No question that Social Selling is to the Digital Age what Solution Selling was to Y2K (remember that one). Field organizations are flocking to tools like Hootsuite, Hubspot, feedly, LinkedIn, Twitter, and a few hundred other social outlets online. All in their ongoing quest to get in front of more customers, more frequently, with more tailored options, to drive more revenue. It is a game of gains.
So it stands to reason that when asking companies about their Social Selling readiness, periodically you’ll get an over-confident response like “Not interested, we’ve got this social media thing nailed.” Not surprisingly perhaps, I find this to be a bit of an empty statement. Not unlike the boisterous contestants on that show Fear Factor where they made people do apparently risky stunts for money. Hosted at the time by Joe Rogan (he has a podcast now). Regardless, the point is that the people that came on the show bragging obnoxiously about how amazing they were, were exactly the one’s who’d fall on their face first. Their presumptions an accurate predictor of their upcoming failure. That’s called foreshadowing.
For clarity’s sake then, I have tried to substantiate this claim by listing what might be involved if you do in fact “Have this social selling thing nailed.” That is to say, I’d consider your sales team to be keeping up with the transition online if you exhibit the majority of these activities in your operation:
- An understanding that the buying process has shifted, as has the way salespeople need to navigate that process
- Team has buyer centric social profiles rather than resumes or cat pictures
- Meeting your customers and prospects online first where they are conducting due diligence, helping them threaten their status quo, formulate decision criteria, and define new solutions
- Leveraging content (internal/external) to drive advocacy, engagement, and to intrigue your community
- Constantly running campaigns that drive participation in forums, webinars, events, discussions, transactions
- Leveraging key events taking place online to generate new leads
- Leveraging the concept of influence to exponentially grow # of customers
- Coordinating this entire effort in less than 1hr/day
- Using the online tools at your disposal to make your competition irrelevant, or at least monitor every move they make
The Bottom Line:
Like most things in life there are usually a few levels of detail that need to be exposed before you can effectively brag that you “Have something totally nailed”. More often than not, confidence in capability comes with years of hard work behind it. If not, the bravado will be short-lived. Still convinced that your company has this Social Selling thing nailed? If not, check out some BLOGS on the topic or download some of our Free Helpful Resource Guides. I’m always available for a phone conversation about Social Selling if you have any specific questions – click on my Calendar to book a chat.
