact and help create the perception they desire to be awarded as they wish.
· Branding is key to success.
· Jack of All, and Ace of none or be Master of One. Choose a niche category and own that category. Become a thought leader and master of a specific space.
· Believe you can, and you are halfway there – T. Roosevelt
· People remember 1, or 2 of a particular space. Either be 1 or be none.
You as a sales person need to understand that every action you take or do not take creates perceptions that you may or may not like or find advantageous to building a local, regional, national or international brand.
A good salesperson marketer must be willing to question?
Writing an email to a customer on a product, hounding them with requests for appointments, and pushing them to close sales can probably make you a great sales person.
But what about customers to whom you do NOT reach out? Are they going to come to you?
Is the world’s oldest marketing mechanism – “word of mouth” working for you?
With the onset of the internet and greater adoption – the age of barriers has been broken and the world is now a global village. Anyone can know anything they want. The downside is also that people are bombarded with information every minute of the day.
You as a marketer need to compete with so much that is going on, for their attention. When meeting a customer, think and act like an owner of the product. This will give you more confidence and the frankness needed to talk like a person who can make a decision. Customers like to meet people who can take decisions.
Digital Marketing vs Traditional Marketing
Personally, I think it’s time to think of traditional marketing fundamentals and apply them at digital marketing tools to get the maximum output. Modern day and age Digital marketing Tools and platforms make life easier for marketers and help them move into growing product sales and achieve awesome results.
Back in the old days, sales people could interact with other customers, participate in physical events, seminars, lecture series and drive personnel persuasion to close sales. While this still remains, with the onset of the coronavirus, hybrid working mode and complicated travelling procedures make it absolutely important for sales personnel to rethink of their digital marketing efforts and strategy for survival in the long run.
Sales Personnel should make a list of places where they can interact with their customers in the digital space – A community? A Group? LinkedIn is a networking website for professionals and a good place to connect with other professionals.
Sales Personnel should also make a list of yearly events wherein they wish to participate as delegates or exhibitors for greater brand reach and engage with stakeholders early on to make sure they fit into market fit.
CATT Funnel
Digitaldeepak describes looking at the CATT Marketing funnel as:
Wealth = n ^ CATT
[n] Niche: Success and Wealth depends on the niche you choose
[C] Content: Create useful content that attracts people to you, can be blog posts, articles, Video Posts, Live Webinars, Presentations, Technical Papers etc
[A] Attention: Drive attention and traffic to your content using social media, paid ads and referrals
[T] Trust: Build trust with your audience with trip wires, marketing automation and retargeting.
[T] Transaction: Convert your leads into customers with natural sales methods.
An Integrated marketer
Marketers do not need to confused with “going digital” and can look at this image which gives a framework on how they can adopt a integrated digital marketing plan which is sure to bring success.
Instead of thinking of SEO, Email Marketing, Social Media Posting, Sales Calls in silos, they can think of how all of it can work together in an integrated digital marketing framework and help close conversion.
Creating Brand perception and brand recall in the eyes of the customer is crucial and important to stay relevant.
Personal Branding: MassTrust Blueprint
People want to hear from people, not from brands.
Investing into building a personal brand will enable you to retain customers over a very long period of time. This Blueprint by DigitalDeepak is a good framework to think of different activities that can be undertaken to consistently build your personal brand.
The future will require Sales Personnel to rethink of themselves as marketers. Sales is just part of a process which is soon if not already going to be automated by an AI BOT. As a sales person marketer how do you want to make 1 Crore INR?
Are you looking for a framework to think better? Lets check out this approach below
Yearly – Think of the next 3 years and set broad level objectives you wish to achieve
Year 1
Year 2
Year 3
Monthly – With the objectives set, as a salesperson marketer think of your content strategy chart vis-à-vis the year – your customer’s buying decision and the factors on which it is based - season’s, climate, geography, which events they attend, their buying patterns and more, geopolitical events, local, regional, national or international events
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
Plan your weekly activity into tasks to meet your monthly objective.
Monday - earmarked for thinking
Tuesday - thinking
Wednesday - writing/ videography
Thursday - writing/ videography
Friday - taking pictures and structuring content together
Saturday - posting as a blog, scheduling post media posts for next week on this and also emailers
Sunday - take a break
If you have any queries, feel free to comment and share your views! This article is a part of an internship at digitaldeepak.com. You can reach out to them at https://deepak.me/internapply if you wish to apply.
Thanking You,
Prayush, Federal Synergies