One of the areas we are often asked to help with is in the creation of digital expansion plans. 

Plans that are founded on data and results that the management team, the board, the Private equity backers, and the bank can all understand and get behind.

Many organisations have battened down the hatches, waiting for a sense of ‘normal’ to return, other have been working on growth. Preparing the ground for expansion and taking steps to build the digital foundations to support their plans.

When we meet a leadership team for the first time, we ask a series of questions.

For example:

“What have you done to adjust how you create demand for you products and services now that buying has moved to digital...?”

We also ask, “what is it that you really need...?”

This last question often takes a few goes to really drill down...like the old '5 why questioning' in Health and Safety.

Over the last few years, we’ve collated enough data to be able to condense this down in to 4 key areas that work for just about every business in every sector…

4 key areas…

1. Access to Markets

You’ve done the market analysis; you know there is a need for your products and services. Perhaps you are aware your competition is there or there is a local existing market that could accommodate a new entrant.

Using Social Media properly allows you to dissect markets create regional, sector and people map - It’s a free source of market information. You now have a list of tiered targets, and you can start sketching out a territory capture plan.

Now you can see the organisations you are interested in have an early idea of who is important to you. 

You can begin the process of bringing them into your digital networks.

2. Credibility in these markets

Now you are bringing these people into your networks, what are you going to show them….brochures, sales literature, marketing materials?

How does that separate you from everyone else in your sector?

This where you need to start to build influence.  Shelve the corporate content and put the brochureware away...you must start to build influence.

The aim is to create 'Qualified relevance' where your prospects know you and completely understand that you are the leading technical and commercial influencers in your sector...

So much time is wasted by people hunting for ‘visibility’ on Social Media, in isolation it’s a waste of time.

Anyone can have visibility...it’s the tiny first step in the plan, not the end.

Qualified Relevance gets you the credibility you need to create meaningful connection with business prospects.

3. Meaningful connection with prospects

You now have the right people's attention, and they understand who you are, what you are and that you are specialists.

You have Qualified Relevance....what now?

It’s time for you to establish trust and build relationships within these new accounts?

Focus on thought leadership...

The 2021 LinkedIn-Edelman B2B thought leadership impact report is an excellent report which saw Edelman and LinkedIn collaborate on the fourth annual B2B Thought Leadership Impact Study to examine how thought leadership influences perception and buying behaviours among B2B decision-makers (link below).

The report says…

"B2B Thought leadership when done well, significantly influences brand perception and buying behaviour throughout the entire decision process"

This is where we need to be aiming but it doesn’t come easily. 

There is no afternoon ‘LinkedIn Training’ course that can teach this, and you can’t get it by sharing the company page post that marketing put out.…this takes expertise and understanding.

This is about improving the financial performance of the business for the long term…not tinkering around with content to see what ‘works.

4. Create Commercial Interaction

If you are spending time on Social Media and cannot see how this is pulling through to revenue…you have a problem.

It all hinges on this. If we do well in the first 3 elements it should position us perfectly to take advantage of this crucial next step.

This where we need the sales team doing what they do best, creating conversations and moving all of this to the point of sale.

In 2022 we need this digital sales engine working well – efficient and effective processes and measurable results.

Sit with your team this week and ask:

• Do we have access to our Markets?
• Do we have credibility in those markets?
• Do we have meaningful connections with prospects?
• Are we converting all of this to commercial interaction?

In 2022 we need to work on the principle that if we aren’t connected on Social Media within our target accounts then we are invisible. 

It’s incredible how many people we meet who are responsible for Sales in a particular area, they know who their targets are but they are not connected with them on Social.

If you are not connected you are invisible and you are not able to create influence or build trust.

In 2022, it’s impossible to avoid Digital and Social regardless of our sector.

No matter how complex we make it sound, not matter how many techniques and methods are employed at each stage…these are the basic elements we all need to be good at and, as we move into 2022, it’s impossible to have this level of analysis and conversation without turning to digital. 

In fact, these days its front and centre.

So, it makes sense that all of the people in our team that are responsible for generating demand, generating leads and closing business should be expert at working Digital and Social…

A trip back in Business Development history....

Back in the day, we had enough of an idea that there was an industry that was of use to us in a specific location.

We would access lists and perhaps buy reports of sectors and organisations that might be interesting to us in a particular country or region. We might even have someone do some digging and produce an internal report using google and perhaps some friendly people in country.

We decided to run a series of discovery visits.

We would call and email around direct targets, indirect info sources, agents, suppliers and see if we could set up enough meeting for a 1- or 2-week visit.

We would arrive in country, travel around the different buildings meeting with people and soaking up information for our new territory report, remembering not to get too annoyed when that big meeting is cancelled with 3 hours to go…

We get back to home base, distil all our findings into a report and make a presentation and present to the board. 

We got a bit of push-pull on the numbers but, eventually the board gave their blessing to spend some money, whilst reinforcing that there must be favourable results…

We could rack up those air miles...

We set up meetings with prospects in country and before long were we talking to prospects about their needs and explaining how we might help.  The tri-fold brochures, the PowerPoint slides, the case study documents, and business cards were flying across conference across tables…. we were on fire!

Within a few months we were feeding back to the board that we were on bid lists and expecting major tenders…we really need to be thinking seriously about people and kit in country!

The digital territory plan

Nowadays we can save time, effort and money and get a better result if we know what we are doing. We can get the plan moving more quickly and at a deeper level - All of the people we will go and meet are already part of our digital networks and see us a s trusted advisors.

How do we create a new territory plan today and what does it look like?

It looks digital…it looks like giving your team all the digital skills they need to prospect, network, build relationships and move to commercial interaction from anywhere in the world, at scale - and it tastes like getting this all in place before your competition get the advantage.

Travel may come back as it was, but we can’t bank on it.

Where do we start...?

We start by understanding the key to this is building a digital dominance within a sector and geographies. This isn’t achieved with ‘tinkering around with LinkedIn’, this is about Strategic Social Media to drive business growth. 

You get your team trained in Social Selling & Influence, they have optimised profiles and understand how to grow our networks and engage in conversation.

We carve out target verticals, sectors, and target accounts and set a digital strategy for each.

Growing a meaningful network in Region:

We design a Social Media connection plan for each region that covers buyers, influencers and people who can amplify our messages within those target accounts and territories.

A common mistake is that people only connect with people they know that are buyers – we need to think strategically here and bring in those influencers and people who can amplify our message into our network. 

These influencers and amplifiers may well be out with the account but, are related and useful for us such as, local government, regulators, or industry representatives.

Being where your regional and sector prospects are:

Look for the right groups to join. When you look at key target’s profiles in country, look at what groups they belong to and join them. Now, all the activity this group sees will come into your news feed. You can also post content into this group to increase your visibility.

You can see the members of the group and connect with those of interest.

Hashtags are important. Find the Hashtags that are relevant to your target country, industry, sector, and companies - follow them and start to use the tags. Now, all of your content that you tag will be delivered directly to relevant in country, industry, sector and company targets.

If you do this well and do it consistently, interaction and network growth will come quickly, and you will be having conversations you would never have had by any other means.

Social Selling & Influence is about having more conversations, not less…

Content planning:

Now you have a meaningful network growing in those target account in your new geography, you can start to produce content specifically for them.

• Writing posts about how you’ve worked there before on that big project.
• Producing blogs about how you have taken your business in to other countries and how well it went.
• Creating video that is related to what you do and how you rise to challenges – not just showing your stuff and saying, “contact me for information”.

Not carpet bombing your new precious prospects with thousands of brochures disguised as content...

Hashtag all of this with the tags you know your audience within that region are following.

This can be further turbo charged with tools such as Sales Navigator which gives advanced leads and company search capability, enhanced lead recommendations and CRM integration, allowing you to find the right people faster, keep track of lead and company changes easier and, enhance reach and engagement with prospects.

Regardless of what comes back and what doesn’t, we are in the midst of a commercial revolution.  The world is turning digital, buyers are using Social Media to filter competitors. Ignoring this and trying to convince yourself it doesn’t apply to you will place you at the back of the queue.

The conversation around whether this works or not is over. It’s now about whether your organisation has the culture to accept change, the desire to be the technical and commercial digital leaders in your sector and the hunger to win.

 You might not like or understands the idea of Social Selling & Influence in the context of your business just yet, but you’ll understand revenue and ebitda...that's the starting point.

Live Social ‘22

Eric Doyle

Crux / DLA Ignite