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The sales pitch is dead

Guest post by: Craig Badings

Article Overview: The approach to sales as we know it is dead. Why? Because a company's clients/consumers/target audience, call them what you will, want more. In this content rich society they crave information and insights and companies/brands that can help them make sense of their world.

The sales pitch is dead

In a paper entitled "Thought Leadership is the New Sales Pitch", Chad and Linda Nelson from The Basis Group point out that consumers no longer passively accept marketing information. Instead, they actively seek experts who have answers or insights into their world and who through these insights help them manage better this world and the issues and challenges they face.

They say that consumers today crave relationships and resources in the form of knowledge and insights. And herein, I believe, lies the opportunity for selling differently and in particular using thought leadership to pave the way for sales.

In my all my research on the topic I have come across only a handful of people who can articulate so succinctly the impact thought leadership has on selling a brand, product or service . Dana vandenHeuvel and David Meerman Scott are two others who spring to mind.

While traditional marketing is still the bread and butter of many sales efforts, as the Nelsons point out: "When you begin your marketing efforts by establishing trust and demonstrating thought leadership, you create a new more effective entry point for your brand message."

Very true. But before this happens, companies need to unlearn current habits of pushing products and services down their customers' throats. Instead they should start demonstrating their insights, knowledge and expertise in their sector and in particular the issues and challenges facing their consumers.

Underpinning this approach is thought leadership. There are many positive outcomes of thought leadership but the ultimate outcome should always be that your customers seek you out because they trust you based on the knowledge and insights you have shared so openly with them.

While thought leadership may not result in a quick sell, what it will do is truly cement your brand with your publics in a way that has a far deeper 'stickability' factor. But this is what most marketers and salespeople have difficulty getting their heads around - thought leadership does not primarily drive sales. Rather it builds trust, takes your conversations with customers to another level so that when the time comes to present your offering they are so vested in your brand that the sale is as good as done.

As the Nelsons point out: "you need to be out in your marketplace talking to people, learning what they know, discussing ideas, taking the pulse of the industry to see where it's going, responding to concerns and expanding your understanding of what is needed. This is the best kind of leadership because it demonstrates your intimacy with your audience and your industry."

While there is nothing new in this and the best sales people will tell you that the best selling is all about listening, the difference is how you interpret, articulate and then package and share your insights and information.

Thought leaders have an abundance mentality. They share openly and freely and understand that it is not first and foremost about the sale but rather it is first and foremost about being available and being generous with your knowledge.

Only this way will take your place at the head of your industry's table. The sales will follow.

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Article Tags: customer engagement, marketing, sales, sales pitch, selling, thought leadership



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Re: help wanted in u.k. - My guess is that a lot of inventors do not start with a clean slate and begin with a sales focus. I imagine many inventions sort of emerge from the problems or situations that they grapple with in their own lives. Experienced problem - invented solution - product development - demonstration and sales pitch. If the problem is common enough then I suppose that a completely satisfactory invention would have plenty of money-earning potential if it is pitched right, which is where your advice would come in. I take your point about money, but maybe passion should come first... With Brendan's boxer balls, for example, the money could follow if the demonstration and sales pitch can be perfected, but the invention itself was not FOR money per se, but developed out of a passion for boxing training - I believe!
Re: The Death Of ClickBank. Is this true? - Hi topeyinka, I don't think CB is dead, not so quickly. This is a wide market and as long as there is a demand there will be offers. At the bottom line CB will continue to make money from their sales, and maybe one day they will change the way they work, who knows!?
Men and women working together - Go for the mix Julie. The guy will be able to bring a different perspective and can help connect with your customers in a different way. I would often tag team with my female partner and if it's a male customer she does the pitch, if it's a female I do the pitch and it's worked out well for us.
Re: New Directory for Blogs and Internet Marketing Products - Hi Takuya, Can you give us a one sentence sales pitch as to why members of this forum should use your friend's site? Or better yet, can you tell us how you're personally benefiting from it? And if there's no cost to list your items on the site, isn't there a danger of spammers who offer no real value or users becoming blind to all of the ads?
Pitch Like A Girl: How a Woman Can Be Herself and Still Succ - Pitch Like A Girl: How a Woman Can Be Herself and Still Succeed Ronna Lichtenberg 2005 From the inside cover: "As a woman, you probably feel uncomfortable when it comes to promoting yourself and asking for what you want." WHAT IN THE HECK IS THIS, I asked myself when I read that. Women are the fastest growing business owners in the US and Canada, there are t housands of women executives and CEOs - though not as many as might be expected, admittedly, yet the book opens with this surely out of date stereotype. However, as she continued to give examples of women who had high paying jobs but were routinely not paid as much as men because it hadn't occurred to them to ask for raises, etc., I decided it was probably true for a majority of businesswomen... Anyway, more of the info from the jacket: "Other books have told you how to get what you want by being more like a guy. Pitch Like A Girl tells you why its an advantage to be who you are and how to do better by bringing more of yourself to work." The TOC: 1. Pink and Blue 2. The Quck-dry Chapter 3. What's In your head that's not in his 4. The Me, Inc Mindset 5. Visioning: Discover What You Really Want 6. Identifying Prospects 7. Pre-pitch homework and heartwork 8. Crafting the pitch 9. Pricing the pitch 10. Packaging the pitch 11. Delivering the pitch 12. Closing Conclusion A Word to the guys The Empathy Quotient The Systemizing Quotient Bibliography And on a side note - non-fiction books without indexes - of which this is one, annoy me.


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