By Izi Singleton | @DigitalLead_Iz
I have been fortunate enough to work at DLA for nine months now and am frequently in awe of the people I get to call my colleagues.
In an effort to get to know them all a bit better; to find out what makes them tick; to get under their worldly and wise skin, I have decided to interview them all.
First up to bat is one of our Non-Executive Directors, Ian Moyse. You’ll be hard pushed to find a more knowledgable salesperson and I wanted to find out more about the man behind the accolades.
So here he is. Enjoy.
IS: Tell us a little bit about yourself and your background?
IM: I am Sales Director at Natterbox, the 1st provider to deliver an end to end Cloud telephony system 100% inside Salesforce.
I have been leading Sales teams, small and large, for over 20 years having started as a Programmer at IBM development labs.
I am known for Cloud computing and have worked in this sector for the past 12 years, sitting on the boards of Eurocloud(UK), Cloud Industry Forum and FAST.
Onalytica awarded me #1 Cloud Influencer for 2017 and Klout #1 on SaaS. I was given the accolade of Sales Director of the Year by the Institute of Sales Management and awarded a Power Profile by Linkedin. I often keynote at events and contribute / guest on many industry and technology Blogs / Publications. I can be contacted here at Linkedin and Twitter.
IS: Why do you think there are still companies that are scared to use social?
IM: I believe what we are seeing is the infancy of social in business. Mostly businesses are seeing ‘social’ as sitting in marketing, something that others cannot be trusted to use in business, something to be controlled under the brand police!. Many see it as a toy and not a real business tool, with others not understanding it or relating to it. Many just wanting to see sales doing the age old approach of hitting the phones and pure clear old school sales activity as it satisfies their feeling that the effort is happening! Social Selling does not deliver instant gratification and is a slow burn and this does not feel comfortable in sales where this months and this quarters results are the focus. Social empowers you to make future quarters and targets easier and more predictable, but you have to start far in advance of when you wish to see any results. Sometimes you may find a quick example win, but you have to be prepared to accept that it is an investment of time now for future revenue.
IS: Why do you consider social to be a great selling tool?
IM: The more you know about a prospect, their business and the individuals the more clues you have to how to best engage and sell to them. People post so much online today, they expose their interests, their leanings, who they know and who influences them. Recognising these and being a little ‘Sherlock’ makes identifying genuine and authentic points of engagement easier than ever before. Often the nuggets are hidden away and come to fruition through the finding of 2-3 factoids that lead to a subsequent conclusion, for example this guy is linked to person ABC and the only link seems to be their shared college subject and years and that you are connected to a girl you know who has worked with person ABC twice before. The facts and linkages often are several degrees of separation and its figuring these out that can make all the difference. Social Selling fits strongest at the start of a sale when you are trying to penetrate a new account, often the hardest part and the most frustrating. How many cold calls, emails, INmails before you have pushed the wall firmly up against you. Better to slow down before you run quicker, work smarter and find that back in window in, instead of trying to forcibly knock down the front door!
IS: I read somewhere that Twitter has overtaken LinkedIn as the best social selling platform. What do you make of this statement?
IM: Linkedin has done a fantastic job of aligning their platform and Sales Navigator with Social Selling, that many when asked state that Linkedin Navigator is Social Selling. Your question correctly alludes to the truth, firstly that these are platforms and not Social Selling itself which is a methodology, a set of approaches to using the Online Social world as an extension to the traditional kitbag of traditional sales methods, skills and tools. I would suggest that Linkedin and Twitter combined are the most commonly used and beneficial of the Social Selling ‘tools’ with Linkedin majoring in the research and insights into facts of the person arena and Twitter being the focus on insights into who that individual is. Both are ways to engage, although twitter forces a more subtle approach typically as most would not DM a sales pitch as many inevitably do through Linkedin INmails.
IS: What would you say are the top 3 things to consider when implementing a social selling strategy?
IM: 1. Recognise that it’s a slow burn. Do not expect to switch it on and get instant gratification. It’s a slow build and then demands constant nurturing to yield the results. Much like a gardener, planting the seeds today does not yield the crop tomorrow, but ongoing nurturing can get you the prize blooms if you persevere and put the right small doses in again and again.
2. Start from the foundations, get someone who walks the walk in to educate your team and ideally use them to mentor you along the path. Do not expect to learn this new skill in 5 mins from a blog positing and get the step change and marginal gains you seek. Be prepared to invest in your team and individuals and train them on a valuable new skill that will pay both your business and the individuals back for years to come.
3. Support the team often, a training session alone does not make them Social specialises. As with any skill handing them a fishing rod does not make them an expert fisher that will pull in the big catch again and again. Showing them how to do it, working alongside them, correcting them, coaching them and brining experts in to lead the path will enable individuals to become self feeding fishers over time.
IS: What would you personally consider to be success?
IM: From Social selling look for entries into new accounts created through initial slow burn social out-reach. Watch for accidental introductions, someone you are connected with recommending you to speak to someone, or referring you to a group discussion where someone is looking for your type or service or solution. Spot identification of unique leverage in a prospect account that you would otherwise not have known. Observe expansion of the average number of contacts engaged in your customer engagements, often a complaint from a sales leader is we are siloed in accounts only talking to 1-2 people. Utilise your CRM to spot these changes in trends by providing lead sources of Linkedin, Twitter, etc and add relevant fields to allow tracking of social engagements such as Twitter DM sent, Linkedin INmail sent.
IS: What would you personally consider to be failure?
IM: A sales team who did not recognise the value of Social Media and Social Selling and how it can contribute to their now and future success and also to their career profile as they progress.
Naivety and mediocrity nag at me, I want people to do well and at least recognise the opportunity they have and seize upon it. Those who have the opportunity to learn and improve, but who selectively choose not to pains me, especially when others less fortunate do not have the opportunity. Specifically with Social Selling, if someone is investing in you or giving you the chance to benefit now and in the future from learning a new valuable skill and you ignore it from naivety or in whimsical fashion, then you deserve to be outsold. Individually I would deem being ignorant, stopping learning and being inflexible as personal failures.
IS: If you could invite 5 people to dinner, dead or alive, who would they be and what would you talk about?
IM: My Grandfather who died when I was a child as I would love to have had chance to know him better and hear and understand about his life.
JFK to have the chance to know what might have happened if he had not had his life cut short, would we be in a very different world today?
Paul Daniels, whose magic I grew up on and regret never having had the chance to meet. To understand what drove him to that level of dedication and practise.
Prince, to hear how someone so skilled, talented and driven could also be so introvert, quiet and pained, to understand those internal turmoils of his fame.
Leonardo da Vinci to find out did he really have the foresight people claimed or was it only our interpretations of his drawings and designs that lead us to believe the level of his genius?
We are a Social Media Agency. We do three things: Social Media Strategy, Social Selling and Social Media Management. Drop us an email and let’s talk about how we can make an impact on your organisation.
