Do Salespeople Need their Own Web Presence?

If book authors need websites and blogs, then so do sales people.  Whether a corporate cog on a team, an independent agent or a channel account manager, each salesperson is a brand.  The sales consultant's job is to hunt, meet and build relationships with people who don't know them yet in order to help them decide on what they want and be chosen to deliver that feeling, product or service. 

Just as a company needs at least a static page identifying their existence, service and satisfied customers, so does a salesperson.  That'll suffice and if properly executed, search optimized and linked, it will deliver information, build credibility, produce leads and sustain a message.  Better yet, a salesperson can effectively blog to brand him or herself and the company.

One of the elements listed in the guide, "The 10 Biggest Breakthroughs in a Salesperson's Life," is the active pursuit of leverage to exponentially save time and increase effectiveness, volume and growth.  Imagine if the information provided on the website were quadrupled and then quadrupled again and again to your target market?  Imagine it another way. 

Now, imagine the same idea, but instead of an electronic and static form of leverage, imagine if the power of the personal, trusted, advisor relationship were systematically leveraged?  WOW.

 

Comments

[Chris Brown]

I agree that many sales people need their own web presence, however I really think it depends on the product or service they are selling.

While LinkedIn makes a great networking tool for the individual, I don't think it's great for selling product. And having individual web pages on a company's website for each sales person may make sense for independent busineses with sales reps, sometimes the united front makes more sense for a company.

One effective means of leveraging contacts is to swim upstream to the referral network and marketing to them. Depending on the product or service, I think that this is more effective than even having a web page or blog presence.

[Rick]

Thanks, Chris, for the comments and validating my final point which is how to not only market to the referral network but to be strategic, purposeful and accountable to producing results for each other. The results are usually remarkable when you have 3 to 4 consultants trained to be advisors setting appointments with ideal prospects for each other.

My leading point that even corporate, team members of a sales force could have a web presence stresses the suggestion that all relationship-oriented sales professionals should market themselves as an expert to establish credibility and consistency which are foundations to building trust and closing the sale. People do business with people even as companies buy other companies' products and services.

I enjoy your blog and look forward to seeing your future posts!