“I see social selling will be what we use on those hard to crack accounts” said a sales leader of global software company, Tim Hughes

“I see social selling will be what we use on those hard to crack accounts”

said a sales Leader of global software company

The sales leader is what I would describe as "old school".

As an aside, we always create individual play books for the sales people as they come to the end of the social selling and influence program. We have a "three legged stool" approach to playbooks, the three people present are the salesperson, the sales leader and ourselves as coaches.

I could see that the sales leader was uncomfortable, he is a "just get on the phone" type of guy. All this stuff about conversations on social media, content took him out of his comfort zone.

What he couldn't argue with was the results his sales guy(s) (there was more than one) were getting.

Of course, they were getting more and better results than the "old school" tactics he supported.

The history of electric cars

The history of electric cars started with many of the petrol automakers putting their toes in the water, building small and hybrid cars. Little progress was made with electric cars.

Let's start with the most difficult first

Then came Elon Musk and he said that the only way to get mass adoption of electric cars was to build high performance cars. Let's start with the most difficult first. By resolving the “big hairy performance issues first” , Tesla was able to turn the market on its head. If Elon could build and market high performance cars then they can also build cars at the low end.

What has this go to do with sales?

As mentioned above, I was on a call with a sales leader from a global software company, we have been running a pilot there and we have got to the point where we are rolling out the play books.

This account is classic B2B enterprise, selling at c-level, 18 month sales cycles, multi-million deals. The business have invested in one of the best sales forces in the world, hence why they are investing in digital skills for the team.

I’m sure the sales leader wouldn’t mind me describing him as “old school”, like me he has grown up and built a career on “kicking down doors”, building relationships fast and closing new logos. He will be of the “just phone them up” background.

When the "old school" is the power of a social selling methodology in action

He’s also open minded to see the success his sales team are having in getting higher, faster with social selling.

So when he said

“I see social selling will be what we use on those hard to crack accounts”

I thought I would take that.

Like Elon Musk, if we can get new logos bigger and faster with social selling in the hard to crack accounts, you can guarantee we can do the same in the smaller accounts.

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