Let me explain one of your digital weaknesses I’m coaching your competition to exploit so you lose more deals
Timothy "Tim" Hughes 提姆·休斯 L.ISP
Should have Played Quidditch for England
On Sunday 30th January I watched the highlights of the final of the?Australian open, which was?Rafael Nada?against?Daniil Medvedev, which?Rafael Nada?went onto win.?
It was a lazy?Sunday, Grandma loves the?tennis?and it was great to sit there and listen to her running commentary. It got me thinking.
I’m not a Tennis player, but I did play?Badminton?in my youth, so I understand?racquet?based sports on a court.?
We all exploit our oppositions weaknesses
In amateur sports, the same in professional sports, competitors watch the game. Why? Because you?can work out a?competitive?strategy.?I remember playing a?Badminton?contest and I watched the game before me as I would play the winner.?
By watching I could see that one player wasn’t very fit and didn’t like running from one side of the?court?to the other. The other one, didn’t like shots near the net.?The guy didn't like running from side to side across the court won and was my opponent.?
You guessed it.?The person who didn’t like running across the court, spent the whole game against me being sent by me from the left side of the court to the right.??I exploited his weakness.
By the time I was 7 points up and it was clear he was tiring, he had run out of power for smashes from the back of the court. So, yes you guessed it, he was sent running around the court by me, missing the return of my smashes.?
By the way, don’t think I’m some ace Badminton player, I too have my weaknesses which he was exploiting. We all do it.?We do it in sport and we do it in business.?
Back to the Melbourne open final
Back to the Rafael Nada Vs Daniil Medvedev match, it was clear to me that Medvedev, (who is a great player by the way, we saw him at?Wimbledon?in 2021, demolish his opposition), start miss judging returns to the back of the caught. Rafael, spotted this and exploited it.?
Miss judging is easy, nerves, tiredness, adrenaline can all make an impact to judgement. Enough to be spotted by the opposition and exploited so you lose.
What on earth has this got to do with social and digital?
The whole of your company, the leaders, sales force etc, is on?social. Here at?DLA Ignite?we can work out your digital maturity or digital immaturity.?
We can work out how social or analogue your business is.?
We can see and understand the culture of your business from your profiles on social.?
We can especially spot an analogue business a mile off, and have a list of sales tactics that will metaphorically pull the rug from under them.?
We can literally use your social presence against you.?
Let’s not forget we don’t do?“hints and tips”?or?“LinkedIn?training”?here at?DLA Ignite,?we don’t do pissing about on social.?
We train and coach you how to find and win more deals and win more deals than your competition.?
All with social and digital.?
But it isn’t about providing your team with a sales methodology, it’s also about giving you the skill to spot the competition’s weaknesses on social and digital and exploiting them.
If your completion has a poor back hand, we give you the techniques to spot it and exploit it … not to come second, but to win.?
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).
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Our VP of Sales Just got 83 likes on a LinkedIn post, so that means we are social selling? No!
Socia Perú. Marketing y comunicaciones para firmas de abogados, desde la mirada de abogados y la experiencia de los clientes.
3 年I like so much your posts Timothy (Tim) Hughes, direct to the vein as we say in Spanish... building up my social selling library with your written ideas. Will re-join the DLA tribe virtual meetings after my #legaldirectories deadline....
Does your social media reflect the expert you are? I help experts & leaders turn social media into an asset that amplifies their brand, attracts the right people & supports business growth. (Sometimes post about ducks.)?
3 年This is excellent!
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If an organisations Social Media activity is not directly linked to a desired improvements result...they are spinning their wheels.
Member of Camara Internacional da Indústria de Transportes (CIT) at The International Transportation Industry Chamber
3 年Thanks for posting
Creating safe spaces to enable individuals and teams to learn, grow and develop. When not doing that cycling, reading and drinking wine...
3 年Always like those connections between sports and business Timothy, thanks for sharing. For me a lot of what you draw on is related to mindset and approach, which I think are the true differentiators here. If you haven’t read it already I recommend former tennis player Tim Gallways book ‘The Inner Game of Tennis’ which further builds on this link.