Helping is the New Selling!



Jay Baer (Twitter: @JayBaer ) often says that the difference between helping and selling is just two letters. He's right, HP and SL. In today's world, these two letters make monumental difference when it comes to your sales figures and customer retention. When you are selling, you are pretty much yelling in your consumers' ears. It just doesn't work anymore. We have gotten really good at blocking all the unwanted noise (regardless of what form it is in ... banner ads, videos, posters, etc.). Helping is where the future lies.

Did you know that B2B consumers make up 70% of their mind whether to purchase a product or not before they call a salesperson? People don't need selling and convincing from a salesperson today. The Web and Social Media does that for them. They only need the salesperson to help them purchase the product and make the transaction as easy and painless as possible.

So, how do you find people to help?

Twitter is one of the best ways to find people to help. Twitter Search (www.Twitter.com/Search) is a fantastic for that. If you are a CPA, search for terms like "looking for an accountant", "need to do taxes", "tax software", etc. Put yourself in your clients shoes and think what would they tweet? Then use those phrases to begin your search with.

Gary Vaynerchuk (Twitter: @GaryVee) recently wrote an article titled, "13 Tweets a Real Estate Agent Should Have Answered, Not Me". In there, he shows you how to break through the noise and find people to help.

Hilton is another great example. Through their Twitter account (@HiltonHHonors), Hilton helps people with all kinds of things. If someone is looking for a job in a new city, they refer job sites to them. If someone is looking for a place to eat, they give out recommendations.

How does helping people help ME sell and make money?

Believe it or not, but psychology states that if you help people or make their life easier in someway, they look for ways to repay your kindness. Hilton's philosophy is that, everyone rents hotel rooms every now and then. If Hilton continues helping people, then one day when people are looking for a hotel to stay a night or two, Hilton will be the first thing that comes to their mind. In other words, Hilton is occupying a share of its customers' mind-space by helping them.

Jay Baer calls this YOUTILITY. In fact, he has written a whole NY-Times Bestseller about this - "YOUTILITY - Why Smart Marketing is about Help, not hype ". The idea is rather than customers hunting for "utilities" to solve their questions and problems, YOU become that "Youtility" for them. It's marketing turned upside-down. Rather than inviting customers to your business, take your business to your customers.

Youtility gives the brand that extra edge that allows it to ultimately sell more by "selling" less. - Jay Baer

Big brands have the ability to spend millions of dollars to get big results. It's a tad-bit difficult for Small business owners like you and me to shell out millions for a 30-second Superbowl Ad. So, we turn to the next big thing, social media. But, some business owners are having a difficult time figuring out how to generate new business with social media as well. Hopefully, not anymore. Find people to help and help them with their needs.

With all my heart, I believe it's the secret to winning in social media.

Now, a question for you

What do you think? Is helping really the new selling? Or is it just a hype that will die down until something new comes around? Post your answers in the comments below.