Many marketing departments are tied to what they have always done. When I worked at a large US corporate we took last years marketing plan and added a year to it. For example, 2020s was just updated to have a new date of 2021. No changes apart from the year. 

I’m not saying all marketing departments are like this, but often we see a team set in their ways. We are told that the current marketing mix “works” and adding in social selling (whatever that is perceived to mean) is seen a threat.

Along come DLA Ignite with our social selling methodology, 6 year track record of transforming teams and a list of reference sites people would die for, but marketing teams often slam the door in our face. Or go with the “get rich crowd” I guess that “making a few changes to your LinkedIn profile” will “tick” the social selling box and not upset things.

Let’s talk about what happens when companies embrace our strategic social selling and influence program. 

  1. The whole Board is involved, after all social media is not a couple of 90 minute tactical sessions, the modern business knows that taking social media strategically is a board level mission.
  2. The sales team become recognised as leaders in their field, buyers are “attracted” to them and rather than ignoring “just another salesperson” prospects start walking towards your sales team. The number of sales qualified leads (SQLs) increases and the number of deals closed increases.
  3. None of this has mentioned “marketing” and the reason for this is that social selling breaks down the old silos of sales and marketing. During our social selling and influence course we will teach you to create a content factory, get you on page 1 of Google and show you how to digitally dominate your industry space. All of this will increase your MQLs (marketing qualified leads) and SQLs. I know this all sounds like witchcraft but our references will soon back this up.
  4. Part of this is to get Marketing to lead from the front, promoting social selling at the board and in sales. It needs marketing to lead the creation of the new digital organisations processes, that are going to take you business forward into this post-pandemic world. 

Next step would be to get one of the DLA Ignite team to talk to you and walk you through some of our case studies. But I offer a world of warning, we will totally blow your mind. 

Thanks to Eric Doyle and Lenwood Ross from DLA ignite for their client experiences and inspiration for this blog. 


So whose doing this?

In case you missed it, the Bank of America’s Merrill Lynch have banned cold calling and have moved all their people to social selling. This isn't some trendy tech company that might have decided to do this on a whim, this is a very conservative financial services company that has made a decision based on data.

But surely cold calling has a better ROI than social selling?  Not according to Merrill Lynch.

"They will also be encouraged to contact prospects over LinkedIn, which has a higher hit rate than cold calling"