As we moved out of 2021 into 2022 so where should a CEO, CRO, CMO, CFO place their bets?
Here are six themes that your business need to bet on in 2022!
1. The world has changed, i'm sitting writing this before my keynote at the B2B Marketing ABM (Account-based marketing) conference in London. For a face-to-face conference after the pandemic, there isn't a bad turnout. About 400 people have paid to attend. Tomorrow is a free, online event and there are 1,000 people. The world has gone on-line and your sales people in fact all of your people, need to be there.
2. "Digital hope" is no longer an option. We see so many organisations cobble their digital tactics together. There is no strategy, they hope that somehow the sales team will work it out. They won't. Sales is strategic, it is also a process. Hope was never a strategy.
3. You need outside help. Brandon Lee, part of the DLA Ignite team talks about when he moved his family from California to Georgia. They didn't know Georgia, so they rented a house for a year. They then spent that year working out where were the best schools and the best places to live. Brandon said on a call the other day "get the experts in, hire them for a year, suck all the knowledge out of them. That's the fastest way to get digital".
4. Join the RevOps movement. RevOps is all about getting all revenue generating teams under one leadership. Having a strategy, that all the teams, sales, marketing, renewals, customer success all can work too.
Don't forget digital isn't about tools, it's about people and process.
5. Double down on social selling. We know that our buyers are on social media, searching for your products and services, you need to be there and so does your sales team. Social selling is not social spamming, social selling is about having conversations with people on social.
I'm sitting writing this, after lunch as a conference, being the salesman I am, I always see lunch as a great opportunity. First there is the random people you can stand next to in the line (queue) and strike up a conversation with. Next there are the people I can walk up to and say "hi, I don't want to leave you standing by yourself". Again, a great opportunity to have a conversation.
Social is the same. Meet up with old contacts. Meet new contacts. Find people who want to buy. Social media is a networking event, open 24 hours a day.
An old colleague just walked up to me and we talked about old times, we are going to meet for lunch.
Social is about conversations, after all conversations lead to closed deals.
We have clients that have taken the digital dominance route, where they use social as a tool to totally wipe the competition out.
6. Change the way you measure marketing
Great strides were made in the last few years so sales and marketing can speak the same language. We have all sat in meetings and talked about "leads" and we know a lead in marketing is not the same as a lead in sales. Hence the terms marketing qualified lead (MQL) and sales qualified lead (SQL).
With social, you can now measure the entire buyers journey, from when a marketing or sales might engage with a potential client, all the way to it hitting the CRM. Using the CRM, "leads" can be tracked all the way to revenue.
Each key stroke on a salesperson's keyboard and the time they spend in digital can be attributed top revenue.
In other words, every deal can be tracked on social media from initialisation to close. This means that marketing is now front and centre to the way that digital and the business is governed. Marketing can go to the Board can present where the business is going and how they are impacting on the direction. It makes Marketing the driver of digital for 2022.
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.
I don't believe you Tim!
If you check out this video of Chris Mason CEO at Oracle reseller Namos, fast forward to 19 minutes 55 seconds. Chris talks about a $2.6 million win from being on social, after completing the DLA Ignite social selling and influence course.
Here at DLA Ignite we don't do "hints and tips sessions" we don't want you to waste your money. Our social selling and influence methodology will provide your sales team with the stable platform for growth. It is also the only social selling program based on 70:20:10 change management principles which gives your business the mindset change and habit change they need in this digital world.
Other articles you might be interested in ....
Would you buy social selling training course from somebody that doesn't use social selling?
How to create budget and build a business case for your social selling project
Articles for the CEO
What does success in a social selling project look like?
Can I be fired for not social selling?
How to Build an Executive Social Media Strategy That Works
What's the difference between legacy sales and modern selling?
Is making no change to my sales team an option in the world today?
Can my business speak directly to the modern buyer while retaining control of the message?
What is the secret sauce of social selling?
Can social selling break down the silos between sales and marketing?
Can I turn my LinkedIn time line from a load of rubbish into a load of value?
Why your random acts of social are killing your business
Can I find investors for my business with social selling?
Not understanding social selling is totally fine
Your social selling project isn't a decision of "yes" or "no" , it's when
Are you still measuring digital with an analogue mindset?
Can Social Selling help me navigate the great resignation?
Should my 2022 business planning include social selling?
Can I be data driven with social selling?
How grid selling will transform your pipeline and win rate
Can I use social selling as a small business?
Is your competition transforming to social selling in stealth mode?
We need more campaigns - Really?
Articles for RevOps
Can social selling help me with RevOps?
Articles for Sales leadership
10 reasons you get social selling all wrong
For fax sake at least know what social selling is before you dismiss it!
Can I see which salespeople are contributing with social selling?
Can I get a consistent prospecting framework for managers with social selling?
Can I get complete visibility to measure and monitor each reps results with social selling?
Can I get accountability across my sales team for prospecting with social selling
Can I gain an effective prospecting framework with social selling?
Can cold calling and email marketing kill my business?
Can I measure our social selling project?
Can my lack of confidence of social be holding my team back?
Can I get the most from my sales navigator licenses with social selling?
Can I de-risk my pipeline with social selling?
Can my salespeople create content?
Can social selling create value for my clients?
Can I use prospect sequencing with social selling?
Can I build a social selling program or should I buy one?
Can my behaviour on social media be losing me business?
Can I run QBRs with social selling?
Can I increase deal velocity with social selling?
Can social selling help me sell, if everybody is on vacation?
Can social selling help me avoid attrition in sales teams?
Can social selling help with team selling?
Reading blogs won't transform your pipeline
You are the sum of all your digital handshakes
Why social selling isn't just marketing
The difference between LinkedIn training and social selling training
Can programmatic social selling sort my pipeline issues?
Will being part of the conversation on social generate me any revenue?
Can social selling help me with virtual selling?
Social media engagement - None of my sales team have time for it. Really?
Should my salespeople be making time to create social posts? Of course
Can Social posts create pipeline or opportunities? You bet!
How are you going to build pipeline and prospect now that all the low hanging fruit has gone?
Articles to support sales people - sales process and sales tips
Can social selling help with my discovery calls?
Is social selling inmailing people on Linkedin?
Can I unblock deals with social selling?
Can I get more meetings with VPs with social selling?
Can I get on more short lists with social selling?
Am I being outsold by my social selling competition?
Can social selling stop prospects from ghosting me?
Can I be a catalyst to change with my prospects with social
Can I influence the buyer's journey with social selling?
Can I optimise my selling time with social selling?
Can I gain a competitive advantage with social selling?
Why automation is a zero sum game
Can I get a predictable prospecting system with social selling?
Can I sell $1 Million deals with social selling?
Can I get headhunted for my next job with social selling?
Can I use prospect sequencing with social selling?
Can I use social selling if I have nothing to say?
Looking for hacks, maybe you shouldn't
How do I make the most of a slow summer sales period?
How do I sell social selling training to my boss?
Can I get invited to more client top table discussions with social selling?
What is the best way to influence my LinkedIn network?
Can I use social selling to sell into a territory?
Can I use social selling to grow pipeline within target accounts?
Can social selling help me if my companies website isn’t good enough?
Can social selling help me if my prospect list is out of date?
Can social selling help me if we are too expensive?
Do my SDRs need to become hybrid?
Can social selling help me if we are not market leader?
Can social selling help me get past gatekeepers?
What should you do if your leadership team is not social
Can my content, create action in my prospects with social selling?
Can social selling work for me as an SDR?
I need to do this Linkedin thing and I need to do it now
Should I do a post or an article on LinkedIn?
How to deal with depression in sales
Why prospecting today is about clicks and likes
Articles to support channel and third party selling
Can social selling help my channel partners sell more?
Articles to support Account Based Marketing / Account Based Selling - ABM - ABS
Can we make our ABM program a success with social selling?
Articles about Employee advocacy
How empowered employees on social media became more powerful than brands
Why employee advocacy isn't a silver bullet
Articles for Marketing
How marketers must manage the changing dynamics of measurement
How to Get Started With Effective B2B Lead Nurturing
I paid for somebody to write my Linkedin profile, isn't it awesome? No!
Can social selling be relevant to me if I'm in marketing?
Can social selling put marketing front and centre of a business?
Can my prospects and clients get value alignment with my business though social selling?
Can we get away with just updating our LinkedIn profiles a bit?
How to Create Simple Social Media Rules for Employees
What content works on LinkedIn and for social selling?
Can I win more B2B deals with buyer enablement?
Can I transform my team with two 90 minute sessions on social selling?
Can I get better results for my ABM campaign with social selling?
Are my prospects and customers searching for insight on social media?
Our VP of Sales Just got 83 likes on a LinkedIn post, so that means we are social selling? No!
Should you outsource your social media?
Can I get banned from LinkedIn if somebody else manages my profile?
Articles for social procurement
Can I use social media in procurement and supply chain?
How social transformed procurement
Articles for the CFO and Finance
Accelerating digital skills is one of the top priorities for finance leaders
Record growth rates and valuations pose a double-edged sword to CEOs at private equity-backed tech companies. Most face intimidating growth targets and short runways to achieve them. SBI’s most recent research looks at how the most successful tech CEOs are positioning their companies for growth in 2022.
