5 Ways Social Media Changed The Sales Game (#1)

After a decade in sales, I’ve encountered only two real game changers out there. In a series of short blogs, I’m going to talk about the latest and my favorite game changer, social media / networking and how a sales professional can change out their old ways for somethings new. Let’s cover the NUMBER ONE thing sales people would love to change about sales…

#1 COLD CALLING

You’re told in sales that cold calling is a CDB (Cost of Doing Business). I’m the honest sales trainer, so I’ll say it… everyone hates it. I’m not going to say that cold calling is useless or a form of torture, even though most people would rather shove bamboo shoots up their finger nails, but it is becoming out dated. (And the congregation said, “Amen!”)

Look at the following options and see where you fall.

• Hacks aimlessly call on lists of people, act pushy, use rehearsed objection scripts and hate every minute of it.

• Pro’s build relationships with gatekeepers and/or use a 30 second qualifying call to quickly identify if the very cold lead is the right person to invest energy on.

• Sales Pro w/ Social Media can build groups inviting their target base to join or develop beneficial Twitter relationships and meet for coffee, both passing the gatekeeper all together and building the relationships on a peer level.

The reason this is so powerful is it changes the natural order of the sales relationships. It takes you, the sales person, from the one “asking” for a meeting to being the leader of a group – a person who can answer questions when asked about an area of expertise. Instead of buying the lunches, you get offered to be taken out.

Now, if your following along, you know this isn’t about the tab, you should pay anyway. It’s about position. You’re no logger the beggar trying to become the vendor. Your a colleague having lunch and offering advice.

If you’d like to learn more about your options, click the link at the top of the page and connect with me.

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