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This is the debut episode of This Old New Business weekly podcast with Jeff Korhan.

Each 30 minute episode features sales and marketing experts sharing how businesses today are successfully taking their traditional or “old” practices for building profits, and making them new again.

It should not come as a surprise that they are doing this by successfully adapting to a digital, social, and global environment. So, if your business is wants to learn first-hand what works for growing a business today, then you are in the right place.

Our Featured Guest: John Jantsch

John Jantsch is the founder of The Duct Tape Marketing System, and a recognized small business expert. He is the author of a number of books, including Duct Tape Marketing, The Referral Engine, The Commitment Engine, and recently released, Duct Tape Selling: Think Like a Marketer – Sell Like a Superstar.

Marketing is the New Selling

The role of the salesperson has evolved into much more than offering information, because these days the Internet gives them access to nearly perfect information for solving their own problems .

“A Corporate Executive Board (CEB) study of more than fourteen hundred B2B customers across industries revealed that 57 percent of a typical purchase decision is made before a customer even talks to a supplier. This same CEB study also found that 53 percent of those surveyed claimed that the sales experience itself was one of the greatest contributing factors in continued loyalty to the brand.”  Excerpted from Duct Tape Selling

John says what buyers really need is a proactive sales guide that helps them cut through the sales and marketing clutter to stay ahead of industry trends.

Getting to know the customer journey is vital for then helping them identify the problems they didn’t even realize they had. Now that relationships with buyers often start online, this is clearly the role of both marketing and sales, and is one reason why the line between the two is increasingly blurred.

Superstars Build Digital Marketing Assets

If superstar selling is attributable to educating and informing with content marketing and social media, then this is rightfully the domain of marketers and sellers alike. Since the sales team more than likely is more intimate with customers, its input for building digital marketing assets is invaluable.

The one thing that any salesperson can do to help their customer is assuming responsibility for building digital marketing assets. While this involves additional work , it builds the value of his or her personal brand, along with that of the organization.

John suggested a number of ways for getting started building your digital platform, including organizing Twitter lists of journalists and leaders in your industry. Curate information they are sharing in blogs and articles with Feedly.  Research prospects on LinkedIn and use Hootsuite to engage and learn who they can introduce you too.

Smart Sellers are Collaborators

Better identifying the problems buyers really have to help them attain something even better than they had imagined is ideally a collaboration, as opposed to selling in the traditional sense.

This means using your digital media to show up early and connect, and then finding ways to stay engaged with customers after the sale to make sure they get the results that you promised them. If you expect referrals and repeat business, this should become part of your selling process.

John says the role of the salesperson is evolving into a collaborator that engages prospective buyers with their companies, effectively becoming an extension of marketing and service.

There’s really nothing new about this, except for how it is accomplished in this digital, social, and global environment. You can learn more by picking up a copy of John’s new book.

Lighting Round Tips and Advice

John’s Top Sales or Marketing Advice – Forget about selling and just start delivering value.

His Favorite Productivity Tip – Take a 5-minute break for every hour of work and completely get away from what you are doing.

A Quote that has Inspired John’s Success – “Fix the problem – not the blame.”

Key Take-Aways

• Smart sellers succeed by building a process for intimately understanding the buyer’s journey.
• Successful selling today requires adapting to new methods for helping buyers.
• Connect with John and learn about The Duct Tape Marketing System at his online home at Duct Tape Marketing.
• Check out over 200 valuable digital resources at Duct Tape Selling.
• Learn how to implement John’s productivity tip using the Pomodoro Technique.
• Check out John highly previous book: The Referral Engine

How to Subscribe to This Old New Business

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How is your business adapting its selling practices to an environment where buyers have new expectations?

About the Author:  Jeff Korhan, MBA, is the author of Built-In Social: Essential Social Marketing Practices for Every Small Business and host of This Old New Business podcast. 

He helps mainstream businesses adapt their traditional growth practices to a digital world. Connect with Jeff on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Google+