This article by Forbes is interesting and I have extrapolated out the conclusions.

Here is a piece from that article.

The Edelman Trust research is here

The Gallup survey is here

I bet you are wondering, what on earth has this to do with social selling, right?

One of the options a company can take when implementing our social selling and influence training and coaching is for us to run a strategy session for your Board of Directors.

This is NOT a Twitter course :) this is a strategy workshop where we work through your current "as is" processes, and the "to be" processes and provide your board with an ongoing social media strategy.

At Telstra, they came up with this mission statement.

Just think about it, social is not transformational for your business, right now.  

You post .... and nothing changes.

Nothing has changed about your sales people, your marketing, your human resources policy, the way you deal with suppliers, your customers services ..... all the same.

With social, people walk towards you.  Can you image, rather than people hating your sales people and not believing what they say, prospects walking towards them, asking to buy.  

A supply chain sales person I'm coaching got a piece of inbound today from a company he has never heard of, from a person he isn't connected to, asking him to help transform their sales team.  This is the difference between an analogue business and a digital business, well our version of a digital business.

What social selling as a strategy, what do you mean?

These are the measures that Telstra place on their "social selling" project

• Visibility and recognition in the marketplace
• Achieving trusted advisor status to their clients and prospects 
• Measurable pipeline, revenue and new logos growth 
• Access to the best talent and skills and therefore becoming employer of choice in your chosen markets and topic areas
• Employee engagement and shared sense of purpose

Now you will get the pipeline one, but how about being the employer of choice in your industry? How about being invited into to see more and more clients and being seen as a trusted advisor? Or giving your employees a sense of purpose.  You didn't expect that did you? 

Back to this Forbes article

"Studies show that when employees’ needs are met, profitability can soar, she says. For example, a 2019 Gallup survey found that companies with engaged employees can see profitability increase by 21%."

That is why, employees social selling are more vital to a company’s success than shareholders.

Thanks to Danielle Guzman for finding this article