[Rural Sales] Those Who Educate The Market Own The Market

The problem with sales is selling. No one like to be sold but everyones loves to buy.

Most rural marketers and sales people still haven’t worked out that those that out-teach the market, own the market.

Educational-based content is key because “telling ain’t selling”.

We see some shocking “we” vs. “me” humble brags here on Linked In or Facebook feed as a digital marketing strategy.

It doesn’t move anyone. We just move on because you can’t bore your buyers into buying.

These obvious crimes shows you and me that they don’t know what they’re doing:

• They haven’t invested the time in energy to deeply understand the innermost drivers and motivations of their market (instead they think they are the market…Wow)
• They put out messages talking about themselves instead of the deepest desires of their customers (if you don’t believe me do a quick Google search of your main competitors and count how many have “we” as the first or second word emblazoned all over their home page)
• They don’t understand the basic principles of human psychology and how the buyer brain buys on physiological, neurological or psychological levels

We are in the privileged position where we get to see patterns through prospects and clients sharing their specific rural marketing challenges with us, and telling us where they are struggling with most.

The key themes are always:

• “We need to generate better qualified leads”
• “We hate cold calling” (aka. we hate selling)
• “Our sales cycles are too long”
• “We don’t know which metrics matter most…what ones should we measure and why?”
• “We can’t seem to close and convert enough customers.”
• “We keep getting priced…”

These are all very common problems.

If you have some of them too, don’t worry. You are not alone.

So here is my simple solutions to answer these themes:

You need to out-teach to out-sell

Selling for the sake of it won’t cut it in this noisy world of false, empty promises.

Too many people have been burnt by sales and marketing people pretending to have all the answers.

Buyers are cynical and sceptical. They are over-communicated and advertised to. Bad sales people have come before you so their bullshit radar is highly tuned, making your job much much harder.

You have to commit to building a relationship patiently and methodically over time, where you nourish and nurture them with generous, unique content that they can use and apply.

Content that they even anticipate.

You don’t ask for the sale for a long time because you have to earn that right and prove your worth, authority and credibility first before you move in for the sale.

I always teach my students the fact that no one gets married on the first date. In fact only 3% of buyers ever do, metaphorically speaking.

Because of the law of reciprocation, in time they will see you have proven yourself as a person of value who wants to serve their interests rather than your own.

You don’t sell, you serve.

The other insight here is people won’t take action unless they are triggered.

You have to activate people and you can only do that when you know what motivates them (eg. pain, loss, impact, implication, risk, consequence, loss of status/significance or social standing).

Taking the time to understand their individual buyer motives as farms and farmers is critical, or your rural marketing will always miss its mark because it “doesn’t talk to them”.

And that’s when you don’t make it to the top table because you’re not getting results.

People in the buyer committee cycle are motivated first and foremost by the emotional, then functional, then finally the financial.

Too often I see far too many rural companies and sales reps get this the completely wrong way around leading on price, without getting the fit and emotional chemistry right first.

That puts them immediately in a position of weakness, rather than power. They become needy in their negotiations and their customer knows it.

They can smell it.

So there you have it.

Answers to some common problems you may also share.

If you want more rural sales and make more money you need to educate your market, to own your market.

What are you waiting for?

+++

I am on a mission to help rural sales and marketing professionals get the results they deserve. Please make sure you Follow Me here on Linked so you don’t miss out on m,y articles.

And if you want to talk, grab your free 45 minute coaching call here