Sales is a process that’s had every ounce of humanity stripped from it. As a creative I have always viewed sales with a certain amount of disdain.

Even that word sales send shivers down my spine. Is it because it’s so at odds with the very act of creating? Why do I as a creative recoil in horror at the word?

My Dad was a sales guy (still is and one of the best I know) but there is alway a certain tendency to want to buck the trend and carve your own path so I rebelled by being creative (there has always been a bit of a punk streak in me).

A few years back my perception of sales and social selling changed forever.

I listened to a Podcast by Chris Do and Errol Gerson called contagious selling go check it out

In it Errol drops some huge wisdom as a creative about how creatives are actually the most well equipped people on the planet to sell. Because sales is storytelling, it's conveying your message in a human way to elicit an emotional buying state and there ain't no one better equipped to understand human need, belonging, emotion and desire than us creatives. 

Creatives shouldn’t shy away from sales we should run towards it. It makes us more complete.

But what if we (the creatives) could turn that on its head and teach not just sales people (but everyone) how to be better at selling through creativity and storytelling.

I have started to break down the art and neuroscience of creativity and will be going on a bit of a journey exploring this very idea over the next 6 months or so. Through this newsletter and video content.

See I found my WHY (and it all started with that podcast) it’s allowed me to find out who I am through storytelling, content and building an audience.

My gift is creativity and I want to teach and coach other people to discover the pure joy of creativity to become better at what they do by communicating their WHY and expertise in the most human way possible. To be their guide and go inwards to a place of self discovery. It's a fundamentally life changing experience.

I want to help them to experience what I have, first hand.

This is Faye, one of the guys from a company I am currently training.

Go check out her profile, look at how human, fun and creative it is.

Faye works in sales (although you’d never know it) she is an account manager BUT she also has a degree in creative writing and she was a teacher (both very creative disciplines) and boy does it show on her profile.

See Fays profile is unique, it’s entirely hers. There is nothing else like it on the platform. It’s a strong personal brand, one that’s human, warm, fun and it makes you feel compelled to want to WANT to connect with it.

A far cry from some of the current sales people in your organisation wouldn't you say?

How high are their acceptance rates for sending connection requests?

But why would making your profile more human allow us to close more business?

Great question and the answer is this…

By connecting we are in the early stages of beginning a process. One that changes how you interact with other people digitally.

We can't have conversations with people if they don’t know who we are or they won't talk to us!

Conversations are what get you in front of the people you need to in order to demonstrate your expertise. We can do that with the 5 C’s.

Context

(who am I speaking to, and what do I want them to take away).

Content

(text posts, image posts, articles, video, how am I delivering that message?).

Consistency

(maintaining authenticity and a single personal brand voice and message across time).

Conversation

(within your contnet and hopefully progressing to our DM’s and then into the anlouge world).

Conversion

(the actual selling part of social selling).

See I believe it is our job as creatives (and as the world become more digital) we need to add back in as much of that humanity through creativity as we can to balance out some of the disconnectedness of our digital communities. In order to truly speak to and touch peoples hearts though our profiles our content and our conversation.

Not just that, buyers are more clued up than ever. They know what products and services are the best for them and they have already done their homework on you. So you better be present, you better be adding value through you content and you better be the only solution for them because you've earnt their digital trust.

In 2022 Simon Kemp says that in 2022 the world will spend over 4 trillion hours using social media.

That's 457 million years! Why wouldn't you want your team on here talking to people to drive more revenue?

Those numbers are literally mind blowing and as your traditional sales people fade into the homogenised background, it’s your rockstars, your creatives, your HUMANS within your team that will absolutely wipe the floor with your competition.

Because people actually WANT to do business with them.

Still think creativity is for kids?

I'm about to change your thinking as we head down the creativite rabbit hole!