I won't make my number this year, because of Covid. Really?, Tim Hughes

It's something we hear a lot, "I won't make my number this year, because of covid".

Sales teams across the world are saying this, but is this really the case?

These sales teams all have one thing in common, which is the fact they are still using legacy sales methods like cold calling and email.

According to research from Linkedin 50% of buyers say working remotely has made their purchasing process easier.

As a result, buyers are growing more difficult to reach any way other than virtually. Gartner has predicted that by 2025, 80% of B2B sales interactions between suppliers and buyers will occur in digital channels.

In fact, I know B2B business leaders that already say that 80% of the buying process is digital.

What can we conclude from this?

Our buyers are online, they are looking for insight and they are looking to be educated.

It makes sense, if you are going to invest $100,000 a year in a software application, then you, as the buyer are going to do their homework. You will go online and read every article you can find on the subject.

It stands to reason that if you are not posting on social media as a salesperson you are invisible to these prospects and clients.

And if you are going to invest $100,000 in a cloud application, if you are getting a cold call from somebody, apart from the fact it's an annoyance, which is never a great way to start a relationship by a seller with a buyer. But you are going to look at that person and the organisation as a company that is living in the past. Of course you are, all buyers know that. Buyers are not stupid they know what is good and bad in the world today.

It stands to reason that cold calling is no longer fit for purpose in B2B enterprise, regardless at how good you are at it.

So I'm not surprised that salespeople, who have not been empowered with digital are not making their number, in fact I would be surprised if they are.

Yes, Tim, everybody says they have a solution that can help me!

That said, there are thousands, if not millions of of people online telling you how their solution will suddenly magic your sales process, you may have even used some of them.

These apps and processes are like the immaculate conception.

So who's doing this and is there a resource of information to back this up?

Yes, 100%, just keep reading.

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.

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

OK that is one business, what about others?

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”

And another of our clients

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.

Knowing nothing about social selling is totally fine.

Talk to any of the DLA Ignite team and we can walk you through, how the world has changed with social. How buyers are making decisions about you and your company without you knowing about it. How you and your team can be empowered to work digitally, to work with this new buyer.

Our social selling and influence course trains and coaches all levels within a business and we very quickly get your business up and running with social. Our methodology we soon have you building relationships, having conversations and converting these to sales.

A typical social selling implementation should be seeing a 30% increase in revenue and a 40% reduction in sales cycle. Now what's not to like about that? As I said, contact one of the DLA Ignite team here

There now follows a sample of some articles that will help your business and kick you off on your digital journey.