When we started Digital Leadership Associates (DLA) www.social-experts.net two years ago we were given lots of advice as to where and where not to sell.
"Social Media and Social Selling" people would say, while sucking air in through their teeth. "You will never sell it to professional services." they would say, "there companies are too steeped in the old boys network and are regulated".
We even spoke with a large household name management consultancy who said, and I paraphrase "even through we sell digital transformations, our company is based on the old boys network". Ironic, a company that advises on digital transformation is proud of it's male dominated culture.
Here we are two years later, we reached a tipping point in professional services amongst regulated companies to sell and get an ROI through social selling.
Financial services cannot hold back the tide of social and social media.
The number of people using social media continues to grow at an impressive rate too, with the latest data showing that global users increased by 11 percent in the year to July 2018.
With 328 million new users adopting social media in the past 12 months, we’re still seeing additions of almost one million new social media users every day.
Social media is a frictionless means of communication, used by pretty much everybody that will use the Financial Services industry. Financial Services companies are being talked about on social media and Financial Services customers are on social media. Let's not forget people are on social media, not because a brand has forced them there but because they want to be.
We all do research on social media, ask questions on social media. Regulation does not stop this. Your biggest risk as a FS company and a FS Sales person is not being there.
The second point I want to make that this article makes is: Never ever, as a salesperson, outsource your success to somebody else. If you think other people, marketing for example, want to help you make your number, you are very mistaken. You have to stay in control in sales.
One of the main pitfalls organisations face is the belief that social media is the sole responsibility of the corporate marketing team. Whilst these teams have specific expertise, they are not the only ones with social media profiles. With content posted by the corporate pages only, the organisations can seem out-of-touch and hard to engage with for customers. Employees from across the business, however, that post on social can be a positive influence on customers and co-workers alike. Whether it’s an advisor, a senior executive or a member of the HR team, by encouraging them to share on social will help build and maintain a human image of the brand. With these voices (and not constant corporate monologue) talking on topics of interest, real connections can be formed. people.
