A recent statistic really hit home about how many companies are missing the boat – and missing sales opportunities – by focusing only on “push” marketing tactics and ignoring the “pull” approach. The stat, found in MarketingProfs stated that seventy percent of the sales process today is completed before a prospect has a contact with the company he or she ultimately buys from.

What does this mean? It means that most firms are ignoring or neglecting the primary way they can engage prospects today: with compelling online content that captures eyeballs and begins the engagement process that leads to sales.

It’s often discussed how greatly the Internet is changing the ways society functions. The high speed and easy availability of the web have transformed many things, and business is no exception. Blogging and effective website management have fast become essential tools for managers to run their company. Utilizing these skills is the key to being successful in business on an online world where even B2B sales are becoming driven by these online interactions.

Despite this new reality, many executives dismiss blogging and online content creation as something not needed, or it’s just too time-consuming, or they don’t understand its value. In the world of direct marketing, where making calls, attending conferences, and even doing door-to-door selling or cold calling meant achieving success, the power of online content creation has been overlooked. But in the “Big River” of the Internet, those push techniques are now “swimming upstream.” If 70% or more of modern sales now take place only after the consumer has browsed the Internet to find what they want, when the actual sales process begins the customer has already made a decision. That makes it all the more important for a business to have relevant and persuasive information available to searchers on the Internet and to drive their SEO to capture the buyer in this crucial research phase.

Many sales executives are talented in using presentations and pitches—these activities may take a lot of time and resources, but they are familiar and people tend to do what they’re good at. The problem now is that educated customers want to read first and then decide to listen. By remaining married to the familiar push approach, sales and marketing executives may be clinging to what is gratifying and familiar to them, as opposed to what works. Oral commitments, card exchanges, and hand-shaking are the kinds of instant gratification that executives are used to. Blogging—which often yields no concrete evidence of effectiveness right away and is often dismissed after a few weeks—is the long-term approach that sets the stage for a big win farther down the road.

The change that marketing is experiencing is something inevitable in today’s fast-paced and digitized world. We can envision this change by thinking of blogging and online content as creating the breadcrumbs to lead Hansel and Gretel straight to you—the self-educating buyer will follow your electronic lead back to you, informing themselves along the way. This shortening of the sales cycle makes the process leading to closure immeasurably easy for the seller. To makes these techniques work, executives must first recognize this seismic change in the selling process, and be willing to commit to different ways to achieve success than they have used in the past.

For a description of how the “push/pull” marketing approach works, click to download it from the Scott Public Relations website.

If you’re in healthcare, insurance, technology or other professional services industries, and need help with public relations, marketing or crisis communications, contact Scott Public Relations.

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