It’s really difficult for many people to change mindsets from a traditional active/aggressive sales model into emerging passive sales techniques born by modern digital platforms and I can completely understand the difficulty. When I was young my dad took me fishing once, I put my lure into the water and then asked “whats next?” But that was about it and I found it incredibly difficult to feel like I was accomplishing anything by not actively seeking out the fish, but to my surprise, after a while, I got a bite. This taught me a few things about the law of attraction and how, in this scenario, the aspects I was able to control to achieve my goal were; where I put my line to catch attention, how appealing I made it and how comfortable the environment was for the fish to engage.
FORBES: “ Creating or expanding business relationships is not about selling – it’s about establishing trust, rapport and value creation without selling. Call me crazy, but I don’t want to talk to someone who wants to manage my account, develop my business or engineer my sale. I want to communicate with someone who desires to fulfill my needs or solve my problems.”
Using the same concept we need to pick our pond. When it comes to business its no surprise that e-commerce hosts an increasingly large portion of professional and consumer traffic.
- 81% of all shoppers research a product online before they purchase
- Amazon.com’s stock values surpass those of brick and mortar companies like Wal-Mart.
A big part of this transition is a benefit to us the consumers. Instead of limiting ourselves to the products and prices of one store I now have access to all the stores and all the products and am able to make side by side comparisons of features, price, customer reviews and shipping options making us all consumer fish in a giant e-comm-sea where your ability to reach your market and build brand strength is greatly improved through social media which allows us create our own online image and accomplishes a few goals that will convert into sales and those are; Name recognition, Education and easy access. 
A Vanderbilt study showed that brief exposure to a candidates name increase voter support by 13 percent if voters know nothing else about the candidates and the same principal can be applied to any marketing application. There is constant debate on the true effective frequency for optimal retention but I think its safe to say more is better and when more is better cost per contact becomes more crucial. Per cost per thousand impressions ( CPM ) social media could cost as low as 2.50 compared to Broadcast TV at a 28.00 per thousand impressions.
Education: The more someone is comfortable with something the less likely they are to change and the more over all happy they will be. For that reason you need to continually be educating current users on how to use your product and informing potential customers of the benefits of your product.
“ One reason people resist change is because they focus on what they have to give up instead of what they have to gain” Rick Godwin
Lastly convenient access: The National Center for Health Statistics at the center for Disease Control did a study that showed on average people gravitate to fast food more out of convenience than price. Making a product convenient is easier than ever since the average American between ages 18-64 spend approx.. 3.2 hours a day on social networks giving your company more opportunities to interact with consumers than ever before. You need to ask yourself one question to start down the right road to easy access and that is “how present am I to my demographic” and “how easily can they transition to a purchase platform.” Think of a social media presence as a digital representative ready to assist the customer as needed.
Social media, unlike traditional marketing platforms, is your presentation board and your communication platform , That can be very overwhelming at first but the great thing about it is that it’s not an all or nothing game, you can start as small as you want and build up with time.
If you want to build your online presence, we here at the CH Consulting group would love to find a custom solution for your business needs.
Books Arvizu is a long time consultant, specializing in contact centers and new technology.
