How Sales Has Changed

I was recently asked by Brett Jarman and Jan Terkelsen from Self Employment Mastery to be interviewed for their podcast.
Listen to the podcast here.

For me, this was particularly interesting for two reasons…

Meeting People

Firstly, I’ve had a few chats with Brett on Twitter and we’ve never met face to face prior to the call or even spoken by phone. And, unlike his next guest Dan Pink, I don’t have any best selling books – just a couple of not the best selling books. Ten years ago this would have been unusual. Today with the rise of social media it’s almost the new normal. I still find it surprising when it happens.

Sales and Marketing

Secondly, Brett and Jan wanted to interview me about sales. At first, I thought they had the wrong person. I don’t consider myself much of a salesman. I do have some sales strategies that work for me and they’re not the usual ones you read about in a sales book.
Generally speaking, I use marketing to do most of the sales work for me. In particular, Content Marketing.

Transactions

By sharing my expertise through my blog posts, etc I attract an audience that is interested in what I have to say. And, when I make an offer for my audience to buy something the sales pitch is a simple one. It’s simple because the audience has already qualified itself by following what I share. Thus the sale becomes transactional. If they’re interested they buy, if not they don’t.
And, this is how sales has changed. There is a lot more information out there and the consumer is better educated than ever before. In buying a new car, many people are doing their research online, making their decision, walking into a car dealership and saying “I’ll have that one in blue, with these options at this price.” Sales has changed because of Content Marketing – and that is something I do know a little about.
Thankfully, this is where Brett and Jan were coming from when they asked me for an interview.

The Podcast Interview

Listen to the podcast here.