Why in sales you need to do more than just "connect on LinkedIn"
Timothy "Tim" Hughes 提姆·休斯 L.ISP
Should have Played Quidditch for England
I often hear?sales ?people say
?"I even connected with the person on?LinkedIn ".
I have to be honest,?I'm not sure this actually buys you anything.
A connection on LinkedIn is just a connection on?LinkedIn ?and?I doubt it brings you closer to selling something.??LinkedIn , like everything in life, you get out what you put in.
Your?job ?on Linkedin is not to?"just connect"?but do get your prospects to?know ,?like ?and?trust ?you.?
Why? Because we buy from people we know like and trust.?
To get people to understand how you can help them, how you can solve their?business ?issues.?
Not by being salesy, but by providing business insight, help, educate them, entertain them, inspire them.?
You will find, and we have?data ?to prove it,?the more you share about yourself and the less you share about your company and its products the more prospects and customers will walk towards you.?
Now Imagine .....
How about if I said, I can take you to a place where all your prospects hang out, would you go?
I can pick you up in the car tomorrow and you can hang out there having conversations with them.
When you arrived, what would you do?
Grab a coffee and go up to the first one and start a conversation??Of course you would.
Or would you walk in and say?"buy my stuff, because we are great".?Of course you wouldn't, as somebody would call security.
That's the difference.?Selling on social is ...... social.?You have conversations with people.
You don't go up to people and pitch to them as people will call security.
The great thing about social is that there is no "prime selling time (PST)", you can have as many conversations as you want.?One of my customers, does his prospecting between putting the kids to bed and when he goes to bed.
It's time to bring your demand generation into the second decade of the 21st century and it's time to?"start fishing where the fish are"?...... on social.?
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".?Here at?DLA Ignite , engagement is important but we are about driving?revenue ,?EBITDA , for your business using social media.?This is about you winning business from the competition and having a competitive advantage.?
Social is about having a strategy and there are two key drivers
With anything you do on social there are two questions you need to ask
2. How much revenue / EBITDA am I getting as a business?
Posting and hoping or posting random stuff is not a strategy, in fact I doubt it's driving anything for your 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 , and?DLA Ignite ?customer, 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.?
What happened??They buyer was on social media looking for a solution to their problem, spotted one of the Namos salespeople, who had a buyer-centric profile and asked if the salesperson could help them.?That turned into a $2.6 million deal.?
Contact any of the?DLA Ignite ?team,?Eric ,?Adam ,?Nick ,?Vanessa ,?Lorena ,?Priscilla ,?Lenwood ,?Alex ?and they will be more than happy to help.
Go and look at their?LinkedIn ?profiles .... look how they can have digital conversations, create insightful content.?This could be your company!?
We are the only social selling and influence company in the world to offer a certificate in social selling 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!
Digital Commercial Strategist - Developing people and organisations to become leaders in their sectors - TedX Speaker - Keynote speaker, event host/compere/moderator - Artist
2 年Great piece Timothy. Digital connection is just the start, the first step. Building trust through expert influence is key, this is the part that most people miss!
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2 年"...., Not by being salesy, but by providing business insight, help, educate them, entertain them, inspire them.?" And we buy from people we know,...... I've quoted the above as it gives insight to many sales people with poor approach, ( I have received a lot of poor approaches on my LinkedIn inbox) while some others were pretty good but even though my response was let's discuss it in a meeting. Thanks Timothy (Tim) Hughes 提姆·休斯, as always your posts are helpful ??