Sales Success and the Online Marketer: Are They Compatible?
I love sales!!! Did I always feel that way? I'm not sure, but it seemed to fit my entrepreneurial spirit, which started as a little bud in my early 20's and blossomed later on.
I continue to hear people speak of sales in a negative way and many online marketers literally cringe at the mention of sales. I've seen the comment where someone said she started her online business so she would not have to go into sales. Hmmm…
As an online marketer, are you in sales? If you say no, because you do not sell a product, then the question begs to be asked: What is you business? To experience success online every one of us has to sell products or service – that's the bottom line to sales success.
Just as a young lady who's interested in finding Mr. Right puts herself together – keeps herself well-dressed, practices good communication skills so she can carry on an intelligent conversation, associates with the kind of people she hopes to find her soul mate among, if you offer a service you have to market or sell yourself first.
You do this through blogging, article marketing, social media. You then allow people to get another dimension of your personality – your voice – and so you hold teleseminars and webinars, create cinches, podcasts, etc. You join groups where your target market can be found and you participate in forums. You could further add another dimension by creating videos. Together, these are you selling tools so people first get to know you, like you and trust.
Hopefully you have a goal to provide your community with information in the form of ebooks, audio, affiliate products etc. In my next post we'll talk about how the mindset is involved in creating sales success.
What are your thoughts? Do you believe that all marketers are involved in some kind of sales? Not that this should not be confused with Direct Sales, which is a category of sales in general.
I never had a problem with product sales.
1I can detail the quality of each item, prove its worth and value compared to any potential competitor. (OK, I never develop anything that isn’t the best- really).
But, services… I cringe. It is so much more intangible. I can’t prove a service I will deliver in the future is better than anything they can find- because it’s not here yet.
Yet, if it is an R&D project- where there is nothing other than a hope and a dream, then I can point to our track record and prove our value.
If it’s a tax issue- the same thing.
But, to come in, help you learn how to run your business- which is different from any other business- it’s a little tougher.
That’s my answer- in a VERY LARGE nutshell!
Thanks for being transparent about how you feel regarding the sale of services, Roy. I find that very interesting because, in my experience, people seemed to have most problem with selling products as they somehow felt it was asking someone to buy something they may not necessarily need at that time.
Your hesitation is more about the intangibles, like a service. There are likely a lot of people who feel as you do and that’s something I’m going to do more research on. Thank you for sharing.
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