Creative, distinctive, socially involved; as a company you have to show it all to stand out in the jungle of competition. The time of going through life faceless is definitely over. A modern sales approach includes responsive websites, active social media channels, storytelling and regular webinars or virtual roundtables to share valuable knowledge with (potential) customers and deepen your relationships.
'75% of sales in the Netherlands do not (yet) do storytelling and knowledge sharing via blogs. Such a shame!'
Know your target group
Yet this is evident from our benchmark research trend report Sales of the Future Among more than a hundred renowned companies in the Netherlands, 75% do not do storytelling and hardly share knowledge via blogs. Also, only about 15% are able to demonstrate their thought leadership through, for example, webinars, video calls and virtual roundtables. Shame! Because this way you can come into contact with prospects in an empathetic way, create recognizability and strengthen your relationship.
But how do you find the story that strikes the right chord? Get into the head of your target group. Know what they are up against, know the problems they experience and thus claim your knowledge leadership. You can do this very well as a company, but also as a person within a company.
Claim your thought leadership
Claiming thought leadership is a great way to distinguish yourself from your competitors. For example, by sharing relevant insights via blogs or videos on LinkedIn or webinars, you build trust with your business buyers. They increasingly include a supplier's expertise in their orientation process. By sharing relevant insights, you demonstrate that you understand what your target group is struggling with. But also that you are able to come up with solutions for this.
'Speak to successful customers and ask them what they struggle with and see opportunities for growth'
Make content interesting
Relevant experiences are always the start of storytelling with which you claim your knowledge leadership! Consider what themes and issues are going on in the industry and check who within your company is the expert in that area. What is their vision, opinion and experience with everything that is going on in the market? That's where the interesting content lies.
Be sure to talk to successful customers and ask them what they struggle with and see opportunities for growth. We recently did this ourselves through benchmark research into the future of sales, because we wanted to know what sales teams are currently struggling with and whether they are ready for the future of sales. What do they face and what are their biggest challenges? This yielded interesting insights, which we then shared through a thorough trend report, blogs and a white paper. This way we can see to relations and (potential) customers that we understand them, are involved and know where things are going in B2B sales. Extremely valuable.
What I really like is that knowledge sharing is not an exclusive for the digital channels. This can also be done via a trade fair, event or workshop. For me the perfect opportunity to network and have fun too!
Download our trend report
Would you also like to take on the storytelling adventure and surprise your prospects and customers with insights and experiences and how you can possibly help them on their way? We are happy to help you on your way.
And if you are curious whether your sales team is completely future-proof, download the Kenneth Smit trend report Sales of the Future. You immediately know why a small group of frontrunners is doing so well!