How do I get 3X pipeline coverage?
Timothy "Tim" Hughes 提姆·休斯 L.ISP
Should have Played Quidditch for England
I talk to many businesses that have a pipeline problem.?They know that something is wrong but are not sure what to do about it.?Some of the solutions we have seen are:-
1. Making more?cold calls?...?I don't take cold calls?and it's something I hear more and more.?When people are honest with me, they tell me that?cold calling just does not work anymore.?
2. Send more emails?... you like me,?probably laugh at the sales people who send these?templated emails, written in a way that nobody reads.?Like cold calling, nobody reads them anymore.
If we know that people don't take cold calls and we know that?emails?don't work, why do we think that making more calls or sending more emails is going to help us?
3. The?LinkedIn?trainers?... I was asked to do some?"hints and tips"?training the other day on?LinkedIn?and turned the business down.?Ask anybody whose had Linkedin training what they got from it and they always say "nothing".?
4. We will figure digital out?... This is where either the?sales?people or?sales enablement?are asked to figure being digital out.?Hope was never a strategy.
5. We will?spam?our way out of the problem?... Often in the area of figuring out?social, people think that?social selling?means selling on social.?And so what happens is?the salesforce is asked to spam people, destroying their networks and any goodwill you have in the marketing.?
6. Post?brochures?and hope?... Another, option we see is often called?"employee advocacy"?this is where companies ask employees to post brochures and?brochureware?on social.?My advice is to go onto to social and see how much engagement you get by doing this.?Little or none,?in fact you are training the Linkedin algorithm to ignore you.?
We need to do something different
If we want to get fit and lose weight we go to the gym, eating more doughnuts isn't going to help us.?When we go to the gym, having a two hour hints and tips session isn't going to help us either.
We need a methodology
Sales is a process and if we follow steps, we get results.
This is where we are different from Linkedin trainers and "social selling" trainers.
We offer you a methodology and a change to the way you work.?A change, which removes the pre-pandemic thinking and gets your sales teams back contributing.?
What is social selling?
Here at?DLA Ignite, we define social selling as
"Using your presence and behavior on Social Media to build influence,
make connections, grow relationships and trust, which leads to
conversation and commercial interaction."
It's not?witchcraft, it's?enabling your salespeople to work from?home, (or the?office) and create conversations with prospects and customers.?Conversations on social media and conversations that convert.?
The problem with the name "social selling" is that people think that this is selling on social.?All these pitches that you get on social are not social selling, they are spam.
The other thing you need to know about?social selling?is that this isn't about "putting out some videos" or "putting flowers on your profile" or "going viral" this?is about revenue, EBITDA, you winning business from the competition and having a competitive advantage.?
With anything you do on social there are two questions you need to ask
1. How many leads / meetings / conversations will I get from this post / blog / activity?
2. How much revenue / EBITDA am I getting as a business?
So who's social selling?
In case you missed it, the?Bank of America’s Merrill Lynch?have?banned cold calling?and have moved all their people to?social selling. This isn't some trendy tech company that might have decided to do this on a whim, this is a very conservative financial services company that has made a decision based on data.
But surely cold calling has a better ROI than social selling??Not according to Merrill Lynch.
"They will also be encouraged to contact prospects over LinkedIn, which has a higher hit rate than cold calling"
The?CRO?(chief revenue officer),?Richard Eltham?of?Namos Solutions, of one of clients posted a comment on LinkedIn about?social selling. See?here.
“Social selling is not an option now it is the way of the world and you either learn and execute it or fear getting left behind”?
Kevin Murray?who is the Head of Sales at?MacArtney?Underwater Technology recently posted about his success with social selling?here?and wrote an article about the transformation that has happened in sales?here.
Andrew Ferrier?who is the?CEO?of?Display Technology?Ltd and in this?article?it talks about why?Display Technology?have adopted social selling.?His team have also created a social media strategy with help from our partner,?Crux.
Their social media mission statement is
“We want to position ourselves as a forward-thinking, knowledgeable team of individuals who are all experts in our own right, therefore, collectively awesome!”
Andrew also says in that post
"Adopting this (social selling) strategy has taken all of us well outside of our comfort zones but the rewards we have seen in a short period of time have created an excitement within the business development team (new term for sales team).
Because of the nature of social media, quite often you can get instant results.?Even if that is just a comment left on your post, or a like, or someone taking the time to want to connect with you.
The excitement around the sales team is infectious, it’s no longer a chore to reach out to the market place?because the results can be instant and are there, right in front of you."
What sort of results can you expect?
If you check out this?video?of?Chris Mason?CEO at?Oracle?reseller?Namos, fast forward to 19 minutes 55 seconds. Chris talks about a?$2.6 million win from being on social, after completing the?DLA Ignite?social selling and influence course.?
Here at?DLA Ignite, we work with our partners such as?Crux,?Little Bird Marketing,?Funnel Amplified,?Accelery,?EDPE Consultants, etc. We are the only social selling and influence company in the world to offer a certificate provided by an independent qualification body (OfQual) and sponsored by the?Institute of Sales Professionals?(ISP).
Other articles you might be interested in ....
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Articles about Employee advocacy
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Our VP of Sales Just got 83 likes on a LinkedIn post, so that means we are social selling? No!
Because life’s too short to buy cheap guitars.
3 年It is amazing to me (and you I know) that when organisations are doing an activity that doesn't work they often think the solution is to do more of the activity rather than change the activity they're doing. I believe Einstein had a particularly apposite quote about that!
Developing people and organisations to become leaders in their sectors - Digital Commercial Strategist, Sales trainer - TedX Speaker / Coach - Keynote speaker, event host/compere/moderator - Artist
3 年Tips and tricks and 'get you seen' afternoons...I guess it makes people feel good that they are 'doing something to do with social' but at some point to board is going to want hard results...