Contributor Peter O’Donoghue

runs sales trainingcourses in prospecting techniques. Contact him on 08456434165, email we@salesdnaltd.com or visit: salesdnaltd.com Two free reports on today’s prospecting techniques can befound at bit.ly/wesmp and bit.ly/wespwsm

business tips

smarter selling

As a business or as anindividual salesperson you absolutely must have a blog

Are you blogging?

I you or your company are not blogging, youare missing out on a great prospecting tool oraccelerating your sales success. As a business or asan individual salesperson you absolutely must havea blog. A blog can provide you with:

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Credibility in your marketplace – become aninstant ‘industry networked expert’

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High search engine rankings or commonlysearched terms relating to your business

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An opportunity to develop a long-termrelationship with potential customers

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A way or people to identiy with you personally

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More business.You have heard the old saying a hundred times– ‘people buy people’, meaning that they buy theproduct because o the message and, moreimportantly, because o the messenger. It has alwaysbeen extremely dicult to promote your ownpersonality in sales until ater the potential client hasengaged with your company. Blogging allows you todevelop your personal brand online. Why is thatimportant? Well, in this day and age, you must surelybe aware by now that the rst thing a client will do issearch or you on Google. What will they nd?In his ascinating book, ‘Empowering yoursel’,Harvey Coleman developed his PIE model o theattributes that lead to career and business success or‘upward mobility’. PIE stands or perormance, imageand exposure. Surprisingly, perormance is anelement that is ‘a given’ and only accounts or 10%o your success, while image represents 30% andexposure a massive 60%.

Build your brand

A blog is an extremely easy way or you to start tobuild your own personal brand online and is a greataddition to your prospecting armoury. When I startedout in sales, the goal or the aspiring salesperson wasto become the ‘industry networked expert’. This was asales proessional who could pick and choose their job because they had cultivated their network through many long years o pressing the esh,cold calling and attending seminars and industryunctions. Now it is possible to do that remarkablyquickly by cultivating your online reputation.A antastic example is Chad Levitt. He has his ownhighly rated blog, guest blogs on Salesgravy.com andis a sought-ater commentator on the emerging eldo Sales 2.0. By day, Levitt is an inside sales associatewith EMC. His exposure is antastic within thesales community and he is denitely an industrynetworked expert at a airly young age. You can dothis in your own industry, irrespective o whetheryou sell blue widgets or photocopiers.

Begin at the end

Use the old Stephen Covey principle and begin withthe end in mind. Decide what you want to be knownor and go out and cultivate your online brand inthat area. Make a conscious efort to build yourexposure as the ‘go to’ person in your industry.

Act now

Here are the key steps you need to take:

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Decide what specialism you want to be known or,eg. ‘How to buy a used photocopier’

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Buy your name as a .com or .co.uk (this is veryimportant)

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Install the ree wordpress sotware onto yourdomain

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Research the ree Google keywords tool to ndout what people are searching or in your industry

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Write articles about what people are searching or