Sales 2.0 – The New Contact Sport

The introduction of Sales 2.0 onto the internet allows a much more efficient way to capture consumers and the targeted audience of your business or organization. With sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, and other social platforms, businesses are able to capture a seemingly unlimited target audience for their offered products and/or services. Once these tools and opportunities are understood, more traditional methods of sales are improved upon and complemented with the introduction of technology.

In the more traditional methods of advertising and selling, cost and effectiveness are undermined. Methods such as phone calls, snail mail, and in-person prospecting are all inefficient methods to market and sell business products and services. The cost for these services can be daunting: for instance, professional newsletters in print in electronic form are costly, from design to production. Additionally, these advertising products must be done at a high level for them to capture the interest of the buyer, who is certainly accustomed to the traditional approaches from advertisers.

Additionally, more traditional methods of sales and marketing undermine the manpower of a business. This inefficiency in cost overlooks the aforementioned blow to financial support of a business in respect to direct costs, with the impact of employee-related cost. As these more traditional methods of business are carried out, the costs of the business are hampered more prominently in the time that is spent with these methods. As evident in the area of telephone marketing, for instance, an employee’s time is severely hampered by the ineffectiveness of the method. The direct costs of the traditional methods thus see relevance only after the indirect cost impact of wasted time.

These drawbacks of traditional methods of business marketing and selling of direct and indirect costs create the focal drawback of inefficiency. When business resources are depleted on these two lines of advertising and selling costs, and costs of employee-related time, these strategies cause the business to be highly inefficient. The business must thus make up for these ineffective approaches to selling and marketing business products and services.

The inefficiency of traditional methods of sales and marketing can be remedied with Sales 2.0 tools. With respect to the first mark of sales inefficiency, Sales 2.0 tools are much more cost-efficient. In fact, a significant number of tools and networks online can be used for no cost. To take this point a little further, these networks can also be used for paid advertising, which would place a significant advantage over other less-directed methods of paid advertising, which will be covered. With the second point of sales inefficiency, Sales 2.0 tools provide a way to provide value to the time related to manpower. As the audience is able to be reached online, the restrictive element to traditional methods of advertising and marketing are replaced with unlimited potential with respect to the targeted audience.

With Sales 2.0 tools, the audience is virtually unlimited. One of the widest sources of audiences in the Sales 2.0 approach is present in social networks on the internet. Sites such as MySpace and Facebook offer a high visibility with possibilities within the specialized communities and groups formed within these networks. With some care these groups may be utilized for links to the product or service provided from relevant companies. However, it is important to build rapport. Users will be aware of ‘blanketing’ attempts at getting exposure for a product or service.

Within these communities another level of specialized communities are present. Particular to the industry, almost anywhere on the internet specific communities, forums, and informational sites pertaining to the industry are present. Digital photography, for instance, would have a significant audience present in forums devoted to reviews, advice, and enthusiasts on digital photography. Similar to the user-created groups on Facebook and MySpace, this level is strongly relevant to the target, and can be reached for no money. Or, at the very least, advertising space could be purchased to increase visibility in the direct user market.

Additionally, other online services can be monumental in article marketing. Websites such as Linkedin, Digg, Propeller, and StumbleUpon allow users exposure to many different websites based on popularity. Websites such as these illustrate another way in which exposure isn’t substituted with cost. These popular websites charge nothing to potentially allow a large amount of traffic to come across marketed articles.

These particular social communities are also able to be complimented with more effective paid strategies. For instance, the paid website HubSpot allows business of all sizes to be found on search engines, lined-to from blogs and written on on social media services. A company such as this could put the resources of a business to good use. However, whether using a service such as this or building an effective website for your business, it is important to take advantage of Sales 2.0 tools on every platform, from SEO tools to Facebook integration.

With Sales 2.0 tools which allow a business to reach an unlimited market of consumers and users for little to no money, theses services must be taken advantage of to compete with other retailers and businesses in the industry. Traditional methods, such as the slow and inefficient methods of telemarketing and printed advertising, need to be integrated in every aspect with these valued Sales 2.0 tools. In today’s market no longer will the initial awareness of your product be in the live conversation between employee and consumer. Rather, the consumer today is made aware of the product on the technological front.