I often get contacted by people to go into the business and give a one hour session on social / digital / remote / virtual selling.

It's a bit like me giving a talk for one hour on Boxing and telling you to put on your gloves and get in the ring.

If you have never boxed (like me), you just know this is going to end in tears.

Don't Worry Tim This Is Where Sales Enablement Take Over

This article raises the question

"Who's coaching the coach?" and the answer is no one.

Social Selling Bad Practice

We so often walk into companies that are undertaking social selling bad practice.

1. One company said to us "we sent 250 inmails and go nowhere".  Of course, because they had done nothing to their profiles, they looked like spammers.

2. People connecting and pitching at the same time or even, connecting and then following it up with a pitch.  This is going to get you blocked or even have your account shut down by Linkedin.

I had one person this week who is a "sales guru" and she sent me a message that she could help my team build RAPPORT (her capitals). But she couldn't build RAPPORT over social. She connected to me and pitched.  It was spammy and made her look desperate for business.  I'm sure she didn't mean it like that, but what other conclusion could you jump to?

3. Had a meeting with the Managing Director and Marketing Manager of a business.  They told us they didn't need any help as they had a global social selling team.  They told me the program was excellent, so I asked them what they were doing.

They were taking brochures and sending them over inmails.  I turned to the Managing Director and asked him what he did when he got an inmail and without hesitation he said "delete them".  I turned to the Marketing Director and asked her what she did when she got an inmail and she said without hesitation "delete them"

The Marketing Director and Managing Director then looked at each other, realising what they had just said.  Of course, if you get sent a brochure via an inmail you will just delete them.

I asked them again, "so how is your social selling program going"? and then both said "shit".

4. There is also the VP of sales that posts something and then all their direcst like the post.  Now the average person on Linkedin has no network.  What I mean by that is, their network consists of x colleagues and recruitment consultants, so nobody you are trying to influence.  These posts, just become "random acts of social".

These are just examples of people who think they know what social is .... and they don't.

Enabling Sales Enablement

Traditional Training

On a recent call with a head of training he told a joke "How do you spell training?"

And his answer "D-A-Y-O-F-F"

Traditional training is about completing a course and then going back to your day job and getting on with what you did before.  But what about online and masterclasses?

Online Courses and Masterclasses

People often see that the answer for this and we see this with social / digital / virtual / remote selling is masterclasses and online training and really all they are doing is moniterising people's ignorance. 

Social / digital / virtual / remote selling requires you to do something different, it requires a habit change and a mindset change.  

I need to lost weight and get fit.  Spending one hour in the gym, isn't going to do me much good, neither is a day in the gym.  In fact it will probably cause me injury.

I'm currently doing the "Couch to 5K" app.  It will enable me to run 5K, but I build up to it over 8 weeks.  It gives me practical steps .... I might be stating the obvious, but it requires me to listen to it while I run.  Most training seems to be built so that I listen to the "Couch to 5K" app while lying on the Couch.  Does this mean that social selling is different?

Success is Predicated on What You Do

The number one mistake that all companies and "sales gurus" make is that social / digital / remote / virtual selling is not predicated on what you know.  Which is the assumption of all training.

Success is predicated on what you do!

To Train Social You Must Live and Breath It

It amazes the number of companies that sell social selling but don't live it or breath it. I'm often getting emails from companies saying "buy my social selling course", this just proves their social selling course doesn't work as they have to use email and not social selling to sell it.

There is a digital marketing company that advertises on my local radio station, what conclusion can you jump to, but digital marketing doesn't work, because they are having to advertise on the radio.

The great team here at DLA Ignite are all the "high water mark" for social.  As a business, we have never advertised, never cold called and don't send marketing emails.  Everything we do is through social.

The same with social selling, nobody would buy social selling from somebody who tries to sell social selling through cold calls, emails or advertises as it's clear their social selling program does not work, if they are having to resort to those ways of selling.

The point being that for any Sales Enablement team to train, they too must be at the high water mark of social selling.  Otherwise the sales people will just ignore them.  Why would you listen to somebody that doesn't practice the actions they teach.  It's all very "do as I say, not do as I do".

Supporting Sales Enablement

Programs work best where we work with Sales Enablement and they run along aside a program that we run.

The absorb the skills and implement best practice, so they can take on the skills long term.

Where Do We Go From Here?

For those unsure of what to do, DLA Ignite will complete a review of your current social / digital / virtual / remote selling capability.  For free. 

We will take your team (up top 10) and perform a complete root and branch Social Media Performance Assessment.

Sales, Marketing, Management, Technical, HR. Procurement ....whoever you want to include.

This will include: Profiles, connections, followers, inbound and outbound activity, content, engagement, follow up, results.

(Happy to provide the list of deliverables).

We will map your business against the DLA Ignite baseline and present back to you our findings. We will show you where improvements can be made and what results should be expected.  No hard sell, just present back to you a road map.  

You entered lock down analogue, this is your chance to leave this pandemic, digital.

Please contact me here or one of the DLA Ignite team here, so please pick one of our industry experts or one of our experts in your geographical locality.  Our website is here.