Irrespective of the fact that you may or may not be practising social selling, in my world, winning sales starts by having conversations.
And, every good salesperson knows that in order to get people (or more specifically influencers and buyers) to talk to you, you've got to:
- Look the part so you can be taken seriously and heard amongst the increasing noise.
- Have the right story so you can convince your prospects to change and use you.
- Have the right skills so you can deliver your story with impact and articulate value.
Furthermore, that to pull this off in the digital era you've got to have marketing and sales aligned.
For B2B companies, being able to execute your company’s growth strategies, including new product or service launches, go-to-market campaigns or even merger or acquisition deals, comes down to one thing:
Great conversations that go on between your salespeople, prospects and clients.
Ensuring your company delivers great conversations is therefore of major importance. And, in a rapidly changing technology driven environment it's based on three critical activities:
1. Building influence. You've got to get dressed for being online, and present yourself as a key person of influence. It's imperative that you become the signal and not the noise in cyberspace so you're heard or sought out by your prospects and clients.
2. Creating the right stories. Your sales messages and tools have to communicate enough value to break through your prospects’ current situation and differentiate yourself from competitors.
3. Enabling the right skills. Your stories must be delivered with power and impact. They need to create value, convince sceptical executives, and protect your profitability.
Listed below are three popular sales and marketing myths (the two these days are joined at the hip) that I’m going to bust. Unfortunately, these might have been leading you astray when it comes to developing and delivering your messaging. However, discovering the truth behind these myths and embracing their alternatives will serve to empower you AND convince your clients to say “yes” to change, and “yes” to you!
So let’s get on with it!
Myth #1: The salesperson is now obsolete!
Poppycock!
We’ve heard time and time again that buyers have completed 50-70% of the buying process before they seek out a salesperson. And, as there’s a tonne of information in cyberspace to research solutions and compare competitive alternatives, we’d be right in questioning what value a salesperson actually brings? However, things aren't always as they appear. Here’s the truth. Buyers only think they’re self-sufficient in their purchasing decisions.
According to Sales Benchmark Index, 60% of those same buyers actually end up making NO DECISION! So that means that there’s a big difference between what they say they want and what they actually do! My guess therefore is that maybe they need to talk to a salesperson after all!
A better way…
Your salespeople are your greatest assets and they are far from obsolete. Performing, they can add value at every stage in the sales cycle. And, your ability to create a buying vision for your prospects – helping them to see the need to change and view your offering as a valuable solution – is what will differentiate you from your competitors.
Salespeople are the ones who can do this …but they need to be equipped with the right messages, tools and social selling skills to do it right.
Myth #2: Personas develop effective messaging
Poppycock!
Your personas or avatars – those fun fictional characters that embody the traits of your prospects – have been lying to you. Unfortunately here's the truth. Your prospects won’t change their current approach or make purchase decisions because of who they are, or what they're responsible for, or even because of their personal characteristics.
No!
Instead, they'll only respond to messages based on the situation they're in; how they perceive the future unfolding; and if they believe they’re in danger of not hitting their targets. So, in order for you to change them you've got to convince them that their desired outcomes are at risk if they don’t do something different. And, do it now!
Knowing who you’re selling to isn’t enough. You have to create real opportunities, and have a far more provocative and compelling message so you can get them – whomever they are – to care enough to move beyond their current situation. You see, at the end of the day we're all motivated by pleasure and pain. We choose to move away from pain every single time. If your prospects believe they're in sufficient or bearable pain they won't do anything. However, if they believe they're about to endure more pain than they can bear then they'll take action to avoid it.
A better way…
Start by performing a gap analysis. Identify how they're doing something today, what unknown gaps and deficiencies exist, and how changes in their industry and environment could put their business outcomes at risk. Use the picture of your prospect built by this knowledge to create effective messaging that moves them to make a change.
Myth #3: Effective messaging rests on research
Poppycock!
When you're launching a new product or service many would argue that it's vital for you to create a new message. And, many would make the time and resource consuming mistake of researching the voice of the consumer (VOC) to tell them how to position it. However, there's a fundamental flaw with this strategy. Your clients will only tell you what they already know. And here lies the issue. Unfortunately, the problems, challenges and pains they'll express, whilst real, will not be significant enough to get them to change.
The reason why is obvious. They’ve already figured out how to work around the issues. The solution you're presenting, and the change management that's needed to bring you in, looks more painful than the pains they're already living with.
So once again they'll choose comfort over pain.
A better way…
Your job is to introduce under appreciated or unconsidered problems, and then to make them see the imminence and magnitude of those. To create urgency, you need to identify and expose real-life issues that are going to impact their daily lives regardless of your solution. So that means highlighting new threats, obligations, requirements, and/or potentially missed opportunities that they must respond to.
So to wrap this up…
If you’re in sales, it’s time to look more closely at the opportunities and embrace the change. There's never been a better time to modernize your sales approach and use social selling techniques to find new clients, craft pitches that meet your prospects and clients specific needs and bring the right people together to make the sale.
I encourage you, as always to up your game and to seek out better ways to sell and market your business. Thank you, as always for reading. If you found this useful, tell your “friends” and get them to sign up to receive my information.
Now I want to hear from you…
Tell me in the comments below or in a private email:
- What aspect of selling in these digital times (social selling) do you find the most challenging?
Please share your stories and experience here, and if you've got a question, just pop it down here.
Thanks for being a sport and participating!
P.S.
Finally, if you know someone who'd LOVE the insight from this 3 social selling myths busted post, please send them a link. You’ll find solo entrepreneurs, consultants and yes, even sales and marketing managers who manage people who'll be interested to hear about this.
