Conversely, his wife is one of the top selling agents in the area. He has watched while, even in a down real estate market, she has continued to out-perform nearly every one of her competitors. She follows a very specific (albeit relatively informal) process, designed specifically to build the necessary relationships in order to successfully close sales.

I was thinking about this example when reading Scott Olsen’s recent article on VentureBeat, “Need sales leads? Think like an editor.” Scott breaks everything down in clear and specific terms that are refreshingly focused: the purpose of your content is sales.

In the world of web strategy and content development, I often see an endless stream of white noise on this topic. People will get sidetracked with search engine optimization, social media, online marketing, email campaigns, multi-media formatting debates, customer engagement strategies, analytics, driving traffic, etc. Every single week I see these debates rage, and I am constantly finding myself puzzled at the focus.

All of your content, across all of your communications channels, are a means to an end — yet all too often, I find people forgetting that fact, and framing these discussions as if they are an end in and of themselves. They aren’t. Why do you care about your customer engagement strategy? Why do you care about your email marketing campaign? Why do you care about your social media presence? To drive sales. Period.

I recently heard a sales training specialist illuminate a valuable point: Marketers market to organizations. Salespeople sell to people within organizations.  Sales is about relationships, even more than marketing is. Good marketing can and should lay the groundwork for potential sales, but by the time it becomes a sales process, it must shift to a more personal process.

My friend’s wife outsells other real estate agents in her market because she understands this. Even though she and her husband are both major tech geeks, she understands that her customers are not — and even if/when they are, that’s not the most effective way for her to build a relationship with them that is going to build the level of trust needed for her to be successful.

In her case, it is literally a matter of using the phone and in-person meetings versus relying on email. She is a great — and low-tech — example of Scott’s point: becoming a trusted source depends on delivering relevent content to your prospects in a format that is in-line with their needs, not simply what is most convenient for you.

In my web-based world, this is often an easy trap to fall into without even realizing you’ve done it. Scott outlines some great solutions for maximizing online content to help meet these needs, but what about the offline world?

Phone: This one is still a biggie for most people. Pick up the phone and call. However, as someone who can’t stand the telephone and who tries to avoid answering it at all costs, I always give major bonus points to a salesperson who asks me what my prefered method of communication is.

USPS: Good old fashioned mail still has its place, especially if you send something personalized. I recently met a real estate agent at a networking event, and two days later I had a hand-written “great to meet you!” letter in my business mailbox.

Local Business Groups: In the end, there is nothing like face-to-face when it comes to building trust. No matter how well we ultimately virtualize our world, enhance our technology or distribute our business models, human beings rely on far too much subtle, contextual information when we interact with people. Unless or until we have a solution that can convey body language, tone of voice and even things like smell, face-to-face will still be the most effective way to engender trust and build a relationship with someone.

Scott’s point is a great one: we should always remember that one size does not fit all, especially when what we are really trying to do is to build the trust necessary to close a sale.  Don’t make assumptions about what channel works best for what purposes.  Dig in and find out — and if you aren’t sure, then ask.  More than anything, though, make sure that you keep in mind that “content”=”communication” and that whether you are focused on your SEO or your weekly YouTube video, that content is a means to an end, and the “end” that will ultimately matter is a successful sale.

Scott’s analogy, to “think like an editor” is an interesting one (and nicely non-threatening). In the end, though, his point ultimately amounts to “think like a good salesperson.”

This is a topic I discuss with entrepreneurs a great deal. Since my business is about helping other businesses design and develop a successful web presence, what is happening online is something that is critical for me to stay current about. But I often find that some business owners (especially outside of the tech sector) are reluctant to trade in their WSJ subscription for a good RSS reader.

Here are the top three things I hear on this topic from entrepreneurs:

I don’t know where to start
This is actually the easiest one of all the responses I frequently get — and it’s usually one of the first things I do with a client. Start with the same publications that you would read in an offline setting — they all have websites, and many of them have a lot of content that is only available on the web. Use that as a starting point.

And then follow the trails. Is there an author who wrote something that you particularly like? Google them. Even money says they have their own blog, or they blog on several different locations on related topics — any one of which are also likely to be relevant topics for you.

Do they mention a person, business or recent study that interests you? Do another search, and see who else is talking about it. Odds are that if someone is talking about one thing that is of interest to you, they are also likely to have a track record of discussing other things of interest to you.

It takes too long
My response to this one varies: yes, it can be tremendously time consuming. But the truth is, if you were looking to be truly well-informed (on any topic) twenty years ago, it still would have been time consuming. In fact, it would have been worse.

Yes, it requires an investment. And yes, you need to figure out where the line is between “investing your time” and getting caught in a “temperal vortex.” But, again, that’s true of almost anything. The best way to manage this is to have goals around the information you are seeking. And then to be ruthless with yourself and your schedule: cut out the useless noise that simply distracts you.

In his book The 4-Hour Work Week, author Tim Ferriss talks about a ‘low information diet.’ Even as someone who consumes a huge amount of information on a daily basis, I still consider this one of the most sound pieces of advice I’ve ever read. I routinely go through my RSS feeder and purge out blogs I no longer read, or ones that are on topics that no longer hold my interest (or represent a critical function of my business).

Clay Shirky talks a lot about how human beings have lived in a state of “information overload” for several centuries (ever since more books were printed than a person could ever be capable of reading in a single lifetime). The key to managing that, he says, is your filters. Knowing what to filter, how to filter it and when to update them to continue performing the way you need. This is especially true when it comes to consuming “news” online.

The bottom line: it will be as time consuming as you allow it to be — just like anything else.

The credibility of the sources is too iffy
This is the response that tends to actually make me chuckle the most, because the I have always found the credibility of traditional media so iffy, that I am stunned to be reminded that many people considered them inscrutable.

In a world where anyone can sign up for a Blogger or WordPress account and start publishing anything they want, yes, you absolutely need to be discerning in your information consumption habits. But the truth is, a smart information consumer also knows that you need to do the same if you are watching CNN or FOX, or when you are reading the Wall St. Journal or BusinessWeek. All sources have their biases, and none deserve unconditional trust.

Online or offline, you should never automatically trust everything you read with impunity. The blogosphere is no different. The key is in looking for people coming from places or saying things that you feel comfortable trusting (to some degree) and then follow the breadcrumbs, and look up the people they reference, interview or generally find to be good, credible sources of information.

One of the greatest things about being an entrepreneur today is the amount of information that is readily available to you, in almost any fields of study you could want. I’m constantly amazed at the sheer number of people who do not take advantage of that face, and often because they think it’s harder to find value in it than it really is.

The last thing I tell entrepreneurs on this topic is the same piece of advice I give them on all others: when in doubt, ask someone whose opinion you trust. We live in a word-of-mouth world. So start with the people you respect, and go from there.

As we march forward into 2010, businesses need to recognize that a lot has changed from the early days of the web.  What was once under the strict purview of elusive technophiles, has morphed into the purview of marketing, and is now shifting again into the hands of the every-person.

It’s an exciting time to be on the web.  Finding your voice and expressing that to your customers is more important than ever.  Do you know how to put your best foot forward?

Alora speaks with Jonas Lamis of Tech Ranch about web marketing strategies for startups and personal branding.

I still vividly remember client phone calls in which executives on the other end of the phone could barely contain their disdain, because — in their view — the web was a fad that would eventually fade away, and there was no reason for them to invest anything in it at all. Obviously, even the most die-hard ludites have eventually capitulated to the realities of an online world and succumbed to the importance of the web for the survival and growth of their business.

One of the most critical lessons we have learned over the years, though, is how to get better about separating out the technical parts of a solution, so that it no longer takes hand-coding HTML in order to update content. The advent of the straight-forward, open source CMS is one of the greatest things that could have ever happened to small business.

Of course, with power comes the power to make mistakes — and in a world where your customer’s first impression of you is often your website, that means that developing an appropriate and aesthetically pleasing website is vital to your online success, even if your core business is not web-based.

Indigo Heron is excited to announce the launch of a new set of products and services tailored to meet this need. In addition to our consulting services, designed to provide this capability for our clients, we are now also developing the training needed to help clients understand the basics, and learn to self-serve as much as they would like to tackle on their own. Training will be available in class settings, on-site private sessions for your team, or online.

Training services will focus on:

• Getting a straight-forward CMS implemented
• Configuring the most relevant widgets and add-ons appropriate for your site
• Organizing your content to support good Information Architecture practices
• Understanding SEO’s most vital Do’s and Don’t's
• Writing strong SEO-friendly site copy
• The basics of online marketing and advertising
• Social media tools, how to use them and when
• eCommerce best practices, technologies and solutions
• Website hosting needs, considerations and options

As always, Indigo Heron is available to provide any of these services (and more) to companies in need, but we also realize that for the best possible on-going care and management of your website, a basic understanding of how things work and why cannot be skipped or assumed.

If you are interested in joining an upcoming training session, or in having us come on-site to your business to provide training for you, your team, or your group, please contact us.