One-to-many communication is so popular today due to inbound marketing and email automation. It makes selling more efficient for sales teams as well as prospects.
In spite of this, personal selling is still an important skill to have. This is why we're sharing what you should know about personal selling.
The purpose of personal selling is to build relationships and share a tailored, individualized plan of what you can offer. This is usually done by face-to-face meetings rather than emails or phone conversations.
Take this example.
The realtor at a top Los Angeles real estate agent wants to court a high-end corporate client, so she arranges a face-to-face meeting at their office. Before the meeting, she learns as much as she can about the client, such as what their pain points are and what they are looking for in an agency. A value proposition is prepared by her that details what they can expect from their partnership as well as the results that will result from it.
A client is impressed but not prepared to commit at the end of the meeting.
One month later, the realtor contacts them after discovering they had a disappointing experience with a competing agency - and they decide to move forward with her.
That's a long journey, but it's an excellent example of personal selling.
Despite its perceived age, personal selling is still an important sales tactic, especially in comparison to newer methods. In fact, 68% of all B2B relationships end because one party feels unappreciated or unimportant.
The importance of personal selling can be summed up in three reasons.
You engage potential clients more actively through personal selling
On your website or in your advertising, you might have solved every problem in the book, but until clients hear your answers to their issues, they may not be able to buy from you. This face-to-face connection builds trust, so never underestimate how important it is to hear how a sales rep can solve their problems.
2. The personal selling method is individualized in a way that other methods are not
Marketing and advertising campaigns are always targeted at a general audience, no matter how specific they are tailored to specific client sectors. This means that clients won't feel as personally connected to you as they do when buying directly from you.
3. Personal selling builds long-term relationships
However, agency clients still value a relationship with a specific individual who knows them and focuses on their needs despite having multiple points of contact. It will be easier for them to reconnect and connect with you over the long run if you can provide value, research, and ideas at every stage of relationship building.
The concept of personal selling may already be part of your sales repertoire, but you can make it even better by predicting the needs of this particular client and focusing on what they want. Only 13% of prospective clients believe sales reps understand them—and aren’t just offering the same pitch.
Learn as much as you can about your prospective clients. Who are they? What have they told you in the past? What do they need now that they did not have before?
Remember, however, that you must deliver on your promises once you've landed a client.
