What should you do if your leadership team is not social, Tim Hughes

The other day a friend of mine was concerned.

Like many organisations there was a "change of the guard". A new leader had come in and they bring in their new team. But my friend was concerned about one aspect of this new team.

"I'm sure they are all very competent, but they are not very social. In fact I cannot find one of the new team on LinkedIn".

Being active and competent on social media is table stakes for any business, so I understand the concerns. In fact, having a presence on social media is a priority for a leader.

And for a company that is selling "digital transformation" it surely is critical?

How can you sell digital transformation if you are not digital and don't have digital skills yourself?

What should you do if your leadership team isn't social?

In my first book "social selling - techniques to influence buyers and changemakers" in chapter 7 "selling the idea of social selling and measuring success". I walk through the common objections and how to position social selling with your executive team, CEO, CFO, Head of Sales, CMO and CIO. I also talk about the ROI (return on investment) of social selling and the measurements.

We are the only social selling company in the world that talks about the connection between being on social and revenue and profit. You will see many "experts" talking about the "algorithm" but who gives a shit if you have no pipeline?

We believe that every companies board should be able to say how much of their revenue is being driven from social.

In our experience companies should be able to increase revenue by 30% and reduce the sales cycle by 40% by using social selling techniques.

What happens if you don't use social?

Many people I know tell me that if somebody isn't on social "they obviously have something to hide".

In a recent article "Reliance is establishing itself as a tech major—with shoddy websites and a poor social media footprint" by respected online magazine, Quartz India they tear off a strip of the company Reliance.

Regardless who the business is, you can see that people expect a company that sells digital to be digital and understand digital. It is also very easy, by going to your website and looking you up on social if you are "walking the walk and talking the talk".

This is what one of the commentators say in the article

“The decision-makers are not educated and do not know what they should be looking for in the team. They are mostly riding on the need that yes, we need a website, and we need a social media presence, but they don’t understand the overall picture on why they should be online and how they should be communicating their message.”

The article goes onto say

"Experts argue that it is important for businesses, big and small, to quit being lacklustre about their social media presence."

There is a further quote

“Digital platforms are here to stay and an escapist attitude is not an option for a brand or a personality who has to survive in today’s competitive world,”

Social selling and influence

In our social selling and influence course we create a safe environment for people to work and experiment. We use the 70:20:10 change management methodology so that people have group learning, they are able to work at their own pace in their role. We also give the attendees one-to-one coaching, we know that everybody learns at their own pace and this makes sure that nobody is left behind.

We don't do death by power point or "hints and tips" sessions, why? We have all been on these courses where we listen to the presenter but never implement the things when we get back to our desks. We see this as a waste of money.

Here at DLA Ignite, we want you to be successful and for your business to be connecting every key stroke on social to your revenue and profit.

Of course, if you still cannot get your leadership team on social, invite DLA Ignite in, I can assure you we will blow their minds.

So who's social selling?

In case you missed it, the Bank of America’s Merrill Lynch have banned cold calling and have moved all their people to social selling. This isn't some trendy tech company that might have decided to do this on a whim, this is a very conservative financial services company that has made a decision based on data.

But surely cold calling has a better ROI than social selling? Not according to Merrill Lynch.

"They will also be encouraged to contact prospects over LinkedIn, which has a higher hit rate than cold calling"

The CRO (chief revenue officer), Richard Eltham of Namos Solutions, of one of clients posted a comment on LinkedIn about social selling. See here.

“Social selling is not an option now it is the way of the world and you either learn and execute it or fear getting left behind”

Kevin Murray who is the Head of Sales at MacArtney Underwater Technology recently posted about his success with social selling here and wrote an article about the transformation that has happened in sales here.

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