Sales Meets Social Media

Social Media and Sales Quota” report is now available and packed with great highlights about how sales people use social media to sell.

When working with sales organizations in the business-to-business (B2B), space we are constantly asked if using social media as part of the sales process actually generates a measurable return.

Jim Keenan of A Sales Guy Consulting and I decided to find out if social selling truly impacted sales. With all the hype that surrounds social media and the term “social selling”, we wanted to know if social made a difference where it mattered…in quota.
With that in mind, we conducted a random, anonymous survey to find out what sales people had to say.

Our “Social Media and Sales Quota” survey report is packed with great highlights about how sales people use social media to sell.

You will discover that 78.3% of our survey respondents do use social media in their selling process and that 72.6% of sales people using social media outperformed their sales peers in 2012!

Here are just a few of our key findings…

• Quota attainment and sales performance. In 2012, 72.6% of sales people using social media as part of their sales process outperformed their sales peers and exceeded quota 23% more often.
• There is a direct correlation between closed deals and social media usage. Sales leaders want to know where the Return-on-Investment (ROI) is if their sales people spend time on social media sites. 54% of our survey respondents have tracked their social media usage back to closed deals.
• The time investment in using social media to sell. A common concern among sales leaders is that their sales people will spend more time on social media sites then they will actually spend selling. It turns out that their concern is unwarranted. 50.1% of sales people told us that their time spent using social media ranged from less than 5% to up to 10%.
• The report includes other eye openings insights and clearly shows that those sales people using social media significantly outperform their peers when it comes to achieving/exceeding quota and closing deals!

Help Us Get the Word Out!

Sample Text:
FREE Social Media and Sales Quota Survey Report. Find out how savvy sales people use social media to achieve quota and close deals! Get the results from our 2013 survey.

Download Your Copy!

Without question, LinkedIn is the premier, powerhouse B2B selling tool. With over 200 million users leveraging the platform, LinkedIn’s power is undisputed. For the pasts 9 years, I have not only been an avid user, but I was convinced – even before the addition of all the features and functions available to us today – that LinkedIn would become an indispensable tool to sales people.

In our recent report, The Impact of Social Media and Sales Quota and Corporate Revenue, we wanted to know if using social sales tools like LinkedIn actually led to revenue results. Not surprisingly, the answer is yes! Sales leaders need to know that not only do sellers who use social media outperform their sales peers in relation to quota objectives, but they are also able to track back their social selling activity to closed deals.

Of the social networking tools that sales people told us they used when networking, prospecting or doing their sales call planning, LinkedIn is by far the leader. And that leads me to my Sales Mastery Interview with Jill Konrath.

Jill recently co-authored an e-book with Ardath Albee called Cracking the LinkedIn Sales Code. Their survey of 3000+ salespeople revealed that 4.9% of them were blowing it out on LinkedIn. And, what they’re doing with LinkedIn is fundamentally different from what most sellers were doing.

During the interview, Jill and I talk about:

• What differentiates the top sellers and everyone else using LinkedIn.
• How top sellers use LinkedIn as a platform to build their professional presence.
• LinkedIn capabilities that top sellers use frequently.
• Social selling strategies that lead to more sales.
• How top sellers use LinkedIn to prepare for their sales calls.
• The differences in how top sellers approach groups versus everyone else.
• The truth about the investment in time and why it matters.
• Action steps to better leverage LinkedIn for prospecting.

As with all of my interviews, I learned from another sales master! Jill is a sales thought leader and best-selling author that I’ve followed for years, and just a few weeks after this interview, I had the opportunity to hang with Jill and enjoy dinner and drinks while she was in Atlanta on business. If you don’t know Jill, and I’m not sure how that could be possible, here is what you need to know. She is the author of SNAP Selling and Selling to Big Companies. Using fresh strategies that actually work with today’s crazy-busy buyers, she helps sellers create new opportunities, sell more to existing clients and speed up sales cycles.

Her newsletter is read by over 100,000 salespeople globally. And, she’s a frequent speaker at sales kick-off meetings and conferences.

Her expertise has by featured by ABC News, Fortune, Forbes, The New York Times, Inc. and Selling Power. Everywhere you look, you see Jill’s name today; she’s on the leading edge of what it takes to be successful in a challenging business environment.

Enjoy the interview!

As a consummate networker, I love that social media helps us to expand the size of our networks in ways not even possible a little over 10 years ago. Through LinkedIn groups, Facebook pages, Twitter and blogs, we can interact and learn from people all over the world. I’m old enough to remember the concept of pen pals, and at its best, that is what social media is all about. At its worst, is the prolific use by many sales and marketing folks to crank out more sales spam rather than engaging people in conversations.

There is no doubt that sales people and the process that they use needs to evolve. Why? Because buyers start most of the buying process before sales is ever engaged. Some argue that by 2020, sales people will not be needed at all. While I do not believe that to be the case, especially in B2B sales, I do believe that the sales folks left standing will be the ones who adapt to buyers demanding that sales people, and the companies that employ them, do things differently.

In my recent interview with Tim Mushey, who I met and got to know in a LinkedIn group called SalesPlaybook (and then we connected on Twitter and Facebook and…), we talk about what top sales performers do that set them apart from their peers, as well as how social media is changing the game.

Let me tell you about Tim.

Tim is a sales professional, leader, blogger, Toastmaster and social media enthusiast. He has been blogging about sales, leadership and several other topics since January, 2012. He is working on a business to supplement his full time sales career and is looking forward to coaching, writing books, marketing information products and speaking engagements in the future.

His outside sales background is extremely diverse, and he has represented many product lines and services since 1996. His tough as nails determination was developed knocking on doors in Australia in the very competitive photocopier business.

Tim is a passionate leader who prides himself to be the best he can be, no matter the circumstances. He leads by example, and has always prided himself in working hard.

He has connected with many great people via social media in the sales and leadership space, and is amazed to have developed such an incredible network in less than three years. It has given Tim new perspective on the profession, and he is certainly learning something new each day!

During the interview you will learn:

• How sales has has changed from Tim’s perspective.
• How to adjust gears in a world where business moves faster than ever.
• What top sales performers are doing that their peers are not.
• What a brand new sales rep ought to do from day one.
• Advice for sales leaders who feel overwhelmed with so many things to be conscious of and get done these days.
• Why top sellers are not always the best candidates for leading and managing teams.
• How social media affects today’s sales process.

And so much more…

Enjoy the interview!

Probably not.

In fact, most of the sales messaging that I see or receive are overly “me” centric and are focused on what companies and their sales people want to sell versus actually caring about what buyers want and need.

Unsolicited messages that are ill conceived, generic, boring, use jargon that means 
nothing to your prospect and are not tailored to the needs and interests of the people receiving them. These messages are so commonplace that it seems that sales people, marketers and the companies that employ them just don’t care. If I could point to one thing that I think needs immediate attention and correction in sales and marketing orgs globally…this would be it!

I’ve shared examples before of the types of emails that sales people must stop sending. I had one all cued up when another jewel of a message arrived in my inbox that I just had to shine some light on. Sort of sad really that I have so many to choose from!

The twist is that it comes from a competitor and it reads like this…

“Barb – I’m sure you know a salesperson or two that could use a good selling tip from time to time (whether they know it or not).  Is there anyone in your network that’s recently mentioned prospecting or networking as a challenge for their team?  Or, maybe they’ve mentioned not getting good leads from marketing?  If so, how would I go about connecting with them?

I appreciate our connection and the value it brings!  By the way Barb, any connections I can help you with?

Regards, Your Competitor”

Clueless never takes a day off!

I am loosely connected to this guy at best. We sell competing services…in the same geographic market, I might add. Yet, he still asks if I know people who have mentioned prospecting and networking in today’s business environment as a challenge. He must know that I do; otherwise why is he reaching out to me?

Or, does he? Listen to what some colleagues on LinkedIn have to say.

I did a little crowdsourcing today to find out what some of my colleagues thought. Here are just a few of the comments:

“So much stupid. Where to begin? a) Mass emails are a bad idea if you want actual customers. (If you just want to show your boss you’re doing some “work,” then sure, go ahead and send out emails blindly.) b) Take time to develop a qualified list. Research the companies and individual targets. Find contacts that can introduce you and get you in the door. c) This isn’t rocket science.”

“I get so tired of people looking for the quick-easy fix. If they had invested some time developing or establishing a professional relationship with you, they could have gotten somewhere. Looking forward to reading your post.”

“Unfortunately, some are now using LinkedIn to build “suspect lists” for unrequested prospecting rather than an introduction process. I’ve had the same happen to me. Sure we all do it to some extent, but blatantly is both annoying and disrespectful. We have a growing number of members who have a different set of values.”

“I seriously doubt the sender KNOWS you’re a competitor. They harvested your email somewhere and sent unsolicited, un-targeted email. I get stuff from competitors all the time and occasionally, I write back and say, “Hello? Do you not have any idea what I do?” But that’s cuz I’m a redhead and think it’s my mission to beat the stupid out of people sometimes.”

Should I do the competitor’s job for them?

Though I’m the first one to make referrals, as they make sense, I’m certainly not going to do my competitor’s job for them. Am I wrong to believe that this guy should cultivate his own relationships with the decision makers he wants to reach?

The irony is that this sales person is so naïve that he probably doesn’t even realize how stupid his email sounds.  If you are blatantly going to approach a competitor to try and gain access to their list, perhaps you should be more creative and interesting.

Doesn’t this seller understand that what he sends is a brand killer?

More importantly, what if I’m the prospect for what he is selling? You can see the problem, right? Why would I send people from my sales team to your sales training when you can’t even sell worth a darn yourself?

Buyers are assaulted with emails from sales people who use this type of unthinking approach all the time. Yet, sales people and marketers continue to complain that decision makers are harder to reach.

Well, of course they are.  Stop confusing ACTIVITY with EFFECTIVENESS. They are not the same thing!

Change your message, change your approach and maybe you will finally get somewhere!

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Join me on April 24th, along with colleagues Trish Bertuzzi, Nancy Nardin and Lori Richardson to learn how to make your sales approach more interesting and get more sales!

The buzz around the term “social selling” is getting louder. I suppose it is inevitable that the new kids on the block believe social selling is something new, but like anything else, it is only new to you when you become aware of it. People like me, Koka Sexton, Craig Rosenberg, Anneke Seley and others, however, have been talking about social selling since about 2009.

It is also not uncommon for there to be any number of definitions being applied to “social selling”. And, I know at least one sales professional who argues that social doesn’t sell, people do. I do not disagree, and I think of social selling as a process, a sales approach and have defined it in this way…

“Social Selling is the process of using social media to prospect, research, engage, collaborate, network, teach and close all with the purpose of attaining quota and increasing revenue.”

What that means for sellers today is that the savvy ones recognize that a better-informed and more connected customer controls the buying process. For sales people to reach this new buyer, they need to leverage the information that can be gleaned from participation in social networks quickly and easily, in order to turn information into leads and sales opportunities.

That leads me to my recent conversation with Scott Miller, Chief Sales Officer at Social 123.

With a variety of platforms in the market that say that they can serve up data to sales people in ways that create sales opportunities, many of them don’t quite cut it. After taking the time to check out Social 123 myself, I have to say that I think they have a winner.

Let me tell you about Scott.

Scott is responsible for new customer acquisition and monetizing Social Media for current customers. Scott is a recognized thought leader in the demand creation space having consulted and led numerous sales teams over the last twelve years. He is the author of two e-books and a successful blog on sales and lead generation best practices.

Scott previously served as District Vice President of Sales of Ceridian – a leading global business services and software solutions company that helps organizations control costs, save time, and optimizes their workforce. Under Scott’s leadership, his division doubled its revenue production two consecutive years. He was successful in implementing leading edge programs to generate demand using social media technologies.

Before Ceridian, Scott served as a Principle for the world-renowned sales consultancy, The Complex Sale. The Complex Sale is a sales strategy and training company that helps you win the sales you can’t afford to lose. Scott’s role was to acquire new business and he brought in the most new customers for the firm for two consecutive years. Scott was instrumental in the demand creating strategy of the firm with a heavy emphasis on web and social media.

When you listen to my conversation with Scott, you’ll learn:

1. What Scott thinks about selling in today’s world.
2. The difference between social media management and social lead generation.
3. The difference between Social 123 and other platforms claiming to do similar things.
4. Why you don’t need a large social network or personal Twitter following to use Social123 to get results.
5. The best social networks for lead generation.
6. How sales people can use Social 123 for selling.
7. Data quality and how they serve it up.

And more…

Enjoy the interview!