In sales or marketing it's critical we have more conversations with people

Trust is, in reality, a person to person emotion not a person to brand emotion

The job of marketing should be to educate, empower and help salespeople to share insights and anecdotes that move them closer to their prospects

It's a simple concept, but far from easy

In an age when everyone is increasing the volume and velocity of communications even a differentiating USP is lost in the noise

If you've ever flown on a British Airways flight, they have to use a celebratory filled video, just so you pay attention to a a video that asks you to fasten your seat belt

So how do you increase the surface area of relationships, trust and conversation?

First of all you need to understand that social media is human platform not a sales platform

If you say “I'm the best salesperson in the world and once I get my teeth in a prospect they never get away” isn't attractive to a buyer

In fact they will run away

It's like going on a first date and talking about all of your conquests 

If I'm human and say “All my life I've loved sport and now I'm live my love of sport being the kids taxi service”

That will actually build rapport with the reader, create commonality

Commonality creates trust, increasing your surface area of relationship and conversation

You can also connect to people, not to pitch, but to be interested in those people

(I can guarantee you will get a better response)

The same with content, as I mentioned before 

Trust is a person to person emotion not a person to brand emotion

Conclusion:

In a world saturated with noise, the true differentiator isn't shouting louder, it's showing up more human

Sales and marketing must work together to spark real conversations, grounded in empathy, insight, and shared experience

Trust doesn't come from flashy campaigns or clever taglines, it comes from people

So if you want to increase your impact, focus less on pitching and more on connecting

The more human you are, the more surface area you create for meaningful dialogue and that's where trust, and sales, truly begin

Can you drive revenue from social media?

Social selling is not about spamming people or inmails or connect and pitch

Our definition of social selling is 

"Using your presence and behavior on social media to build influence, make connections, grow relationships and trust, which leads to conversation and commercial interaction"
 

And the results?

For an AE, we can shorten sales cycles by 30%

And the average SDR will get 1 x ICP meeting a day

Which should increase your revenue by 20%

You can get these results by using our social selling methodology, that is certified by Institute of Sales Professionals (ISP)

"social selling techniques to influence buyers and changemakers - 2nd edition".

In this brand new edition, I have updated all the text, I have also got 15 practitioners, so people who are doing this already to explain how they are get (practical) business benefit. From the CEO that has been running a digital business for over 18 months to sales leaders and sales people who use social selling every day to drive revenue growth. 

Articles on how these business have and are implementing digital, from Mercer, Telstra Purple, Ring Central, Cyberhawk, Namos, Ericsson, DLA Ignite and more.

What does Mark Schaefer, Marketing guru think of the book "social selling - techniques to influence buyers and changemakers - 2nd edition"? watch the video here

It's available on Amazon worldwide.  Link to Amazon.com here and Amazon.co.uk here.