I've just got off a Zoom call. Nothing strange about that, there are 300 million zoom calls a day amd 200 million Microsoft Teams calls everyday. 500 million in total a day! We are at home, online and we all get this.
We live near Sandycombe Lodge which was the painter JMW Turner's "country house" and we are supporters of this. The house has just been restored and the talk was about how they found the furniture to put in this newly restored building. So what? Well I was the youngest person (55) on the call, there were people in their, 60's, 70's and maybe 80's tuning in on ipads, PCs, Mac's, iPhone to watch this zoom call.
Back in February, nobody would have believed it and if we had suggested it, people would have said it was impossible.
That is how much the world has changed for all of us, for your sellers and for your buyers.
The Sales and Marketing Problem
The great problem your business faces today is that you position your company as "buy my product because it's great", and so do all you competitors. So you products just become a blur.
There is a big difference between you, the marketer and the seller and the customer. The difference is, you are an expert and the prospect isn't. So while we have access to an infinite amount of knowledge, we can never the twenty years of experience that you have. As a buyer I see all products as the same.
This is all regardless of how much money you are convinced to spend on brand.
You are just a zebra in a herd of zebras.
Interviewing Matt Edmundson, yesterday for my podcast he made a comment that in Liverpool where he lives that if they build a block of flats they are called them "deluxe". But now all new build flats are called "deluxe", there is no differentiation, and it's all just words and totally meaningless.
Your buyer is just like me, we know nothing about your company and you look like everybody else and it all becomes a blur.
Why Your Advertising, Cold Calling and Email Marketing Drives Business for the Competition
The second issue they have is that the world is online. As soon as you put your products in front of me, I go online and do a comparison.
This will comparison will involve Google searches, reading content on social, asking my network questions.
Anything a company does, advertising, cold calling, email marketing, brochures, will trigger the buyer to search for alternatives online.
Interrupt me with an advert and it triggers me to do a comparison. The problem is, that if you are not on social then you are not part of that comparison.
If I tell you the BMW 4 Series is the best car in the world, you will go online and give me a list of cars that are similar or even better. All without BMW or a salesperson knowing you have done it.
I spotted a product on a Facebook Ad the other day and look the product up on Amazon and it was cheaper. So what did I do? Buy it on Amazon of course. Here was a marketing team, spending marketing dollars for me to buy from the competition. Why would you do that?
The Companies That Win in this Pandemic
The companies that will win in this pandemic are those that realise they need to cut the corporate branding and build relationships and have conversations.... on social.
Know me, like me, trust me.
When we go to social media to get content, we don't look at a company social media page, we look at the employees social media pages. I read an article not because a company has posted it .... we avoid this material because it will say "buy my stuff because it's great". We know it will be biased.
Where as, if we read content from our network, the people we know, like and trust .... then this is the stuff we are interested in.
A read a person's post because I like that person.
People buy from people they know and trust.
How People Buy - Case Study
Last November, a BMW dealer in the UK had 28 pieces of inbound to buy a BMW car, they converted 14 of those into sales.
14 sales x 50,000 Euro = 700,000 Euros additional revenue for zero marketing spend.
This was the same month that their competitor, Jaguar Land Rover complained they were not selling cars and were therefore stopping production.
But There is More - Another Business Case Maybe?
In this interview with Danielle Guzman who is Global Head of Social Media for Mercer and we discuss "5 Things to Kick Start Your Employee Advocacy Program" and she shares the value they have gained from empowering their employees with social media.
Mercer are getting 3 to 4 times the attributed revenue than the brand generates. Can you believe that? If the brand is creating $10 million, then empowering your team on social will generate $40 million.
There could be a business case there, my suggestion is that you use an outside company to help you. Hint, hint. ;)
There Are Clear Winners and Losers in This Digital World
There are clear winners and losers starting to happen in the social space.
What you need to do right now ...
Your business needs to get digital skilled. You need to train your sales team in a methodology that will enable them to prospect where your clients are .... on social media. They need to have the skills to build relationships in a world where there are no face-to-face meetings.
They need to be able to accelerate their pipeline and close business through social.
Why?
Because this is where your prospects are right now and if you are not on social, then you are invisible.
If you are ready to give your team the digital skills they need then contact me here.
Sales can quickly dry up in times of turmoil, so sales leadership during the biggest economic crisis in generations requires a well-defined strategy, positivity and communication
https://www.raconteur.net/hr/steering-through-uncertainty-with-purpose
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