There is
a huge number of things that your 2013 sales strategy could and should contain.
A good sales strategy and plan should target and address all the minute
challenges and opportunities your business is facing. It should be focused on
unique business distinctions; however…there are three things that should be top
of your list to complete your 2013 sales strategy: i) A Learning Plan, ii) Content
Marketing and iii) Social Selling.
A Learning Plan – despite not taking everything
in whilst at school, I have always been a big fan of learning and problem
solving, I see something that interests me, and I want to learn more. This year
I am committing to a learning plan; I have a list of things that I want to learn
to help increase my sales.
We’re
wired to learn; we can’t help but learn, but we can choose what we learn and
depending on what you choose it can make a huge difference to your sales. The
companies that have been benefiting for the past few years from; social media,
content marketing, blogging, etc. are in most case's learners; they build a
learning plan into their sales strategy. Recognize the development of a trend
or a gap in your knowledge and commit to increasing your knowledge in that
space.
If your
2013 sales strategy lacks a learning plan, you will find yourself behind the
curve. Find a specific topic or topics you and your organization want to become
the expert in during 2013.
Content Marketing – every sales and marketing organization's
2013 strategy needs to contain a content driven lead generation campaign. It
must have a way to attract clients with detailed content.
Content Marketing is used by the foremost sales people who have the
greatest command of information and insight. Long before social media, content marketing, or the Internet, the most
successful sales people carried the best and most compelling insights and
information. Content marketing is perfectly built to propel those with insight and
knowledge. If your sales organization isn’t very good but has more relevant
insight and information, there is no better way to differentiate your
organization than Content Marketing.
Social
Selling – Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google Plus are changing the selling game;
it has created a new approach for sales people to connect and sell to customers
and clients. Social Media has given sales people the insight and connectivity
to their target market in ways they couldn’t do in times gone by. Ignoring
Social Selling and not proactively integrating it into your sales strategy via
training and tools is failing your sales organization.
If your 2013 plan doesn’t have these three things, then it could cost
you not only in 2013 but also in future years.
Written by Liam Oakes
Liam is the Candidate Manager at
Aaron Wallis and has been with the company for 2 years after having a career
with the RAF; Liam has helped hundreds of Sales Professionals secure a new
Sales role and ensures that Aaron Wallis runs smoothly.
LinkedIn - http://www.linkedin.com/pub/liam-oakes/4b/536/403
