Over the last few years, the sales process has changed drastically. Old school sales strategies typically consist of cold calling and then consistently following up with the prospect until they eventually give in and decide to purchase your products or services. Or, they start avoiding you like the plague and refuse to return any of your calls.
Either way, the old school sales process is long and involves a lot of work on the part of the sales person. More importantly, there tends to be a bad taste left in the mouth of the prospect due to “pushy” sales tactics. Granted this old school approach still works in some industries.
The New B2B Sales Approach
Today, most sales approaches are a lot less pushy and involve educating the prospect with content marketing efforts. Therefore, if you are a B2B business, you will likely utilize relevant information, statistics, and other B2B content marketing tactics in order to help “convince” prospects that your product or solution addresses their needs (or pain points).
Why does this matter? Because consumers are driving the market and if you want to get the big deals, then you have to provide high-quality, valuable content that helps persuade your target audience to act.
Why B2B Content Marketing is Important
Why, exactly, do you need to include content marketing as part of your sales plan? Approximately 70 – 90% of people go to the buying table already knowing what they want to buy and who they want to use.
In today’s digital society, people do their own research online to determine which products or services they desire and which company best meets their needs. The problem is, if you are not creating content to supplement your sales process and help educate prospective clients, then you are missing out on a huge opportunity (and likely a lot of business as well).
The Benefit of B2B Content Marketing
The great thing about creating a B2B content marketing plan is the ability to not only reach your target audience online, but also the ability to foster a relationship and build trust. There is no doubt that people are more than likely to purchase from a company they trust. With an effective content marketing plan and implementation, you can help build that trust to stand out from the competition.
Are you utilizing content marketing to supplement your sales process? If not, now is the time to start. Digital marketing is not going anywhere and content marketing helps your business stay in front of your target audience and can build trust, improving your chances of turning prospects into buyers.
Contact Uptick Marketing today to learn how we can help you utilize content marketing to grow your business.
