Why a social selling - build it and they will come program will fail
Timothy "Tim" Hughes 提姆·休斯 L.ISP
Should have Played Quidditch for England
I was on a call with a?CEO?this week and he said
"social isn't about build it and they will come"
And he's right!
He and I have worked at organisations where they purchased an "employee advocacy" tool.
If you are unaware of what this is.?It's a piece of?software?where employees connect their?social media?profiles;?LinkedIn,?Twitter, etc and then a business can start pumping out content through the employee social profile.
Problem is ..... that isn't how social works.
A corporate?brochure?that nobody wants to read, don't forget nobody wants to read it, whoever pushes it out onto social media and how many times you share it.
I cover a lot of this off in the article?Is your business proud to be corporate spammer??
Social is not what you know, it's what you do
Way back, when I worked for a corporate, (and before I knew better) we did "hints and tips" sessions for the?salespeople.?Surely, if the sales people understood they could earn more by?social selling?they would start doing it.
But, of course, it doesn't work like that.
If I want to lose weight and get fit, I have to go to the gym for ever and not not just an hour.?I need help and advice and I need coaching.
And the advice that people always miss about social is
Social is not what you know, it's what you do.
Now Imagine .....
Imagine, I pick you up tomorrow in my?car?and drive you to a place which is full of your prospects and customers.?All you have to do is go up and have a conversations with them.
In a social environment like this, walking up and pitching to somebody doesn't work, as it doesn't on a?social network.
There has never been an excuse not to be connected to people within an account and in this digital age, even less so.?Our?social selling?and influence course, will teach and coach you to be having conversations with prospects and customers at scale.?Whether this is a new business or?account-based marketing (ABM)?approach.?
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
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.?
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,?Brentney,?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 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!
CEO at Bob Graphics
2 年Love this