To be successful in the digital era, sales and marketers need to adopt the best new practices and refine existing approaches. 

In today's modern selling environment, organisations need salespeople with diverse skill sets.  They need to demonstrate curiosity, agility and flexibility.  When the buyer already has conducted more online research than ever before, the show and tell pitches of the past will fall on bored ears. 

The article outlines ten modern marketing principles.  These principles are also pertinent to the modern selling organisation.

Experience Is the New Brand:  The modern salesperson is at the forefront of the customer experience.  Social platforms gives the opportunity for customer-facing employees to share brilliant experiences.

A New Type of Customer Relationship Prevails:  The reality of customer-brand relationships today is that they have evolved from single, interspersed interactions to always-on, symbiotic, and immersive relationships.

Garnering feedback from clients is critical and having an open and inclusive social strategy, lets your customers in to your world.  The authors state:

"The only way to deal with this reticence to change behaviour was to offer maximum transparency and provide a lot of information"

Connect With Customers Online and Offline:  We recognise that both worlds exist, ignore one at your peril.  Customer meetings still need to take place, deals are not just done on social, but new relationships are formed. 

Value Creation, Communication, and Delivery Still Rule.  If the salesperson cannot unearth value for the client, then there will be no sale.  Social provides a way for modern salespeople to present value every day through informative posts, and articles. 

Data and Testing Are the New Lifeblood.  I agree, but revenue and margin remain the blood and oxygen of the business.  We now have more data than ever before to help understand purchasing intent, sales cycles, and propensity to buy. Modern Selling organisations are using this wisely to build campaigns that are targeted to individual clients. 

Creativity Remains King. Once the exclusive area of the "Ad men" creativity is key throughout the modern selling organisation.   The most successful brands today are shaped by the brand’s community of customers and partners as much as they are by the company itself.  Social provides a fantastic platform for modern salespeople to demonstrate their unique creativity to solve customer challenges.

Don’t Try to Do It Alone:  More than ever this is a team game.  Modern Selling requires the backup and support of the whole organisation. You need to have the whole organisation socially enabled as it offers a compelling proposition.