Social selling is here to stay. If you ignore or avoid facing this reality, you’ll ultimately be punished.
We’re bombarded with so much information these days. One of the skills you need to develop and have in your toolkit is the ability to determine value from clutter. Would you agree that the mind of a sharp individual today is about evaluating choices and options quickly?
Professional Hawk
This is especially true when it comes to your profession. Most people today are expected to be information superheroes, juggling hundreds of e-mails, phone calls, and requests from superiors. There’s a lot on the go.
Sales professionals (in my humble bias) have it even tougher because we’re dealing with the most invaluable asset our companies have: clients. Client satisfaction reigns supreme. If we’re not there to address their needs, we all know that choices are easier than ever these days.
The Sales Application
Given this information, I’ve observed two types of behaviors when it comes to social selling. Both produce the same, chilling result.
1. Ignorance
Most sales people today (like all people, actually) are just knee-deep in their work. They’ve tuned a lot of other things out. I believe there is humungous risk in this. As professionals we owe it to ourselves to know what’s happening in the market at the very least. Would you agree with this?
Isn’t it important to know if there are better ways to find potential buyers and generate leads for your pipeline? I’d say this is of paramount importance to all sales people.
Action aside, most are too busy to even observe. This is a massive risk.
If you’re ignoring social selling because you don’t have the time or don’t like to keep up with what’s happening around you, you’ll ultimately be punished.
2. Avoidance
Those that genuinely don’t know, can at least claim they’re busy. However, the ones that know and avoid social selling are in the greatest danger. This includes sales leadership.
It is fascinating (yet troubling) to see how many people in positions of leadership, authority and power choose to knowingly avoid social selling. In our work, we’ve heard it all. Sales leadership have told us things like “cold calling is the only thing that matters” and “there’s no way my customers are on social media”.
The data is now almost refutable. Plus, think about the concept of social selling intuitively. It makes sense that people are researching things online. Yet, this doesn’t apply to your buyers?
In short, if you’re avoiding social selling because you think it’s a fringe movement, ultimately you’ll also be punished.
The Bottom Line
Two paths, same result. As you can plainly see, there is little room for either ignorance or avoidance today especially in the fast-moving world of sales. Social selling is not a red herring that’s here to make anyone’s life difficult; it’s here to add simplicity back into your day.
How? By helping buyers online where they begin their journey. There are very few and natural ways to sell. Why not start by helping. Isn’t that the foundation of selling?
Social selling isn’t difficult… it’s just different. Keep that in mind as you begin your learning around it.
