The commercial communication in the company has one objective: that in the market everyone respects you, and that consequently many love you and buy you.
With the rise of technology, and a hyper-connected market, the impact that business communication activities have on results in the commercial or sales area has increased.
Thus, communication has an increasingly relevant role in procurement processes. Even more so if we think of businesses with an important online component.
The salesperson, a communicator that generates trust and emotion
In any business, but even more so in B2B business between companies, generating a relationship of trust is key.
And for this in commercial communication it is essential that the issuer, that the company and its sellers do and comply with what they say, and also be as transparent as possible.
Trust generates credibility and that’s where repetition, loyalty, prescription and recommendation come from.
When good communication is capable of raising trust in the recipient, a virtuous circle is generated, enhancing the relationship between investment in communication and business results.
And there is no trust if there is no emotion.
Trust between sender and receiver, good personal and social communication between seller and client, allows emotional selling.
The customer trusts that where he has a problem the seller offers him a solution. And thus the decision of a purchase is shortened.
That is why there is more and more talk about personal branding and the role and skills that a member of a commercial organization must develop as an emotional brand ambassador.
For the client, without participation there is no emotion, nor is there sufficient interest or expectation. That is why in commercial communication with the client it is important to avoid personalization, to go from “me” to “us” to gain their trust.
The client is the protagonist of communication
The personal factor of the client is the starting point of communication, and the company must give prominence to the client in its communication.
The client is not only the recipient of communication, but is the medium, the channel through which it occurs.
The client is also a source of prescription and criticism. Something that technology has enhanced to infinity.
Today the client is social, connected, immediate, clear, informed, critical, direct, impatient, unfaithful, influential and influenceable.
The current client is complex, controls the sales process, the times.
He takes his time, shares information, decides many times jointly, blocks sales techniques that do not interest him, demands customization, agility, price.
A message with which to count benefits and experiences
Within commercial communication, the message must be a source of authentic and useful information so that the client can decide.
Commercial communication must be promoted through the case, the experience, saying and explaining what is done and how it is done. Telling the news builds credibility, trust, and excitement.
Communication should focus in a simple and concise way on competitive advantages and benefits, beyond the description of product or service characteristics.
The message should help build in the mind of the recipient, the client, a brand linked to an idea, a territory, even other brands.
The communication policy should be to create value of intangible assets, and confront the competition.
When we sell an extensive range of products and services, when the values of one prevail over the other, it is difficult to create brand territory. That is why clarity in how we call and describe them is important.
The means by which we communicate is omnichannel and technological
Today, commercial communication, marketing and traditional sales are no longer understood without digital support and its multiple possibilities in terms of channels, devices, measurement tools, registration, etc.
On many occasions, communication and the virtual business relationship (online) predominate and precede the face-to-face (offline). Although both complement each other and have the advantage of being able to integrate.
The overall digital behavior of customers is a new model, and the technology generation is a new generation and a new segment.
The digital customer sees, feels and benefits. He wants to be and must be the center.
Companies and their clients interact, relate, both naturally and spontaneously, as well as highly planned. Both through different channels (telephone, e-mail, chats, social networks, forms, webinars, teleconferences, video conferences, etc.) and through different devices (console, laptop, tablet, mobile, etc.). This is what is called “multi-channel”.
The risk of multi-channeling is immediacy, heterogeneity, or the lack of consistency in the behavior of companies and customers when they use the different channels to communicate. The customer, and the seller, at all times prefer one over the other, for convenience, speed, security, etc.
That is why it is better to talk about “omnichannel” communication versus “multichannel”. With the first, the company uses the different channels with a strategic vision of the relationship with the client, in a homogeneous, unique and consistent way.
In omnichannel, the customer experience is positive, unique and independent of the channel throughout the entire journey of the relationship and the purchase decision.
Omnichannel poses the challenge of all the factors at play that must be addressed and integrated into communication.
In commercial communication it is important to take care of your reputation, aesthetics, corporate image, language, properly manage content, keywords, styles, tones, shapes, etc., etc.
It is also important that business intelligence is generated in commercial communication, that information and customer data are properly managed.
The communication process should produce benefits in terms of traceability and knowledge about the behavior of the interlocutors and their personality, about whether we adjust to their times, and we are there when the opportunity arises.
It is also key that, as far as possible, the automation of commercial communication processes is designed, which facilitate usability, customer service and encourage participation and proactivity.
In short, the calls to action that direct the customer towards the sale.
NOTE. This article is an adaptation and excerpt of my final course work within the super-sellers ABC program of the EDEM business school

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