Why your leadership team is throttling your digital transformation
Timothy "Tim" Hughes 提姆·休斯 L.ISP
Should have Played Quidditch for England
We often come across clever, rational people blocking a companies move to digital.
Eric Doyle?of our partner,?Crux, covers it beautifully in his "thunk" cartoons, which you can see?here.
What he shows in the cartoon, by the way, this actually happened on a call.?
The?sales?enablement person said one thing, how amazing a move to?digital?was, but it was clear they were thinking the opposite.
What she saidWhat she was thinkingYes this sounds greatI don't see where I fit in this, I'm going to bury itAbsolutely, I can see how this will really help usI don't want my management team seeing this
Now, we went on to win the sale, because we can contacts at a high level that saw the benefit of moving to digital would bring them.
By why would a person who ran sales enablement, the very person that was charged with enabling the sales people to go out and sell in this?digital?world, would she try and block the program??
People are scared by digital and social
I have a #TimTalk, which is you didn't know is my?podcast,?coming up about conflict.
The?#TimTalk?will be?Anna Nielsen?and in it we will talk about conflict especially in the modern business.
What causes?conflict?
"When a deeply held belief about yourself is challenged or is under attack.?This means there is an unmet need."
Think about your team.
All of these things could be holding you business back.
In fact,?we see many middle managers deliberately sabotaging digital projects.
As with?Eric's?"thunk" cartoon above, we have sat in many a meeting where they middle managers say this is amazing and then do nothing, in fact go out of their way to block the initiative.?
Questions to you:?
It's down to us as leaders to give our teams the necessary skills and to meet those unmet needs.?
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).
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Our VP of Sales Just got 83 likes on a LinkedIn post, so that means we are social selling? No!
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
2 年Love TimTalks, I listen when I'm writing proposals.
Solving the motivation problem in employee advocacy | CEO: TOGETHR | Speaker | Podcaster
2 年Looking forward to it Timothy. Great topic. There are so many factors to consider when looking at what might be holding people back. Ego, Fear of change, bias and self-doubt are just a few. I think at the heart of changing these is empathy. Being?able to listen and understand the feelings and reasons for their behaviour?is key to changing opinions and bringing them along with you.
Founder, Conflict Capable Solutions | Your Partner in Building Conflict-resilient Workplaces
2 年Thank you for inviting me to be your guest on ##TimTalk. We are going to be a great duo!