The Truth Behind Linear Selling : Why It Can Make Prospects Run The Other Way

In the age of the internet, there is no longer one best way to market your goods and services. With the ubiquity of social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter, content marketing is now a primary concern in growing your company. One of the most successful companies in recent history, HubSpot, uses linear selling with their software called Inbound Marketing. They have been able to build a large brand with this tactic by using it effectively on its website and through social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter.

With linear selling, the salesperson leads his prospects through a linear process of education until he builds up his credibility. He continues to do this by sharing more and more relevant information to the prospect, until the time is right to make his sale. The concept of linear selling has been used for decades in other industries besides web marketing.

This philosophy can be used when building trust between sales people and their prospects as well as with customers and company employees. It gives a clear understanding of what a company is trying to accomplish by educating its consumer base on the most relevant details of why their product or service is worth purchasing. Linear selling is also incorporated into corporate culture. For example, IBM has a "Knowledge Organization" that commits to building trust between all employees and customers.

Through linear selling, the salesperson will continue to build trust with his prospects by dealing with them in a fair and ethical way. He will always act in accordance with the foundation of the company's values before making his sales pitch. A very simple example would be that if the CEO of HubSpot made a purchase through one of their competitors, he would never do so without writing it off completely if he valued his integrity as well as that of his company.

Another reason why linear selling works is because of the time it saves the salesperson and his customer. In this day and age, every second counts. Unfortunately, most salespeople often spend more time on a phone call with a prospect than they actually spend in selling or educating his customer. If you compare this to spending a minute teaching your prospect what you do, its clear that learning something new takes much less time than simply telling someone what they already know.

Competitors like Salesforce use "lean selling" to sell their software to their customers in a more streamlined manner. In lean selling, the salesperson will cover the most important aspects of their product in the quickest amount of time to allow the prospect to make a decision much quicker. They are only concerned with getting his decision so that they can get back to work and forget about him.

By using linear selling, you will build trust with your prospects by keeping them updated on how you are progressing. You will also be able to optimize your time by using it as your primary method of selling and even eliminating phone calls completely by emailing each prospect or contacting them through social media.

This has been one of the most practical post I've ever read on Hubspot blog. As a video marketing blogger. I found the tip on how to integrate video into your linear selling strategy very useful.

I really loved the fact that Hubspot is telling us how to sell our products and services without getting "salesy". No annoying sales pitch here, just straight talk with real examples and helpful insights!

I will definitely try some of the tips in setting up my social media accounts for my business as well as put linear selling into practice on my next call with a client or employee!

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INTRODUCTORY NOTE

The ideas in this post were originally inspired by a HubSpot webinar with Clay Claiborne, where he shared some of his insights on linear selling. You can view the entire webinar here: http://www.hubspot.com/web-presence/show/how-to-integrate-video-with-your-social-media

It was brought to my attention that the name of this post is very similar to an article that I have written before. In this post, I wrote about how to use Social Media and Marketing Video to do an interview on your website. You can read that article here: http://www.hubspot.com/blog/topic/use-social-media-marketing-video-to-do-an-interview

I hope you enjoyed my post! If you liked this post, take a second to share it with the buttons below! Hope this helps!

Best regards,

Alejandro 'Alex' González - Creative Video Blogger & Consultant - http://www.alexgonzalezvideoblog.com | http://youtube.com/alexgonzalezvideoblog

ContentMarketingExperts.com - http://www.ContentMarketingExperts.com | http://twitter.com/ContentMarketingE

Hubspot Blog - http://www.hubspotblog.com | http://twitter.com/hubspotblog

Also, I would like to thank Randy Tishman, HubSpot's President & CEO, for allowing me to republish his blogs here on Hubspot's blog! If you want to learn more about how HubSpot has been improving sales conversion over the last 10 years, read on!

Tama Tong’s Story: How HubSpot Used Marketing Video to increase Sales Conversion - http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tama-tong-story-how-hubspot-used-marketing-video-increase

HUBSPOT Design Studio - http://hubspotdesignstudio.com | http://twitter.com/hdsd

One thing I really liked about HubSpot's blog is that they share their learning stories with what HubSpot has accomplished and the tremendous impact it has had on the company and for the industry. You can read more about this here: http://www.hubspotblog.com/marketing-blog/how-video-can-help-convert-more-clients

Posted by Alex González at 6:18 PM No comments:

ContentMarketingExperts.com - http://www.ContentMarketingExperts.com | http://twitter.com/ContentMarketingE

Hubspot Blog - http://www.hubspotblog.com | http://twitter.com/hubspotblog

One of the biggest challenges that any person could have is trying to define their personality online and make a memorable impression to their audience – especially if you are a business owner looking to market your business online through social media and video marketing.

Conclusion

Social media and marketing video is one of the most powerful tools that you can use to communicate with your customers. You can learn how to integrate marketing video into your online marketing campaigns by reading HubSpot's post. If you want to learn more about social media and marketing video, I suggest you read on!

One thing I really liked about HubSpot's blog is that they share their learning stories with what HubSpot has accomplished and the tremendous impact it has had on the company and for the industry. You can read more about this here: http://www.hubspotblog.