Are you still measuring digital with an analogue mindset? In the past, legacy sales methods were restrictive in the way you could measure how your salespeople and business was performing. "Number of calls", "meetings" and what's in the CRM, isn't good enough today. In this blog, I explain how social has all the leading indicators so you have early sight if your salesperson and business are headed in the right direction. Forewarned is forearmed. At the end of this blog are some articles looking at the complete spectrum of sales and marketing to help you and your business on your journey to social selling. Let's not forget, that social selling isn't new, it's tried and tested and being used globally. You will also find more articles on best practice for digital selling from the DLA ignite team looking at industry and country specific focus by following #digitalorganization #socialselling #sales #salesleadership #salesoperations #salesenablement #salesdevelopment
Matt Pybus
3y
Would you solve quantum physics with an abacus?
Very few of the sales organizations I have sat down with over the decades actually measure their analog results consistently and effectively as it is. Meaning, they aren't getting accurate data into their calculations and when tested they fail. Now, apply that inaccuracy and lack of discipline to operating at scale with #socialselling strategically and you have a recipe for spectacular mediocrity. The truth, as you point it out Timothy (Tim) Hughes, is that the digital mindset applied to social allows for an ideal elixir of accuracy and humanization. The ability for digitally transformed Csuite and sales leadership to have all the data necessary to help their entire organization help buyers find and enjoy purchasing from them at scale.
Brandon Lee
3y
Analog KPI’s are going to kill companies! Timothy (Tim) Hughes 提姆·休斯 . At least those who ONLY focus on them. We had a customer tells us the other day that “the higher ups” said they had to increase their KPI activities because sales were down. What they meant was more cold calls and more cold emails. This poor sales manager just shook his head and said, “I’m going to lose my team because they won’t hit their commissions and will look for other jobs.”
Generally I agree you should have some kind of metric for sales activity, but since the Linkedin SSI appears to reward endless polls and pictures of puppies I am not convinced it is truly focussed on quality of engagement over volume. Lots of SME's are in niche markets and simply do not need thousands of connections/likes - they just need the right one who will engage meaningfully with their message.
Andrew Seel
3y
No one likes being ‘sold to’. There’s nothing worse than when someone asks to connect and within 5 minutes you’ve got a message pitching their services. But people do want to be listened to. Completely agree connection is the opportunity for conversation... to ask questions about them.
Larry Levine
3y
Those sales professionals that build influence, grow networks throughout their client base, targeted accounts and marketplace, that connect and collaborate, that move from broadcast to relationship will future proof their careers. Plain and simple Timothy (Tim) Hughes 提姆·休斯 all others watching on the sidelines will be left wondering.
The measures must be tuned the methods or its like trying to measure the mpg of your new electric car...🤦♂️
Driving value from Data Analytics | Regional leader, SVP Sales | Customer Success | Advisory & Coach
3yGreat article Tim, fully agree that social marketing is a vital component of modern selling/propsect engagement. Quality not quantity I would suggest is key, as you say, not just presenting corporate datasheets. I have worked with teams where we have physical events (prior to Covid19) and then use social to build the community based on customer challenges raised in discussion. If the content is relevant, customer centric and conversational it is surprising how rapidly the volume of parties grows and the interesting additional perspectives are shared. Great article and yes a part of a QBR process and league table, LinkedIN SSI is a bit blunt though :-)