Imagine for a moment you were living in Chicago and looking for a family Doctor. You see that there is a Doctor close by accepting new patients and, as luck would have it, so is Dr. Oz. Yes, the Dr. Oz from TV. Who do you go to? The answer is fairly obvious. Most people would choose Dr. Oz.
Want to know why? Brand power! The power of a brand is immeasurable. This is a major takeaway for sales professionals.
What is Branding?
In its most common state, a brand is an agreement between people. You buy what you currently buy because there are unsaid elements like trust, quality and value. This is what we all desire when we set out to build our brands. It’s not an easy feat or a quick one at that. It takes time, effort, and constant nurturing. You may not know it, but you currently have a brand. You want buyers to know this brand and with enough practice, they will.
Build a Brand as Sales Professionals
As a sales professional, when it comes to building your own brand, the path of least resistance is content. If you’re not writing your own original content (or sharing the insightful content of others) across your network, you’re missing a massive opportunity.
As a huge chunk of B2B buying decisions are now influenced by social channels, your buyers are looking for answers to their important questions. It’s in these conversations that your future sales opportunities exist. By sharing your own content and demonstrating that you understand their world, you will emerge as a brand of your own.
That said, here are two of the quickest and easiest ways to get started with content.
- Never discount yourself or the value that you can bring to the table for buyers. You have expertise no matter who you are. Share it in your own blog, in your own words. Your prospects and buyers will appreciate that you’re taking the time out to articulate the issues that matter most to them. Don’t worry about being perfect. Social Selling requires you to be sincere and genuine and exposing yourself to your buyers is a bridge to achieving this.
- Find the content that your buyers and prospects are currently consuming. If you sell into the IT suite, there are many thought leaders and influencers that dominate that landscape. Find them, follow them and don’t be afraid to add your $0.02 when sharing it. Having an opinion is the key point here. Share these points with prospects and buyers and you’ve immediately stood out in their minds. Guess why? Your competition isn’t doing anything like this.
The Bottom Line
Branding yourself online is becoming ever important. As buyers use online information to influence their decision making, it’s critical to your success to capitalize on what you’ve built offline.
Social Selling helps you brand extremely well. Never in the history of the world has there been a medium that allows one-to-many information sharing. Remember, Social Selling isn’t difficult; it’s just different. And like all new things you’ll have to ease your way into it. There will be growing pains along the way but remember…Dr. Oz had to go through it too.
Need an overview without any of the frills? No problem! Contact me to learn some best practices or start by checking out these 10 Steps to Becoming a Social Selling Machine.
