Who wouldn't like to learn how to turbo charge your sales growth? #SSF

As outlined in my book (The Future of the Sales Profession), B2B sales will never be the same again. The role of the B2B sales person is evolving much faster than I had ever imagine, and when you look at the role that technology is now playing, it is crystal clear that sales people (moreover sales leaders) need to wake up. 

“By 2020, customers will manage 85% of their relationship with their suppliers without interacting with a human”  (Gartner)

Everywhere you look in the B2C world, technology is increasingly enabling customers to ‘self-serve’, and this is the critical point – customers PREFER to buy, rather than be ‘sold’ to. They want the fastest and most cost-effective solution to their problem, and ‘self-service’ often allows customers to not only lower their cost of acquisition (significantly) by conducting their own product research and purchases online, but they can also remove the need to speak with one of those outdated and biased sales people whom wreak of 'commission breath', and whom often fail to bring any valuable insights.

So, if you want to improve your sales conversion ratio's (and let’s face it, you have to) then you’ll need to start looking at how some of these new tools can assist you in gleaning and synthesizing the right information, and then disseminating that information through the right channels, to the right people, at the right time in the buying journey - creating ‘buying stage appropriate’ messaging in order to cut through and differentiate.

“We're in an AI spring. I think for every company, the revolution in data science will fundamentally change how we run our business because we're going to have computers aiding us in how we're interacting with our customers”.  Salesforce CEO, Marc Benioff

The Power of Social Engagement:

As Justin Roff-Marsh so eloquently states: “field sales was fine when the buyer resided in the field, but the buyer now resides online”. Of course, this quote begs the question: how, and where are you engaging with your buyers?

Because of this undeniable trend it's no surprise that ‘social selling’ is probably the single hottest topic today in the world of B2B sales. First, social media allows you to maintain an ongoing dialogue with your current and potential customers. Sometimes this will be in bite sized 140-character chunks, and sometimes this will be in thought leadership pieces of several thousand words. Second, social media opens the scale and frequency of how you communicate, giving you the opportunity to remain top-of-mind even when customers aren’t ready to buy. Third, social media allows you to 'listen' and learn about your target buyers tastes and preferences. Armed with this information, you can then leverage social platforms to get valuable 'content' into the hands of your target buyers, and I'm certain that the high performing sales people in 2017 and beyond will connect the right 'content' with the right person at the right time, via the right channel....and this is what drives that wonderfully valuable and highly sought after ‘inbound’.

Remembering that only 3% of your TAM is ever in a buying window at any given point in time (Chet Holmes – Ultimate Sales Machine). Thus, being top-of-mind when potential customers are ready to buy, means that you’ll be the first person they think of (as well as the first person they contact). Nurture, nurture, and then nurture some more.

Sales Leaders: "you need to ‘wake the ____ up"

There is no question that sales people whom are now embracing social selling, along with a new 'mobile mindset', are delivering larger sales more often and faster than ever before. However, for some strange reason I still see far too many sales leaders that believe that social is a "waste of selling-time". These so-called leaders still prefer to cling desperately to those outdated regimes that once made them successful whilst totally ignoring the fact that the buyer has evolved. Seriously?

If you are working for one of these old-school sales leaders, then don’t worry too much….they won’t be around for long. The fact is that no sales person (or leader) can afford to sit idly by as your prospects and customers go online to discover, search, acquire and consume products and services. Social media is not just a fad; it’s an increasingly important medium through which you MUST engage with your target buyers. It’s proven to be incredibly valuable for sales people who embrace it and use it correctly, and I’m living proof. SalesTribe (my business) has not yet had to engage in any proactive outreach – all thanks to social media.

So, if you are not embracing social media in your daily sales activities then make no mistake, you are being left behind. Your career longevity now depends on you becoming competent with all of these new tools and platforms and you must start learning how they can enhance your customers’ buying experience. Can you imagine a builder who decided to ignore those ‘newfangled nail guns’ and instead decided to stick with his hammer?

My good friend, Mr Loic Simon has created the amazing #SocailSellingForum for all of the above reasons. To help business people learn to understand the ‘why’ and the ‘how’ of social selling. I’m personally very excited to be helping Loic facilitate the very first #SocailSellingForum here in Australia later this month, and if you are now wondering how you can accelerate your sales growth then you should look no further than: #SSF. There maybe one near you in the very near future:

To my Australian readers, grab your tickets fast…this whole day event is now selling: www.socialsellingforum.com

By Graham Hawkins

About the Author

With more than twenty-eight years of experience, Graham Hawkins is B2B sales specialist with a contemporary view on how ‘sales’ must now align to the new customer-led era. Graham has recently authored two books on B2B sales – the most recent being ‘The Future of the Sales Profession, which is now an Amazon International Best Seller.

Graham is also the Founder & CEO of SalesTribe, and he can be contacted by emailing ‘[email protected]’

SalesTribe

SalesTribe is the first business of its kind (globally) which has been designed specifically to assist B2B sales people, many of whom now require career guidance and access to new career opportunities. 

SalesTribe also helps small businesses get access to flexible 'on-demand' sales resources to help accelerate growth, reduce 'time-to-revenue' and to shift fixed costs to variable costs. 

• Sales people need new opportunities. 
• Small businesses need access to ‘on-demand’ sales best practices.
• SalesTribe makes those connections.