Think About When You Buy Something - What Do You Do?

You go to Google and search. You check out social media. You read articles on social media. You remember people that have helped you. You may even ask your network questions.

For example, Alex one of the DLA Ignite team tells the story that his wife asked her Facebook friends, what car she should buy?  While there was differences of opinion in terms of the car, everybody agreed not to go to her local dealer (of her choice of car) as they were sexist. 

How about I'm going to buy a new Accounting system for my business. What do I do? The same. I go to Google and search, I go to social media and read articles. You remember the people that have helped me. I might even ask my network questions. In businesses, in fact there are usually multiple people in a business doing this.

If I'm going to buy a new accounting system, I might even keep going back to my network. Which short-list of systems? Do you have an RFP (request for tender) template I can send out? Do you have a ready built business case? Do you have a format I can present to the board?  Again, if somebody out there "helps" you and shortcuts the effort, you will remember them.

Sales has Changed!

There was a time, when sales was all about outbound, back in the 1980s when I started cold calling, the only way a customer could find out about the accounting systems I sold was talking to me, a salesperson. Not anymore. Now when people buy stuff they go onto social in "sales avoidance mode".

Buyers have the power to go online and draw up short lists and make buying decisions all without you knowing .... and they do. I'm aware of people that ring up vendors and buy, they have already made their decision from what they read on social.  They only talk to salespeople at the time of purchase.

If you are not on social, you are invisible and they are not calling you up. Not even calling you up to answer an RFP.

We Have Just Invested In A Load Of Sales Tech, So Thanks But No Thanks

I'm really, really, sorry to break this to you, but sales tech isn't going to help you.

Moving through old school sales processes or trying to use tools to increase the amount of old school efficiency isn't going to cut it when the process is broken in the first place. 

What Is Sales About Now?

If you haven't embrace social, then sales is all about hope. -- Hope you will bump into somebody about to buy.  Maybe your email or cold call will make an impact, maybe it won't .... you try and hope.

You job has changed.  It used to be convincing them.  

Now it's about convincing them that you need to be on the short list they have already drawn up from looking at Google and reading what is on social.

You won't do this by old school bullying, it might have worked in the last century, it doesn't anymore. You might convince somebody by ...... shock, horror, .... helping somebody. Explaining how people may have missed something.

Let me take you through that again.  We know from above that your buyer already made a decision and short list from social ..... your job as a cold caller or cold emailer is to try and squeeze onto that already agreed short list.  

These feels like an inefficient processes to me, that a lot of luck, chance and hope is involved, surely sales is about controlling the sale?  Getting in to the sale early and (if not closing early) then controlling the sale from day one.  If you are on social, you will be in control.  If you are cold calling, you are an also ran.

What is The Henry Ford Moment in Sales?

The Henry Ford moment in sales is where there becomes a standard process for digital selling.

We have that standard process. Or better described as a standard set of processes.

We have built, what we call data driven digital selling.

If you "do this" and "do this" you get "this" result.  No ifs, no chance, no luck .... we understand the input and the output.

Everything you do in digital selling, supports the sales process ... from prospecting, to accelerating sales through the buyer's journey to closing the sale.

Each person who has been through our process should be able to make an additional 30% of revenue and shorten the sales cycle by 40%.

 Social Selling Case Study

Eric Doyle, he's a partner of ours.  He posted a piece of content, it currently has 165 likes and 37 comments and has been viewed 18,292 times.

It's created for him 124 leads.

28 outbound connections.

13 new inbound connections.

6 meetings (1 CEO, 1 COO, 2 MDs, 2 FDs)

1 Proposal

All from 10 minutes of work, all for free!

(I wonder if you can create 6 new business meetings in 10 minutes from advertising, cold calling or email marketing? ... I doubt it, but let me know if you can).

It's time for your business to recognise the change and bring your business inline with the changes that have taken place in the buying world.