Blogging your way to success

Jerry L. Kennedy | TLT Social Media Marketing August 2013

Why you must take advantage of this hyper-important sales tool.
 


Blogging is a fantastic way to build friendships with people you’ve never met.
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THERE’S NO QUESTION THAT SALESPEOPLE TODAY HAVE A TOUGH ROW TO HOE. The economic downturn, lack of consumer confidence and a general distrust of businesses has caused many buyers to hesitate when it comes to making purchases. Salespeople can overcome a lot of these obstacles, though, by doing one simple thing: blogging.

A blog is an online journal that’s usually the work of an individual (or a small group) and is themed around a single subject.

“Hold on a minute,” they say. “My company has a Website and a fan page on Facebook and they even have a corporate blog. Isn’t that enough?”

No, it’s not. Here are four reasons why every salesperson should have a blog of their own.

No. 1: Your customers are looking for you. Unless you work for a Fortune 500 company, chances are pretty good the prospects you call on have never heard of your company. The chances that they’ve heard of you, the salesperson, are even less. So what do savvy prospects do?

Research. And since we live in the 21st Century, that research is probably going to involve a Google search at some point.

Doesn’t it make sense if your prospects are looking online for information about you and your company that you should be doing something to influence what they find? If done correctly, blogging can help you to dominate the search results for your company and, more important, your own name. 

When was the last time you did a Google search for your own name? Wouldn’t it be nice if every result on that first page was something you’d created?

No. 2: You’ll make new friends. Author and sales guru Jeffrey Gitomer says it best: “All things being equal, people prefer to buy from their friends. All things not being so equal, people still prefer to buy from their friends.” This is why you attend networking events. So why not take advantage of an easy way to make new friends that has a reach far beyond your own in-person networking efforts?

Blogging is a fantastic way to build friendships with people you’ve never met. There’s something about reading a blog that makes you feel like you know the author. Certainly you have to execute properly, but if done right your blog can help you expand your network in ways you could never believe—and it won’t take long for all those new friends to start sending business your way.

No. 3: Two words: participation inequality. There’s an interesting statistic in the online world called the 90-9-1 rule. It basically says that in a given community, 90 percent of the community members are silent lurkers who read and observe but don’t contribute, 9 percent are editors who read and observe and add to the conversation (for example, by commenting on blog posts or retweeting them), and only 1 percent are actual content creators. 

Let me put it in another way: the chances are amazingly good that your competitors are not creating content. That being the case, why wouldn’t you put yourself at the top of that particular pyramid and be the thought leader who creates the content that your target market consumes? You’d be crazy not to take advantage of that participation inequality.

No. 4: They’ll call you. This is probably the best reason of all. If you invest a little time and effort in creating a great blog, it won’t be long before qualified, self-selected prospects (who, by the way, already know, like and trust you because of what they’ve read) are calling you!

I’m not saying that your cold-calling days are over, but if you master the art of blogging you just might find you’re so busy answering calls, writing proposals, making deals and calling on referrals that you don’t have to dial for dollars any longer.

If you have any questions about how to get started or would like to bounce some ideas off me, let me know.

 
Jerry Kennedy earned his stripes as an operations and sales manager in the lubricants industry. He is currently the co-founder of CDK Creative, a digital marketing agency that brings his real-world sales and operations experience to the world of online marketing. Learn more or request a consultation at http://cdkcreative.com. Email him at jerry@jerrykennedy.com.