I started out simply wondering how to prove the ROI of Social Media as a legitimate prospecting tool for a sales campaign and have since been sucked into the vortex of the known and unknown maelstrom known simply as Web2.0. The interactive Internet has evolved into a culture of relationships, business and Software as a Service companies as exciting as the DotCom bubble when it was first being blown up like Double Bubble Chewing Gum. While this bubble certainly has the capacity to burst and likely will for many of the providers, especially those getting in late, the impact on the global population of participants has forever changed the face of sales. It has not just changed the way we prospect; it has changed the culture, the philosophy and the efficiency of all prospecting. The bottom line on this is that using social media for prospecting, or Social Sales, matters. It matters a lot.
In the last post I pointed out how Sales Is Dead! That today we are at the turning point of a revolution in sales and our most modern methodologies are now too old. We must adapt to thrive. You see, when J. Douglas Edwards was the primary sales trainer of his day in the 1950’s and as he passed his material on to Tom Hopkins, the efforts were about qualifying the buyer, presenting the solution and then “closing” until the buyer was too exhausted saying no to fight anymore. The students of sales were taught methods reminiscent of landing swordfish, if there was more fight in the fisherman than the fish, the sale closed. David Sandler, who came along later and really pioneered sales process with psychology, learned his craft from Paul J. Myer. Paul, whom I also studied from, taught, “Create Confidence, Create Desire, Close and Collect.” Sandler adjusted what he learned from Paul J. Myer and taught methodology, psychology and acting to his students, still with the goal of “winning” the sale. Sandler’s approach is far more consultative and understanding of the buyers needs, and of developing a relationship with him sufficient to close the deal, but in the end, remains a process where the sales person uses the information he has that the buyer doesn’t to leverage information out of the buyer necessary to drive motivation to close the deal.
Social Sales or using social media for finding new opportunities has changed the game dramatically so that buyers are armed with more knowledge than ever before, including what the sales person has always leveraged to control the sales process. If one company is not putting the buyers information out into a search-able, findable format for buyers, than another one is. With the primary components of relationship being Trust, Credibility and Interest then the person who appears most trustworthy and credible, when the buyer is interested and is easily discoverable on the Internet, has a huge advantage in closing the sale.
Any seller who does not appear trustworthy or credible BEFORE the buyer contacts them, no longer gets to play the game with that buyer. Because of that, the rules of social media and the “non-sell” are critical. Sellers must provide regular, interesting content in locations where their targets are likely to be. The content needs to avoid the pure sales pitch mindset and simply move into a place where the sub-text of their message is supporting their buyers by providing information sufficient to attract them. They buyers, upon finding the information, are now in control of choosing to contact the sellers for more or not. What is critical and revolutionary here is that if a seller doesn’t provide that information then another one will, forcing everyone to put their information into play for all buyers.
We must be in the game or not get to play at all. This forces us, the sellers, to put lots of content on the Web, including our knowledge, our personalities our successes and even our failures. We must become transparent to our buyers. This is 180 Degrees from the mindset of landing a fish, isn’t it? To gain control of the sales process in the world of the Web, we must give control away. At least, we must give control away at the prospecting phase so that we can appropriately attract those who want what we have and choose to engage us in conversations about how we can support them.
Afterwords, if we fail to support our customers, we better remain cognizant that the methods they used to find us, and we them, are the same methods they will use to report our successes and failures to the next generation of our buyers. Just as many websites now use a 5 star rating system to get your feedback on companies, products or services, the buyer has many, many places to report they didn’t like you or they did. What do you suppose happens to your trust and credibility in the world if your customers see numerous reports of unhappy customers?
Social Sales matters to business, not just because it is a cool new way to attract new customers, Social Sales matters because it fundamentally changes the way we approach our sales process and by necessity, drives transparency, dignity and integrity back into the world of selling.
I don’t know about you, but I think that is an awesome transition.
Respectfully submitted,
Michael D. Goodman
Recent Comments