by Tim Hughes | @Timothy_Hughes | LinkedIn
I love these lies that keep being perpetrated that somehow Social Selling isn’t prospecting.
Totally agree that writing content and hoping people to phone you up isn’t prospecting, but that isn’t social selling. I could finish the blog there but let’s look at this in more detail.
Why is it that some how people think that sales is somehow some aggressive, macho thing where if you are not annoying people, interrupting people, being manipulative or just ripping people off you are not doing it properly.
The thing is that there is a clear direction of travel with all aspects of marketing. Nobody looks at adverts, nobody reads unsolicited emails and nobody takes cold calls. Or of course, if we do we just block the people using standard iPhone or email functionality. Where as you could keep calling me and calling me and calling me and bullying me down your “sales cycle” now you cannot. We also have legislation like GDPR to back us up. The cold callers have boxed themselves into a corner and don’t have any answers.
Even cold calling conferences are now launched and promoted on social, you can smell the irony from 100 yards. If cold calling worked then cold calling Conference’s would be launched and supported via cold calling.
We spend our days (and we love doing this by the way) ripping out legacy sales methods that no longer work and replacing them with a social selling prospecting. It has many benefits, such as being more effective and efficient than cold calling. You are also not restricted to “prime selling time” like you are with cold calling. One client of ours, baths his children, puts them to bed, reads them a story and then says goodnight. He then prospects before going to bed himself. Can cold calling do that for you?
Some of the great things about prospecting on social:-
- You are not interrupting people so you don’t piss them off.
- You can do it at anything time night or day.
- Social is where your clients are, so it’s natural.
- Using tools like Microsoft Social Engagement (MSE) you can get it to listen to social media. I’ve prospected even while on holiday.
- It’s immediate, with cold calling you have to pick up the phone and home and pray. With Social, you just need your MacBook or Laptop.
- It’s instant. So many people say that social takes a long time. Utter rubbish.
- It’s not “extra work” it flows with how sales people work today.
- Social allows you to do the same action(s) regardless of prospecting, nurturing or accelerating your prospects through the pipeline.
- Social selling (if you do it right) won’t get you blocked, reported and supports the latest GDPR regulations.
- The great thing about social selling prospecting is it’s ten times more efficient than cold calling. If you don’t believe us then check out Tony Hughes’s (no relation) blog where he has research that shows social selling prospecting is twice as efficient as cold calling. We are nice people at Digital Leadership Associates (DLA) we will take twice as efficient.
People who read this article also read these:
https://www.social-experts.net/why-there-is-a-special-place-in-hell-for-people-that-do-social-selling-by-proxy/
https://www.social-experts.net/can-you-tick-the-social-media-box-and-say-thats-done/
https://www.social-experts.net/is-it-time-for-you-to-update-your-operating-system/
