Imagine you are going to learn to ride a bike, drive a car or fly a plane.

And I start telling you the how a cycle works, there are pedals, there are lights, the handlebars.  It's easy you sit on the saddle and off you go.

Or in the car, you put the car into drive (or first gear) and off you go.

My grandmother taught me to ride a cycle

It was my Nan (my mum's mother, she prefer being called Nan than Grandmother) who taught me to ride a bike and Rose (her name) I am forever grateful, she changed my life.

Riding a bike gave me choices, it broadened my world.  I remember those long summer holidays from school, where we rode and rode and rode.

That summer, I was staying at my Nan's and she said it's time you learnt how to ride a bike, no stabilizers. She held my saddle and I wobbled down the road. 

Back and forth we went until she tired and I tired.

Then one day (and many of you have been there) she let go and by the time I realised she was no longer behind me, I fell off.

But by then I had proved I could ride a bike.

It wasn't long before I took one hand off the handle bars and then I was doing "no handed".  I sat and rode down the road with no hands on the handle bars.  I was free! 

But a bike is just a tool after all. 

A fool with a tool is still a fool

The same, we so often see on social, there is a difference between using a "tool" and knowing how the "tool" works and before social.

It was Grady Booch that said "a fool with a tool, is still a fool"

I can teach you all there is to know about how a bike works, how a car works, how an airplane works, how LinkedIn works, but it does not give you the skills to ride that bike, drive that car, fly that plane or be social. 

What do we mean by social selling and being social?

What is social selling?

We define social selling as 

Using your presence and behaviour on Social Media to build influence,
make connections, grow relationships and trust, which leads to
conversation and commercial interaction.

It mentions nothing about LinkedIn, success in social selling isn't about how you use a tool, it's about how social you are. 

I can show you how you use a spade to dig a garden, but that does not give you the knowledge on how to cultivate that garden. 

When you are out there choosing somebody to help you transform your sales team. 

Buyer beware

There are a lot of people out there willing to exploit your ignorance. 

So who's doing this?

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.