by Tim Hughes | @Timothy_Hughes | LinkedIn
I was feeling upbeat the other day, I was reading a book. In the forward it talked about how the author was the “real deal”, how this was all about being “authentic”. This sounds great, we need this.
Next we are told that Social Selling isn’t about selling. This is all good stuff. We all hate being pitched too. Nobody likes being sold too. Social selling isn’t about selling on social. Social enables you to build a relationship, you take the relationship off line, for example a call or a meeting and then you “sell” in the normal way. Pitching on social just pisses people off, it is after all cold calling on a social network.
So when I started reading that Social Selling is about “salesy templates” I was taken aback.
Salesy templates are killing social media. Taking somebody else’s template is not authentic. It’s like somebody else standing in to take your driving test for you! If you are going to connect with me, I want the real you, not some manufactured, out of the bottle you.
My hair fell out in my twenties, it’s who I am. If I came to a meeting with a wig on, it’s not me, it’s not authentic. That is why you shouldn’t use templates and why using them and proposing to people to use them is not authentic.
There is also another reason why you shouldn’t use templates.
At the end of last year I was at Christmas drinks of a client and I got talking to one of their CIO clients. I asked him what it was like to be a “target” for calls, emails and social media.
He said, actually it was easy. 80% of what he was sent was “rubbish” it was all the same, no differentiation, no understanding of his business issues and no relevance to him, his company or his vertical. He laughed that two competitors were using the same template to try and get hold of him.
Just think for a second, salespeople using word for word the same outreach. The same template.
Let me write that again, using templates means you are exactly the same as your competition.
I’ve been in sales for 25 years and in all of those years, we have tried to be different from “just another salesperson”. We have wanted to stand out to our customers.
By using templates you are being suckered into being the same as everybody else. It is a race to the bottom.
I realise it might seem great to be taking short cuts, but if you want to be successful in sales it takes work. You need to be differentiated from the competition and not just another salesperson.
In a recent post Gabe Larsen said “You can’t fake this you guys and I promise you that people can tell if you’re being genuine or not. This is the most powerful thing in sales right now…PERSONALIZATION.”
Your buyers, prospects and customers want personalisation. They want relevance. They want you to be different. You owe it to yourself to stop being like everybody else!
The people spreading these templates are no better than these people selling “get quick schemes” on the internet. It’s snake oil and you shouldn’t fall for it.
People who read this article also read these:
https://dlaignite.com/why-you-just-wasted-your-money-on-that-stand-at-an-exhibition/
https://dlaignite.com/if-it-says-so-in-my-book-it-has-to-be-true/
https://dlaignite.com/why-social-selling-training-over-webinars-is-for-losers/
