Do you remember the cartoon characters, Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner?
We always laugh, as the Wile E. Coyote character, runs off the edge of a cliff. For a second, before he realizes there is no more ground beneath him, his legs still pumping away as if he's still on ground.
This is the way that modern Sales and Marketing is today.
According to Salesforce CRM quarterly Shopping Index, the number of purchases made through social media apps during the second quarter of this year was up 99% compared to the same time period last year.
B2B Sales and Marketing don't realise they have fallen off a cliff. This mid-air suspension won't last forever as the economic realities bite and as companies continue to use the old ways to sell and market.
It will probably be over the next quarter that the coyote looks down, yellow eyes bulging and they see the mile deep canyon below.
How do we know that business have fallen off a cliff and have their legs pumping way?
We Have Transformed In Work and Play on Social Through The Pandemic
In this report by Simon Kemp he outlines the extent that social media has become part of our lives.
But what does this mean for your sales and marketing?
Simon Kemp research states
4.57 billion people around the world now use the internet, accounting for close to 60 percent of the world’s total population.
The internet and Social media isn't a fad and it's not going away, in fact usage is accelerating, and now a tipping point has been reached.
Fact: Social Media Has Reached a Tipping Point
Simon points out that there are now more people on social media than not on social media.
Back to Simon Kemp's research
Social media users have grown by more than 10 percent over the past year, taking the global total to 3.96 billion by the start of July 2020.
This means that – for the first time – more than half of the world’s population now uses social media, with more people using social media than not.
In fact Simon Kemp stated recently that 4 out of 10 of the global social media users, use social media for work related purposes.
What’s more, the pace of growth appears to have accelerated in recent months, despite the global total having already passed the halfway mark.
In fact this research shows that we have gained ten years of digital transformation in just 3 months.
What Does This All Mean for sales and Marketing?
This means for sales and marketing that Social Media usage and Social Selling is not a fad and it's not going away.
In fact a company's presence on social is now a business imperative.
Simon Kemp's research..
"Given the broadening role of social media in people’s lives, it’s important that marketers and communicators think more broadly about where social media fits in their plans.
Critically, social media is increasingly a ‘layer’ that permeates almost every aspect of our audiences’ daily lives, rather than being a distinct ‘destination’ with a more siloed sphere of influence.
The trick to making the most of social media today is to understand how these platforms can complement and augment all of our marketing and communication activities.
My advice would be to think less about populating a content calendar, and focus more on identifying and initiating the conversations that matter most to you and the audiences that you care about.
So How Are You Going To Create Business?
You want pipeline, you can see that the current efforts of advertising, email and cold calling results are getting less and less, where as your audience has shifted onto social. Maybe it's time to take your sales team and get on social too?
Not as a "random act of social" but with a data driven sales methodology.
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).
One of our clients sales guys as created the same number of "clicks" with a single Linkedin post (for free, it took him 20 minutes) that whole of his marketing team created last quarter with paid media. OK I lied, it was a few clicks less, but almost the same .... so when we scale that across the sales team of course, the sales team is creating more qualified meetings, for free, than the marketing team on paid media. There are clear winners and losers here in sales and marketing ... it's time to decide which way your business is going to go.
As one client said to us "I cannot believe this, you are in fact just busing prospects to have meetings with my sales team". Now I know I'm biased and there are millions of people on Linkedin with a quick fix to your pipeline problem. What you have to do as a leader is pick the one that will make your business survive.
If you want more information about how we turned social selling from being an art into a science contact me here or one of the DLA Ignite team local to you
according to Salesforce CRM -0.7%’s quarterly Shopping Index, the number of purchases made through social media apps during the second quarter of this year was up 99% compared to the same time period last year.
