How is your digital transformation going?
I understand that IT might have changed a few systems, you may have "gone cloud" but that isn't digital transformation. Swapping one accounting system for another accounting system is .... swapping an accounting system for another accounting system.
When I ask you about your digital transformation, I'm talking about your people and your processes?
For example
- Do all your employees have "buyer centric profiles" on platforms like LinkedIn? - So that the modern buyer is attracted to your business and walk towards you for help and support?
- Is your sales team empowered to walk digital corridors so they are able to have conversations with the people that matter to them in their digital territories? So regardless where your prospects reside, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, you sales team have the capability to have these digital conversation?
- Is your employee retainment process digital? Are you not just using the tools to enable digital engagement but the processes to support your employees. All employees expect this from business today, not only does digital give us employees a power to be engaged but a shared sense of purpose. This is what modern digital business do to retain their staff.
- But what about the great resignation, are you aware this only impacts analogue companies? Digital businesses get the staff they want and save money on digital advertising and recruitment consultants. Just think, saving money and being the employer of choice getting the best talent.
- Are your reporting to the board the number of leads and meetings you are getting from social and the revenue this is generating for the business?
We are seeing a clear divergence taking place, some people even call it disruption.
Digital business versus analog business. The choice is yours.
Maybe you are putting lipstick on the analogue pig? Here's two blogs I've written about analogue companies who pretend to be digital.
Cognizant rebranding that they are digital, but are they digital?
Is your business proud to be corporate spammer?
Now Imagine .....
Imagine, I pick you up tomorrow in my car and drive you to a place which is full of your prospects and customers. All you have to do is go up and have a conversations with them.
In a social environment like this, walking up and pitching to somebody doesn't work, as it doesn't on a social network.
There has never been an excuse not to be connected to people within an account and in this digital age, even less so. Our social selling and influence course, will teach and coach you to be having conversations with prospects and customers at scale. Whether this is a new business or account-based marketing (ABM) approach.
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.
What happened? They buyer was on social media looking for a solution to their problem, spotted one of the Namos salespeople, who had a buyer-centric profile and asked if the salesperson could help them. That turned into a $2.6 million deal.
Contact any of the DLA Ignite team, Eric, Adam, Nick, Vanessa, Lorena, Brentney, Priscilla, Lenwood, Alex and they will be more than happy to help.
Go and look at their LinkedIn profiles .... look how they can have digital conversations, create insightful content. This could be your company!
We are the only social selling and influence company in the world to offer a certificate in social selling 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
Articles for the CEO
What does success in a social selling project look like?
Can I be fired for not social selling?
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 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
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
For nearly four decades, Rishad Tobaccowala has been pushing the frontiers of the business world. Known for his foresight, his passion for innovation and his no-nonsense communication style, Tobaccowala has become a renowned advisor for chief execs and business leaders around the world. He’s also a senior advisor at Publicis Groupe and the author of Restoring the Soul of Business: Staying Human in the Age of Data.
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