by Tim Hughes | @Timothy_Hughes | LinkedIn
It may seem like a straight forward question, but what is transformation and why should a company claim they are transformational?
The dictionary definition is “a marked change in form, nature, or appearance.”
I kinda can go with that, but I think “change of appearance” is stretching it. There is a saying “putting lipstick on a pig” and we see a lot of that in the Social Selling world. More on that in a second, so what does Digital Leadership Associates (DLA) see as transformation?
We see sales people doing things differently, having built new mindset and new ways of working. Both in the demand generation process as well as using social to accelerate the sales process. In fact, when we work with a business we always install a prospecting culture, which is a natural part of social selling.
If we look at transformation as a way of doing things differently, being more efficient and effective, that would be a great start.
Let’s look at the mistakes we made at my previous company where we rolled Social across Europe out across 2,000 sales people and 2,000 sales consulting people.
- Profile Writers – We did a pilot where we got a company that writes LinkedIn profiles. Of course, nothing happened as there was no transformation. People carried on doing what they did before. And of course in the modern world, what people want is authenticity not something made up. In a world where all the products are the same, by using profile writers, means you lose that. It was a waste of money.
- Webinars – The next tactic we used was webinars. It’s simple isn’t it, invite everybody onto a webinar, explain how you can sell more and watch the sales come in. The problem with webinars is that nobody watches them when you give them. They do email, you at their lunch do anything than listen. As a client said to me, we teach Excel over webinar. Exactly.
- Immersion training – Like a Linkedin masterclass, you go along and listen. Make a few notes and go back to your desk, nothing has changed.
Now there is an issue, with profile writers, webinars and fact based training. Nothing changes, this is not transformation.
People are being scared that there is an easy option. I lost a piece of business to a competitor, because I said that social selling was about transformation, the conversation went like this.
Prospect: So this means we will need to tell the sales people to work differently?
Me: Yes, of course, this is transformation.
Prospect: Oh I couldn’t do that.
Me: So what role will the senior management play?
Prospect: Oh they won’t, this is for the sales people.
This isn’t transformation and this project won’t be successful, which is probably while I’m connected to them, I never see them in my time line.
Transformation comes in all shapes and forms, but people will try and find an easy option, but that isn’t transformation. It’s falling into irrelevance.
People who read this article also read these:
https://dlaignite.com/you-mustnt-be-that-busy-at-work/
https://dlaignite.com/what-next-after-your-sales-transformation/
https://dlaignite.com/a-recent-harvard-study-shows-that/
