What got you here wont get you there...(the analogue to digital business transformation).

I speak to a lot of sales people from different industries. A recurring theme is that they work for organisations who don’t see the value in moving to digital, "I've tried to explain to the senior team but they are not interested". The sales person is aware of the shift and gets it but, isn’t supported at at senior level, so nothing happens.

With all of the uncertainty in the job market these days, these people who would have normally moved on, are hunkering down and hanging on to their jobs. Meanwhile, as the client base has moved to digital, these sales people are ‘staying analogue’ and becoming invisible.

The days of relying on the client push to guarantee revenues are changing, perhaps changed forever. Every individual involved in sales, needs to be in marketing, for themselves and their company’s products and services.

Digital isn’t something for the future – its here and now and Covid 19 has accelerated the need.

So what can we do in the next 90 days to get back on track?

First.... We Need a Strategy

The strategy session is about getting the leadership team together with the internal influencers and harnessing the brainpower. 

First you need to understand the problem, the "as is", then brainstorm the "to be". We need to get it all on the table to understand the issues in terms of the people, the process and the technology.

We need be where out clients are, on social.

Then we need a strong Methodology

Many organisations move from the stage of not knowing to "random acts of social". This is where there is a view that we "must get social" and social means posting on social media.

Modern selling is about three things:-

1. Our online profile

2. Our network.

3. Our content.

These are all interlinked. The modern buyer is looking for help, our online profile should offer them that help.

Our network is where we take our territory and place it online. 

Content is what our buyers are looking for. We must inspire, educate and delight in order to get relevant attention and create real, value connections.

Move to Digital - The Business Case

To justify getting people into supporting your social selling programme, here is an example for the business case:

If the training, methodology and strategy are followed, we expect each of the people we train in social selling to be able to make at least one additional meeting per week. Let’s assume that 4 of those meetings turn into proposals, and you close 1 of those proposals. That means you are closing one additional deal per quarter. If your average deal size is ￡100,000, then each sales person is closing an additional ￡400,000 per year. As sales team of 5 will create ￡2 million in additional sales per annum.  This isn’t a one off, this is every year.

?A Low Risk Approach

I've been training for the last 3 months with DLA Ignite who have been transforming companies to use social and digital for four years. Together we have the track record that can help you, we also know what when we combine 30 years of Energy Sector knowledge and social selling programs, the results are repeatable and predictable. This is a low risk strategy.

You may be still be on the fence, the McKinsey article below might sway your opinion…..

{By now, most C-suite executives have led their companies to digitize at least some part of their business to protect employees and serve customers facing mobility restrictions as a result of the COVID-19 crisis. As one CEO of a large tech company recently stated, “We are witnessing what will surely be remembered as a historic deployment of remote work and digital access to services across every domain.”}

 https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/mckinsey-digi

If you need help and want to transform your organisation to social maturity and modern selling, lets have a conversation.

Eric Doyle

Crux