Latest content marketing thinking: why shouldn’t we sell anything?

At the recent B2B InTech conference, a confusing idea informed a lot of the presentations: the notion that we mustn’t sell anything.

I don’t think the various speakers meant it quite the way it sounds. After all, the integration of sales and marketing is a high priority for B2B marketers.

We know this well at twogether, because we were runners up in the Sales & Marketing Integration category at this year’s B2B Marketing Awards (forgive the sales pitch — I couldn’t resist it). Still, at B2B InTech we were all urged more than once to avoid selling in our marketing activity.

It was all to do with content marketing. Content marketing, strictly speaking, is more of an exercise in publishing than marketing, because it’s concerned with making fresh, relevant and valuable information available to customers. The message from some speakers was that any hint of a sales message would undermine the credibility of the content.

That’s fine, as far as it goes. But why bother to publish anything if it doesn’t ultimately lead to a sale?

As the B2B InTech day unfolded, it became clear that the problem is a misunderstanding of what a sales person does. It’s been so long since selling was a fashionable concept, we’ve forgotten what it takes to make a great sales person.

One man at the event flew the flag for the real art of selling. Tim Hughes, social selling phenomenon, reminded us that sales is a human thing: people buy from people. He was explaining why social selling is so valuable — it’s a very human way to connect — but his thinking extends across the whole social and content marketing debate.

He pointed out that the most effective sales people begin by establishing relationships of trust with their customers. They start the sales process by connecting first at the human level.

As they walk into a customer’s office, they glance at the photographs on the desk, the books on the shelves and the certificates on the wall. They find ways to engage in more personal conversations, rather than plunging straight into a pitch.

These days, with open plan offices and meeting rooms, it’s a little harder, but there are always ways to get to know the person better before you sell to them.

With this understanding of what it takes to make a sale, content marketing makes a lot more sense. Your content strategy is a way to build trust and help customers get to know you, by giving them valuable information and ideas.

All of this was covered back in the 1950s with the famous McGraw Hill ad, promoting business publication advertising. The pugnacious customer declares: “I don’t know who you are. I don’t know your company. I don’t know your company’s product… Now, what was it you wanted to sell me?”

The message is still relevant. We’re in this B2B marketing game to sell stuff and everything we do should have that goal in mind. There’s still a place for the more top level content, but let’s not be frightened to admit to ourselves that we want to sell stuff.

Here’s a story from the sales front line that demonstrates perfectly the fine art of selling. One of the best salespeople I ever met was a guy called Ken Hope, who had his own business ‘travelling in jewellery’, as the quaint old phrase used to have it.

He’d run a profitable business for 40 years, calling on jewellers all over the country. His proudest claim was something one of his best customers once said to him: “Ken, I love buying from you, because you’ve never sold me anything.”