Read a great post over at the Radian6 blog, 5 Ways Engagement is more than Talking and it just bears sharing/repeating/remembering…
Why? Because there is still way too much talking at people going on in the wonderful, wacky world of social media/content marketing.
Marketing and sales people need to sit back, shut up and listen – but for some reason the natural reaction to being in the room with a potential customer is to talk and talk and talk….
I remember my agency days and the joy of the first meeting with a prospect – and the dreaded “Capabilities Presentation”. Forty-five minutes of chest pounding self-adulation that bored many prospective clients to death – and caused others to react negatively because they didn’t like the creative execution of any of the campaigns. (They also didn’t understand the brand, target audience, strategy…because it really was never explained by the agency so all they could do was react to the colors, fonts, layout…)
Anyway, as Teresa wrote in her post…
- Listen and absorb…which I would add “and respond appropriately”. And that probably doesn’t mean “spew the next selling point from the training manual.” (Why is it that so many business conversations lack any humanity or personality – so many seem to be too polished, practiced and a wee bit insincere.)
- Create opportunities to connect…on a personal level, please!! Look, I don’t need another friend but I also don’t need another stereotypical salesperson that’s trying to get me to buy more rather than achieve my goals. Understand my goals, offer solutions and don’t try to get me to buy something I don’t really need!
There are a lot of great points raised in the article – check it out and let me know what you think.
