Selling in the world of New Media

I'm sitting at work, reading through blog posts, catching up with what my peeps are doing, and I get an e-mail from a prominent SL business owner that he would like help will selling something (vague on purpose sorry). This is actually a common request, am I the only avatar in SL with a sales tag over their head? I don't know. Although he was aware of a recent transaction I brought to the world.

I've debated on multiple occasions of starting a sales consultancy of sorts, not just in SL but in real life too. I get at least 2 phone calls a week for advice on real estate. In this current market buyers and sellers alike are so reluctant to make a decision that they seek 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, etc, opinions (which as a broker working with them is so annoying). The only thing holding me back from doing it - is the rarity of a fee attached to such "advice" and it would be too time consuming to do with the current job. Although I find time to blog - maybe I need to re-hash this.

So after this e-mail I realized the concept of "selling" in the world of New Media is completely lost, the focus hasn't gone past the marketing stage. With the millions/billions of advertisements via blogs, podcasts, and videos out there can you ever really develop a relationship with the individual consumer? Let's say you hit a marketing campaign out of the park, it goes viral, sales are up 20%, whoo hooo. But wait, what are you going to do to retain these new costumers? If the increase in sales is so isolated, is that really a success? How do you develop the long term relationship and commitment to the brand?

It's not about having a website anymore, how many consumers trust the information on a company website? How much control does one have over the consumers actual opinion? How do you get on that personal level with the consumer, get their attention? Then once you do gather their attention how do you "wow" them and make the slam dunk?

It's also not about the sleazy guy in the cheap suit, the "guy" getting in with the boys club and making the locker room close or the sales executive with the flashy business degree and boring sales pitch.

Everything is changing, the new focus can't just be on marketing - that's the first step but once you have their attention you'll need a plan to actually do something? Wow what a concept.