Sellers are the last person a typical buyer will turn to for advice unless they already know you or you’ve already served them before. If you haven’t then you’ve got a huge mountain to climb to establish yourself as a credible source.
The information that buyers collect will lead them to places where they may get referred or passed on by an associated trusted source or an authoritative site to a potential source of supply. This only occurs where a buyers can see some value or there is an obvious reason to follow.
Buyers Trust Their Networks So Find Ways To Get Your Message To Spread Through Networks
When a buyer asks their network a question they may ask things like “Who do you know who can help me with X or Y problem” or “I’ve got this problem, how can I fix it” and their network responds.
The response a buyer receives will be based on either their networkers direct experiences or something useful, usually information or knowledge which they have come across in their travels or heard about from another source which they may end up referring you to.
Open networks like social media also invites responses from connections that are further out of the boundary of a persons usual network of friends and colleagues.
A buyers own research will typically lead them to places where they can learn more about their own problem and how they go about addressing it.
Improve Your Status By Offering Expertise Instead Of Just Finding Excuses To Interrupt Prospects For A Sale
It’s an incredibly uncomfortable feeling to know that you’re not like those other sales and marketing fakes, instead you’re knowledgeable and act with sincerity, yet you’re still perceived as an untrustworthy source and unwelcome pest just because you’re in sales and marketing.
Things get even more frustrating when you realise that as well as being knowledgeable you also represent a hot product or service, and still you’re ignored or treated like some market trader trying to offload a pile of junk onto some unsuspecting punter.
Knowledge, Information, Usefulness and Purpose Are All Things That Prospects And Customers See As Being Authoritative
So what better way to get closer to your prospects and customers than by serving them real know-how instead of trying to force your way in the door for that excuse of a meeting or to “touch base”.
Genuinely useful information will help your customer learn more about their problem and how to go about resolving it and it will position you as a knowledgeable source. One of the best ways of getting your knowledge across which avoids much of the interruptions with traditional selling and marketing is to become the most visible person in your field.
It automatically makes you the authority and trusted source because the market is pointing to you and saying hey this person knows a thing or two about “super widgets” so go and talk to them.
Prospects, customers and partners will be far more likely to welcome you in as the chief problem solver in your field, just like all those other experts when they see you are a respected authority which happens when you serve your market in the right way.
Here is another useful article from Nate Whitehill on establishing authority through blogging.
This video is a final reminder that we all must earn trust, especially if we’re in business.
Of course as prospects come into your business and turn into customers you must deliver on your promises or else all that hard work you did in the beginning will be eroded away on the back end and all that authority and trust will disappear very quickly indeed.
