In today’s digital world, having an online omnipresence across channels along with strong consultative selling skills is crucial for businesses to acquire and retain happy customers. Companies that cultivate their brand’s omnipresence online and equip their sales teams with consultative skills see greater success converting and satisfying buyers.
Why Online Omnipresence Matters
Omnipresence refers to having an active presence on all digital platforms where your potential customers spend their time. This includes:
- A highly visible, well-optimized website
- Engaging social media accounts with regular value-added content
- Targeted paid advertising across search, social, display networks
- Reviews and reputation management
- Leveraging influencers and affiliates
- Active profiles on relevant online communities and forums
Being omnipresent online achieves a few key things:
- Increased awareness – More people become familiar with your brand by interacting across touchpoints
- Authority & trust – Actively providing value builds credibility and affinity
- Higher conversions – With more touchpoints, you have more opportunities to convert sales
- Audience insights – You learn more about your audience for better targeting
According to a recent Survata survey, 95% of potential customers visit a brand’s website before making a purchase. 72% of buyers say they feel more trusting of businesses that are highly visible online.
Clearly, online omnipresence allows you to nurture relationships over time. You become a familiar, trusted authority that buyers ultimately want to do business with.
The Value of Consultative Selling
However, digital presence alone is usually not enough to convert sales. You also need sales reps with strong consultative selling skills to engage qualified leads online and close deals.
Consultative selling is focused on understanding the buyer’s unique needs and perspectives, then providing customized solutions. Key traits include:
- Asking insightful questions – Uncovering the client’s pain points, goals and constraints
- Active listening – Fully understanding the buyer’s point of view
- Co-creating value – Collaborating to build the best solution
- Earning trust – Establishing credibility and relationships
- Presenting outcomes – Communicating results tailored to the client
Consultative selling contrasts transactional selling that focuses on features, price and closing one-time sales. Instead, it aims to provide ongoing value and truly partner with the customer.
According to LinkedIn research, buyers are 5x more likely to buy from a sales rep who took time to understand their needs.
Omnipresence + Consultative Selling = More Conversions
When you combine digital omnipresence with consultative selling, you get more qualified leads and higher conversion rates:
- Omnipresence nurtures awareness, interest and relationships via content
- Consultative skills convert that interest into sales through personalized guidance
- More conversions because you earn trust on both fronts to close business
This one-two punch is especially crucial for considered purchases and complex sales with long buying cycles. For example, let’s look at a fictional company, Cascade Software:
- Cascade establishes omnipresence with content on business analytics and blogs about data trends. This attracts followers interested in the topic.
- A lead named John downloads a data analytics whitepaper from Cascade’s site. He has pain points around processing large datasets.
- Cascade’s sales rep Rebecca calls John and asks thoughtful questions to understand his needs. John opens up about his situation and goals.
- Rebecca listens intently and responds with a customized solution involving Cascade’s analytics platform.
- John is thrilled by the tailored approach based on his unique business needs. He decides Cascade is the right partner to purchase from.
Without both digital engagement and human-centered sales, Cascade may never earn John’s trust and business. But combined, they leave buyers highly satisfied.
According to a Forrester study, sales reps adapt their style to customer needs grow overall sales by 29%.
More Happy Customers
Beyond just closing initial sales, omnipresence combined with consultative selling results in more satisfied, loyal customers over the long term.
Online omnipresence allows you to nurture leads prior to sales contact. You can share valuable content that makes initial conversations with sales reps more productive. Buyers begin to trust you even before you have a direct dialogue.
Then consultative selling skills enable sales reps to truly understand buyers’ perspectives. This leads to personalized solutions that exceed expectations.
Together, you are marketing and selling in a humanized, helpful way. Customers appreciate when you “get” them and provide an outstanding experience.
In a Sense360 survey, 87% of customers said they would recommend brands that treat them as individuals vs. target segments.
Happy customers also leave positive reviews that reinforce your brand authority and trust online. User-generated content further expands your omnipresence. It’s a mutually beneficial cycle.
Tips to Improve Omnipresence & Consultative Selling
Here are some tips to optimize both your digital presence and sales approach:
For Omnipresence:
- Create helpful educational content and resources to attract and nurture prospects
- Share industry news and trends to demonstrate your expertise
- Respond to all online reviews and queries promptly and professionally
- Test and refine your paid ad campaigns based on performance data
- Build relationships with key influencers who can extend your reach
For Consultative Selling:
- Do comprehensive research on prospects before initial contact
- Ask open-ended questions and actively listen without assumptions
- Avoid over-pitching; have transparent, two-way dialogue
- Present personalized solutions tailored to buyer needs and constraints
- Provide ongoing value and relationship-building post-sale
For Management:
- Ensure marketing and sales teams collaborate closely
- Invest in advanced social listening and CRM technology
- Train sales reps on consultative skills with coaching and workshops
- Create content that supports sales cycle stages and messaging
- Recognize and reward sales reps demonstrating a consultative approach
The Future is Consultative
The combination of online omnipresence and consultative selling is clearly critical for business success today and tomorrow. Leaders must invest in both brand visibility and customer relationships.
While AI and technology continue to evolve sales enablement, the human touch remains key. Sales comes down to understanding and solving problems from the buyer’s perspective.
Businesses who embrace omnipresence and consultative selling will gain the trust and loyalty of customers in a cluttered digital landscape. Are you ready to connect with clarity, empathy and impact?
