I just finished reading the excellent book “The New Rules of Marketing and PR” by David Meerman Scott. The book is written for business leaders who want to use newer techniques, such as blogs, podcasting, viral marketing and online media to reach their buyers directly.

And, many of the newer techniques focus on what I would call indirect selling; Generating interest in you and what you do, without the blatant sales pitch. If the techniques are used well, buyers will come to you- not the other way around.

Although the book is geared towards marketing at the “company level”, the ideas and techniques described are very applicable to Sales teams including Sales Leaders or Sales Reps. Using these techniques could help you build credibility, reach new contacts and ultimately generate sales leads.

Are You Google Worthy?

If a prospective customer Googled you instead of your company name what would they find? Wouldn’t it be great if your prospect or important customer found thought provoking, industry relevant blog posts, intelligent answers to questions posted on business forums or interesting “How To” videos and podcasts?

Here are a few examples of how Sales Professionals can use the new rules of marketing and PR:

Da Blogs

There are a lot of blogs out there written by CEOs, senior leaders or sales training guys and gals. I have rarely come across a blog written by a successful salesperson specifically geared towards marketing themselves and indirectly, their current product set. (With the exception of independent Real Estate Agents and Financial Planners, who often have their own blogs.)

For example, let’s assume you are a salesperson at Cruzan Software and your target customers are Marketing Managers in Financial Services. Why not set up a blog called:

“Susan at Cruzan, Helping Marketing Managers In Financial Services Drive Sales & Improve ROI”

After ensuring you don’t violate any company or customer confidentiality or legal rules, you could write about how you’ve worked with customers to solve their business problems and the measurable outcomes. You could interview a few of your customers and have them share their success stories. You could also write about other topics unrelated to Cruzan software, that your target audience (Marketing Managers in Financial Services) would find interesting and valuable. After your blog has enough relevant content- search engines, other blogs and websites should start sending you traffic. You could also generate your own traffic through LinkedIn, commenting on other bogs, Tweeting etc.

If you don’t want to manage an ongoing blog, another option is to write a Guest Post for someone else’s blog. Do some online searches to find blogs that tie to your area of expertise, think up a few ideas for blog post topics and email the blog host. Most bloggers are open to others helping them build content on their site. And, guest blog posts- like your own blog posts- will show up in search engine results.

It takes minutes to set up a blog, the basic services are free and they are very easy to maintain. You just need a little time, creativity and strong business writing skills. (You may want to check out the article: “How Blogs drive more sales than social media sites” By Heidi Cohen)

Become a Groupie

There are online groups for just about every hobby, interest and profession. A salesperson leveraging the new rules of marketing would join groups that tie in to their product or service, then actively participate in discussions WITHOUT directly selling or mentioning their product.

For example, if you are a salesperson for a CRM software company, you may want to join groups for Marketing or IT senior leaders- the users of your product lines. If you are a salesperson for an email marketing company that focuses on small business, you may want to join the Chamber of Commerce groups in your geographic territory.

As members post questions or discussion topics, spend the time to provide interesting, valuable answers to their questions. If you know of an important event or webinar coming up, you can post that to the news section. Your goal, similar to blogging, is to establish credibility, build relationships, meet new contacts and increase your online presence. (You are not there to directly sell.)

Video Killed The Radio Star

If you go to YouTube or other online video libraries you’ll find thousands of business focused, How To videos. If you go to iTunes, you’ll find thousands of business focused Podcasts.

Why not make your own? The possible topics are endless.. You could create your own How To video for your product or service. You could share your favorite customer success stories. You could interview industry experts etc. And, you could record a video or Podcast that compliments one of your blog posts.

YouTube allows you to upload videos, add detailed descriptions and links, then share them with the public. The videos don’t need to be movie theatre quality, but they should look good, the sound should be synched with the movement and it should look like the person speaking was well prepared.

To drive some traffic, you can link your video(s) or podcasts to your blog, mention them in online group posts and even attach them to your LinkedIn profile if appropriate. And, if you change your mind, you can delete videos from YouTube with one click.

I am a MAC girl and my MACbook Pro comes with easy to use software (Photo Booth, iLife) that allows me to make my own videos or Podcasts. I’m sure the other guy (Microsoft) has similar products available that you can use at home.

You Forgot Social Media!!

I’ve skipped the “new rules” topic of using social media sites like Twitter because there are many other blog posts on this topic. Check out:

“30 Simple Ways To Supercharge Your Effectiveness on Twitter”, by Julie Ann Amos

“Twitter, Building Businesses Tweet By Tweet“, By Jeremy Quittner

“5 Steps for Using LinkedIn as a Lead Generation Tool” By Brian Carrol

“Can LinkedIn Increase Your Sales?” By Jill Konrath

“How to use Facebook To Generate Sales Leads”, By Wanda Grindstaff