To quote a recent article 

"Digital transformation was a C-Suite priority before the pandemic; Covid-19 has accelerated its pace and heightened it existential imperative. The stakes for failing to embark on the digital journey are enormous; digitally mature companies are significantly outperforming laggard peers." 

Talking to a supply chain leader last week, they said there was three things are paramount to doing business today.  

1.  To expand the firm's reach to get new suppliers (in the current pandemic, sometimes getting new suppliers and having done the risk assessment and due diligence. In other words having new suppliers in the "back pocket".)

2.   To deepen relationships with existing suppliers, and

3.  To build a personal brand online. 

What Does This all mean? 

This article states "When COVID hit and I knew we were not going to be able to travel and see clients or go to conferences, I knew it was time to go all-in on social media. Once we knew people were going to be remote, we knew they would be online a ton more."

Shifting Buyer Preferences

We have seen shifting buyer work as everybody is online, in this October (2020) report by Simon Kemp outlines the extent that social media has become part of our lives.  


Worldwide social media users: 4.14 billion - 53% of the world's population use social media in other words, more people use social media than don't use it.

Simon says that "two thirds of the working population in the world is now active on social media."   Your customers, whoever they are  ..... are online.  Even more so in this post-pandemic world.  Supplier sales people, our business and people in supply chain are online and should be, not just for your career, but for competitive advantage.

Research From All These Companies Back This up

Mckinsey say so, Gartner say so, Hootsuite and We Are Social say so, Hubspot say so, Google say so, MIT say so, Trustradius say so Twilio say so .... 

A CEO of a Lawyers Just Said to Me

 "there is a race on.  First we need to shock people into understanding that the world has changed.  Second, we need to give them the skills to work in the changing world."  

He went onto say "By giving my team(s) “new world” skills will gives us a competitive advantage."

Interesting that he finished by saying

"The thing is there is a “burning bridge” and we need to make sure we are over that bridge."  

Who's doing this?

Let's go back to this article.

"Your honesty is what makes your personal brand real. Lean into your strengths, and learn to laugh at your weaknesses. While the tendency is to avoid acknowledging any shortcomings, you can accept that they have a part to play in your brand. Your audience will appreciate the model of openness and the ability to handle an uncomfortable topic in a professional way through self-awareness. When it comes to honesty and being authentic, Chris Jolly, The FreightCoach, says it best. “Personalize the message. Get away from your mass LinkedIn or Twitter DM blast style format, and commit to getting to know them as a person, and not a transaction.”

Case Study 1.

This is Eric, he's one of the team at DLA Ignite here is a post that he put up, it only took him 10 minutes to create.  We have all seen posts like this, we see them everyday, but people treat social tactically.  You post, because you think you have to or somebody tells you you should and walk away.  Let's talk about this post. 

 Eric's post of his 16 year old son, Austin, on his Birthday got 18,000 views and 165 likes?

But better still, he got 6 - C-Level meetings from this post?  How?

Let's stop and think about this for a second.  This post took 10 minutes to create and it got 6 C-Level meetings, how come?

Because, all of Eric's post are strategic.  He knows exactly why he is posting it and knows how to monetise it.

He doesn't always post "humanised" content, I'm using this as an example.  But an example of why you need to get your employees and sales team on social, just think of the $ impact to your business.  Especially if you scaled this across your business. 

How does Eric do this?  He builds relationships with prospects and customers and because they have a relationship with a human, not a brand, people are happy to engage.  Eric is also able to cut through the myrmid of noise that brands keep putting out.  If you are a buyer, where will you spend your time?  Reading an advert that says "buy my product because it's great" or look for the insight and educational content that people like Eric is putting out?

Case Study 2

In this case study, Danielle Guzman, talks about how Mercer, empower their employees to talk on social.  The ROI (return on investment)?  Danielle explains how Mercer as a brand will develop the business a certain amount of business, because they are well known in certain markets.  She also confirms in this video how empowering people on social and giving them personal brands gives Mercer 4 times more revenue than the brand. 

Going back to the article

"A part of your presence on social media is crossing paths with others in your field, those you might consider competitors. Social media has allowed anyone the opportunity to interact and engage, and people are using this opportunity now more than ever. Collaborations, such as creating new content, emerge from building relationships and sharing ideas, and it benefits not only the audience of the content but also the individuals working together.

“The best advice I can give about social selling is that it’s not about selling. It’s about creating meaningful and engaging content that will resonate with your audience. Approaching social selling with the intent of providing something of value will give much better results than simply pitching your company on social media,” said Nick Dangles, co-founder of Kinetic, a company focused on helping logistics tech firms build their brand across the various supply chain ecosystems.

Don’t Let Fears or Misconceptions About Digitizing Hold Your Back

A recent article about digital transformation in the insurance industry was quoted as saying.

"McKinsey research shows that investing in .... digitizing processes can result in savings of up to 80 percent. This comes on top of the improved customer experience, faster time to settlement, and more policies signed. .... Insurers can allay their fears about investing in new technology by making compliance a priority, getting all stakeholders aligned around digital transformation, ensuring the technology scales, and working around the constraints of legacy back-end systems."

Sounds like plan? 

Where Do We Go From Here?

Just give me, or one of the DLA Ignite team and hour of your time and we can walk you through what we are doing for other companies in professional services, especially in the law sector.  No hard sell, just take you through what other companies are doing to transform.

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.