This very much depends on what you need from this and what are the required results. 

This sounds like a squirmy answer, let me explain…

If you have spent the last 10 or 20+ years working in a specific mode, you have become conditioned. Conditioned to see the commercial world as working in one way, the way it always did, that’s natural.

We find that initial response to Social Selling & influence is that it’s seen as a bolt on...“something else we have to do as well as out main jobs…”.   

This perspective acts as a block.

A block for progress, development, and improvement.

We are in midst of the biggest most all-encompassing revolution/evolutions of Sales Marketing and Business Development as we’ve seen in our lifetimes…yet people still ask “but.... how long is it going to take me…”.

Until we understand that the goal is to become a Social Organisation, seeing Social media not just as a set of point solutions such as ‘lead generation’ or ‘visibility’, but placing it right at the very centre of what we are, we will always struggle.

One of our clients put it perfectly.

Patrick SaraccoCyberhawk:

, Chief Revenue Officer at 

“A social organisation recognises that building a more humanised relationship with all its stakeholders from customers to investors and employees, develops trust and a sense of belonging to differentiate from an ever-growing digital marketplace”.

Let’s pause for a second to pick out some key words…

• Humanized relationship
• All stakeholders
• Developing trust
• A sense of belonging
• Differentiate

Words we wouldn't see coming from the average board room. This is written by a modern leader who understands ‘the social organisation’.

Our aim is to position you and your team as the leading Technical and Commercial Influencers in your sector, this needs focus, room, energy, and process.

“Why bother with this when we just want to sell our stuff...?”

Here’s why:

If you are in any form of growth position with an organisation, its impossible to ignore these thumping statistics...are you really paying attention or looking inward, speaking into your own echo chamber?

What happens when you get this right..?

If you are reading this and you are in Sales, Marketing, Business Development or any leadership position...ask yourself and you colleagues what you are doing about building influence though thought leadership (the clue is.... if you have to ask, your company is not doing it...(even though marketing tell you that you are)).

Back to my ‘squirmy” answer on time…

We run a strategy session before we start any training with a new client, and we work out what the challenges are and what assets we have. 

We work out what are the required deliverables for each business unit – Forecasts, Pipeline, new products, new territories and what that all needs to mean in cold, hard £, $ and/or €.

Some clients want a hard revenue result from Social Selling & Influence, some want a measured increase in Sales Qualified Leads, some focus on Order Intake, some on ebitda improvement and now, more than ever, clients are coming to us interested in owning the influence in their sector - being the digitally dominant player.

Once the initial training is complete, we enter a coaching phase. 

This means there will be different time demands for each required results and, for each person on the team but, as a rough guide: 

Senior leaders tend to spend approximately and 1 hour to 1.5 hours per day – in small portions of time.

• Posting content, engaging with people who interact with the content.
• Engaging with target verticals and prospect companies, usually at high level. 
• Forming meaningful connections
• Building influence and security
• Creating the space for conversation and introduction

Client facers who are actively prospecting and networking, growing relationships and trust should spend 2 hours + per day.

• Posting content, engaging with people who interact with the content.
• Engaging with target verticals and prospect companies, multiple levels. 
• Forming meaningful connections
• Building influence and security
• Creating the space for conversations and introductions

It always intrigues me when Sales leaders get itchy about their salespeople “spending too much time online instead of doing their job”.

If the analogue salesperson is out on client meetings – How much can they do in a day? 2, 3 at a push?

Traveling, waiting time, the meeting, the pitch, the brochure, the business card, the thanks, the promise of email…onto the next one.

Meanwhile the Salesperson with digital skills is building their influence in your market every day.   They have access to thousands of people in your sector and are interacting with them all day.

So, when a digital salesperson reports back, they grew their network by 25 people in a target account today. The had 2 pieces of hot inbound form their content and had moved the dialogue on connections to 5 zoom calls that day alone…that’s every day. 

Social Selling & Influence done well has always and will always be about creating more conversations and touch points with people who can help your business, than any other method.

We find its better to work out what you are looking for in terms of results and who we have on your Social Selling & Influence team that can affect that result and work it from there, rather than guessing at time before we start. 

We often find when the inbound starts to flow and the CRM starts to fill up with “Social Influence” initiated opportunities, that all the fuss about time just disappears.

So the questions becomes less about "how much time do you expect my team spending on Social Media?" and more about "how do I get more of our people on Social Media..?".

In 2022, its important we give your team all the digital skills they need to network, prospect, and build influence online.

The aim is to become the leading Technical and Commercial influencers in your digital sector, as a leader you need to give this all the time it needs.

Live Social '22

Eric Doyle

CruxDLA Ignite

/