Has traditional B2B sales and marketing become obsolete?, Tim Hughes

In this article by Brent Adamson of Gartner, talks about the changes that have taken place in sales and marketing today.

With social media, internet, mobile and Covid-19 we have seen a perfect storm of change.

If you think about it, many people are still using sales methods that can be 50 years old.

Many SDRs and BDRs are using techniques created before their parents were born, which is scary!

Brent goes on to talk about the way that buyers have taken control of the purchase process.

The rise of digital B2B buying

Brent says "For years, however, B2B buying has dramatically evolved to a far more digitally dominant buying behavior, rendering much of that commercial model not only out of date, but nearly obsolete."

Let's not forget that we are in sales and for us this means we must control the process, so while the buyer has a buying process, our digital skills will mean that we are one step ahead.

That means we are:-

Able to start and join conversations on digital.
We can walk digital corridors within accounts, we can go to multiple social networks and be comfortable engaging with prospects in those different places.
We always have a good idea as to a clients business issues, both as a business and as a vertical.
Your clients learns from your insight, this will drive the clients "aha" moment and they only answer to buy this from will be you.
You walk in tandem with the client, we used to call this nurturing, offering them insight and "waving" at them on social media every day.
You are an expert at content, using it to start conversations and closing deals.

Multi-channel buying

Brent's article goes on to say "Instead, today’s B2B buyers rely heavily on digital information to support progress across their entire buying journey."

Those who practice a modern sales approach have an advantage in any deal against those that were sell from a different time. They understand the client and the digital paths that the modern buyer walk.

As a social seller, you will know that your approach is competing with other approaches and can use this to your advantage. The salesperson with the modern digital approach, which is what the modern client finds to be the most valuable is positioned to win.

The death of the deal sequence?

As Brent from Gartner points out that the buying process is no longer linear.

"Most B2B sales and marketing teams typically function in a “serial,” or linear manner."

Our feedback from salespeople whose these is that the buyer is already ahead them, blocking the calls, emails and social media approaches.

The risk of disruption of your market by social selling

Brent mentions this in his article, what happens if a competitor starts social selling and disrupts the market? Brent says ..

"suppliers aren’t selling the way many customers prefer buying. And that “preference gap” leaves suppliers increasingly exposed to the risk of a competitor or disruptor finding a way to bridge that gap in new and creative ways"

What is social selling?

Here at DLA Ignite, we define social selling as

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

It's not witchcraft, it's enabling your salespeople to work from home, (or the office) and create conversations with prospects and customers. Conversations on social media and conversations that convert.

The problem with the name "social selling" is that people think that this is selling on social. All these pitches that you get on social are not social selling, they are spam.

The other thing you need to know about social selling is that this isn't about "putting out some videos" or "putting flowers on your profile" or "going viral" this is about revenue, EBITDA, you winning business from the competition and having a competitive advantage.

With anything you do on social there are two questions you need to ask

1. How many leads / meetings / conversations will I get from this post / blog / activity?

2. How much revenue / EBITDA am I getting as a business?

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.

Andrew Ferrier who is the CEO of Display Technology Ltd and in this article it talks about why Display Technology have adopted social selling. His team have also created a social media strategy with help from our partner, Crux.

Their social media mission statement is

“We want to position ourselves as a forward-thinking, knowledgeable team of individuals who are all experts in our own right, therefore, collectively awesome!”

Andrew also says in that post

"Adopting this (social selling) strategy has taken all of us well outside of our comfort zones but the rewards we have seen in a short period of time have created an excitement within the business development team (new term for sales team).

Because of the nature of social media, quite often you can get instant results. Even if that is just a comment left on your post, or a like, or someone taking the time to want to connect with you.

The excitement around the sales team is infectious, it’s no longer a chore to reach out to the market place because the results can be instant and are there, right in front of you."

What sort of results can you expect?

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 work with our partners such as Crux, Little Bird Marketing, Funnel Amplified, Accelery, EDPE Consultants, etc. We are the only social selling and influence company in the world to offer a certificate provided by an independent qualification body (OfQual) and sponsored by the Institute of Sales Professionals (ISP).

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