The arrival of Social Selling hasn’t replaced the fundamental usefulness of traditional sales techniques such as cold calling and email. Instead, social media channels offer new convenience and efficiency in establishing relationships and closing deals. Social Selling can enhance these sales techniques when you engage potential buyers with relevance and context. Here is a quick look at how Social Selling can help streamline five traditional sales tactics for the modern sales professional.
As we finish the first half of 2015, I’m delighted to see the number of companies starting to look at, understand and evaluate Social Selling. This just wasn’t the case two years.
How time flies!
However, we’re still very early in the days of Social Selling adoption. Most companies we speak with today are just starting to teach their sales professionals Social Selling tips. Teaching tips is a great place to start – they excite and demonstrate the potential of incorporating social into the sales process.
Here we go, another “bash cold calling” blog post, right? Far from it! Cold calling still works (in various degrees for all of us) but should it be the only way you target prospects today?
Social media is the ultimate level playing field. Instead of dominant voices, the evolution of social media proliferation has democratized the communications process. Ideas can’t be stopped and are capable of changing people, societies, governments and more.
“Social sellers are telling everyone to stop picking up the phone.” And “cold calling is the only thing that works…don’t bother with anything else!”
These are two quotes from blogs bashing Social Selling. They’re both extremes and don’t represent the truth of what we in the Social Selling community have been evangelizing all along.
How do current sales methodologies fit within the current buyer’s journey?Social Selling brings value to every stage of your buyer’s journey. However, many companies struggle to see how these tactics can be applied throughout this process.
Just a little over a quarter of a century ago, a little pamphlet called The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People sold 25 million copies and introduced the world to the concept of the “paradigm shift” and the three stages of the “upward spiral,” which are Learn, Commit, Do.
It took me about 6 months to get my act together, but I was finally able to interview Dale Zwizinski for this episode of The Social Success Factor.
Have you heard that phrase “a guy’s guy”? Dale is the “sales guy’s sales guy”. And I mean that with all due respect. He’s good at what he does because he’s got a lot of passion for his craft. He lives and breathes this profession.
I’m a social seller. It’s who I am when I go to bed at night. Social Selling is a part of my DNA, but I understand that others may not find it so intuitive. Many people out there have had old, out-of-date hard sales tactics drilled into them. The good news is that every one of them can become just as effective at social selling with dedicated, on-going training and strong support from management.
From all those salespeople trying to get a handle on a Social Selling routine, I tend to hear the same question over and over, asked in a hundred different ways: “What do you actually do all day?”
Today, leads are typically originated from two main sources: online or offline. Each of these leads comes with a very different background based on the tactics used to generate them. They’re very different creatures, and as such they should be treated.
The following infographic by Salesforce breaks these traits down and describes the difference between offline and online leads, including those generated using Social Selling. How long does it take to convert an online lead vs. an offline one? What’s the average cost per contact by source? Why is response time critical to guarantee conversions? Take a look!
Sales for Life was founded with one goal – to become the most trusted sales resource for its customers. During our journey, we’ve had the privilege of serving thousands of sales professionals and leaders around the world, from start-ups to Fortune 50 corporations.
