In any given day there are hundreds of things to eat up a sales persons time (regardless of your profession we are all sales people). I learned early in my sales career to keep my focus on revenue generating activity. Back then there were only three:
- Prospecting
- Proposal writing
- Customer / Prospect meetings
What was true then is still, some what, true today, but I’d like to replace prospecting with – blogging. According to HubSpot blogging is the second largest social 
media customer acquisition channel. Linkedin ranked higher but I prefer blogging because it’s a channel that you or your company own and control. Additionally, every blog post ads a page to your website that has SEO value.
Businesses, sales people, and marketers should have a single goal with blogging – to become the person or company that people rely on for information regarding your product, service, or industry. Once your potential customers have given you permission to educate them (via your blog), they will come to you to help solve their business challenges.
I know many people don’t blog because they say they don’t know what to write about. Here are a couple of ideas off the top of my head:
- Make a list of the questions you get asked most and blog the answers.
- Blog about one of your customers achievements – did one of your clients land a major deal – share the news.
- Use an RSS reader to stay up on industry news and comment on it in your blog.
- Write a series of ‘how to’ post and when a potential client ask you a question reference your blog post.
- Is there a popular book being read by your industry – write a review of the book and email a link to your existing clients.
Last thing – don’t worry about how many readers you have. It could take quite a while for your blog to catch on. I heard Seth Godin say that when he started writing his blog hardly anyone read it. Today, he’s got one of the most read marketing blogs in the world.
I’m always surprised when even a single person Tweets or Likes one of my post. But it goest to show that if you just put your thoughts and ideas out there they will strike a chord with someone. All you need is that one right someone to cause your ideas to go viral.
Happy Blogging!
