We are consumers, always buying and selling something. Lately, I have participated in a number of webinars and sadly the format is often the same — here’s a small piece of information and my gigantic sales pitch. Now get out your credit cards, folks.
I’m not that kind of buyer and I put a great deal of effort into not being that kind of salesperson. I need a more personal approach, the seller needs to know at least a little bit about me and/or my business and how I might benefit from their offering. But more than that, I need them to share their knowledge with me. Give me some insight, give me something that actually helps me to make an educated decision for myself. I attended your webinar because I had an interest in your topic/product/whatever. I was there to learn.
Let’s say you are a company that sells roller skates. You know that roller derby has become really popular over the last several years and you want to sell directly to teams. You decide to host a webinar for rookie skaters that teaches them about proper skate maintenance. The webinar reviews the parts of a skate, discusses how to clean your wheels and bearings and general information that is completely foreign to new skaters, because frankly they are just trying to not get knocked down. What the webinar doesn’t do is hit them over the head with buying your skates, your products. You are teaching them how to care for skates, period, doesn’t matter what type of skates. During my brief foray into derby there was a company called Sin City Skates that did a nice job of providing education and supporting our league. We bought from them regularly.
Sharing your knowledge doesn’t make you vulnerable as a company, it makes you stronger.
So, what do you have to teach your customer?
