![The Death Of The B2B Salesperson [Infographic]](http://www.salesforlife.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/the-death-of-the-salesperson-social-selling-infographic.jpg)
Embrace the Work, and Don’t Be Afraid to Get Dirty!
This fun infographic, inspired by Roy Osing, author of the BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series, makes a great point — that success isn’t elegant and is not the result of a formula.
No, doing anything worthwhile can be messy! Things don’t often go as planned — and when something unpredictable happens, you must be willing to scramble and get dirty to move forward.
Achievement is a messy affair, and if you are NOT prepared to get dirty, chances are you won’t reach your desired destination.
What does “get dirty” look like when you’re working toward a goal? Here are Roy’s 10 “dirty rules”:
- Make fast decisions.
- Have a Plan B.
- Embrace Imperfection.
- Do it. Try it. Fix it.
- Align yourself with doers.
- Work outside your comfort zone.
- Bend the rules.
- Do what needs to be done.
- Avoid multitasking.
- Don’t be afraid to make mistakes.
If you want to succeed, take a look at your hands. If they’re dirty, you’re on the right path!
Enjoy this infographic, and be sure to share it with anybody else who’s working toward success.
Originally posted HERE
This blog has been verified by Rise: R0b1f14313341191c56350e9524894a78
10 Ways To Teach Your Customers To Buy From You by Gerry Moran
When it comes successful social selling and meeting your sales quota, being more like a car mechanic, instead of a car salesman, might be the key to your success. Huh? How are you going to meet your quota if you don’t act like the tenacious and famous car salesman, Cal Worthington?
I have purchased over 10 cars in my lifetime and cannot remember any of the names, faces or other details of the people who sold them to me. However, I remember every car mechanic I’ve ever worked with. I remember each of them because we built a trusting relationship. They taught me and did not sell me. They showed me how to maintain my car and advised me on what to look for when buying a new car. They were my trusted advisor who helped me fix my current problem and frame my future purchase. Wow!
Whether you are selling enterprise software solutions in the cloud or trading show shipping services you can position yourself as a teacher, like my car mechanics, and reap the rewards of being a top seller.
Social Selling Lessons | Be A Teacher Not A Seller
1. Differentiate Yourself From The Sales Sharks. With InsideView reporting that 90% of CEO’s do not return cold emails or calls, becoming a trusted advisor and teacher to your customers makes sense. It’s the only way to break through to them. Don’t ‘look’ like the typical sales professional and you will separate yourself form the herd of sales sharks.
2. Don’t Be All About Making A Deal. Instead of focusing on a small amount of sales, build a large social network people modeled after your customers and their influencers. 75% of B2B decision makers use social media to learn. So, plug into this larger network, to bust your quota.
3. Pass On Valuable Information. Don’t use your social media and network channels to promote your solutions. Pass on valuable information, instead, to lead the conversation to you when the time is right to buy. You want to be known for handing out knowledge and not brochures.
4. Associate Yourself With Great Brands. You are the company you keep, so keep good company. Associate yourself with great knowledge brands, like Harvard Business Review, Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal, to build your reputation and brand.
5. Think Outside The Trade-Show Booth. Cast the trade booth sales mentality away and spread your knowledge so people will eventually visit your trade booth when it’s time to buy; 73% of customers are willing to engage with you on social media, so get to it!
6. Use Social Media To Teach And Not Sell. Selling is best done face-to-face. However, Social Media Today reports B2B buyers look at an average of over 10 digital resources before ever making a purchase. Since customers need to learn before they buy, use this opportunity on social media to connect. Your customers are there whether or not you are.
7. Teach And Connect With Today’s Technology. Connect and get on the radar of your customers and potential networks by retweeting, sharing, commenting and favoriting others’ content. Intersecting with their learning tools is a great way to build a relationship instead of finding and phoning them from a LinkedIn search. LinkedIn reports 85% of IT Decision Makers use social networks for business, so your future customers are waiting for you to socially engage.
8. Develop Insights. Before you teach and connect with your customers, you need to listen to the customer and their customers. Listening is a great way to prepare for your connections and calls. SirisuDecisions reports 82% B2B decision makers think sales representatives are unprepared for meetings, so this insight-driven approach will help you build the best social selling lesson plan.
9. Tap Into The Ready-made Network. There is an entire social community on LinkedIn, Twitter and blogs, where customers are tapping to learn how to be smarter, more effective, more efficient to make more money. Determine how to tap into this potential, leverage the rules of engagement, and position yourself as a teacher; especially since the Sales Benchmark Index reports reps with 5000+ linked in connections have a 98% chance of attaining quota.
10. Be A Publisher. In addition to curating and passing on the great content to your network, create your own assets on a blog. Blogging is the social selling secret weapon. Hubspot reports that 92% of companies that blog multiple times per day have acquired a customer from their blog, so this strategy seems like a no-brainer!
Do you have another teaching tip to share? If so, please comment below.
The Hidden Cost of a Failed Sales Manager. [Infographic]
The Continuous Evolution of the B2B Buying Journey [Infographic]
The Buyers Journey – Why Sales Teams Must Adapt
How Content Transforms Salespeople [Infographic]
Forget the sleazy salesperson stereotype.
Today’s most successful salespeople act as thought leaders and industry experts, connecting prospects with content. They challenge buyers to be on the cutting-edge of their industries.
But unfortunately, many people still harbor a negative perception of sales reps. So what’s a salesperson to do? Load up on content.
This infographic explains how content helps sales teams build relationships that lead to revenue.
SPEAK UP! I CAN’T HEAR YOU: Insights from a Social Seller by Louis Richardson
I have had the privilege of speaking along side Louis and I have been reading his blog posts for some time now, “Creativity Crisis“. Social media is an untapped power to many sales people, so his latest SlideShare presentation was one I had to share here.
Follow Louis on Twitter.
Listen “sales”, – There is no such thing as Social Selling!
No doubt this statement will bring the wrath of those “social selling” experts who have arisen over the last few years.
Don’t get me wrong – there is an incredibly powerful and commercially viable way of selling by leveraging social platforms, so let me explain.
First, I have a problem with the phrase “social selling”, mostly because it gives the impression that if you jump onto a social media platform, you will immediately be able to sell something. You won’t, at least not straight away. Using social platforms and the best trading courses in London available at Axia Futures I moved from a day trader to a long term investor and builder of relationships. Yes you may be stumble upon an update that says ” I need to buy [your product], please contact me” but this is an exception and not the rule.
I also struggle with calling a sales person a “social seller”. Does this individual now only sell on social platforms, or more importantly are they a seller who not only utilises the traditional methods of selling but also blends in the benefits of using social tools to add tremendous value to those traditional face to face and telephone meetings?
Social selling does not work when detached from traditional sales methods. I want to share a strategy that will enhance those traditional methods and if done correctly may even negate the need for cold calling.
Now that I have sorted out the jargon lets look at how the commercially viable Social Sales teams do it. The rule is; create the social wrap.
Below is a suggested approach to blending your traditional methods of selling to enable or influence a purchase decision. Here are my five tips:
1: Build your brand.
2: Contribute to discussions.
3: Network
4: Provide relevance through thought leadership.
5: Practice the law of reciprocity, always.
Build your brand.
Building your brand is key and should be the foundation of any great sales person. You are researching your clients and gaining insights to their personality, interests and business synergies. It would be naive to think that your clients are not similarly checking you out. Right now the strongest platform to convey and market your expertise is LinkedIn, but that platform may not be the only one! Yes you are in marketing now, the marketing of your value and credibility.
Contribute to discussions
Participating in discussions is not just about listening to what your clients are saying or understanding what they are listening to. It is about adding your point of view to the conversation. Don’t sell your product; instead offer advice, strategies, coaching on things to consider, how to guides. Add value to a discussion, and in so doing become the authentic helper.
Network
Network and connect with people. Whether you met face to face or virtually, if you feel that reciprocal value can be achieved then invite them to be part of your network. Top tip; always personalise the invite, because not doing so shows a lack of professionalism and integrity.
Utilise your network. Earn social credit by connecting people to others that will add value and benefit them. By doing so you will increase your network in size.
Also use your network to influence, for instance Twitter is business networking on steroids. Surround your self with people you want to influence and provide them great content, relevance and value.
Provide relevance through thought leadership
You need to understand your network. Two important question you could ask yourself are: What types of information would they benefit from? Where and when are they seeking it? This will help you ascertain which platforms will benefit you the most. Consider blogging, as this will become a huge asset to your branding and thought leadership. As your network increases in size so will the diversity and quantity of your content.
Practice the law of reciprocity
Trading favours is a huge part of doing business in the social world. If you are already utilising your network and introducing people to others, you are already practicing this law. Read more at Wikipedia
So those are my top five tips for creating a social wrap.
It is all about building a brand, sharing your expertise, offering your helpfulness and building relationships and influence that will enable you to sell more using social media.
Share your best practices and tips below on how you are using social tools to help sales. And don’t forget to practice the law of reciprocity now
Every single person in every single company is either in sales or affects sales.
REALITY: Every single person in every single company is either in sales or affects sales. Every single person in every single company is either in service or affects service.
There’s an old business adage that goes: “Everyone is in sales.” The reality is that only salespeople believe this. Even customer service people that touch customers daily and spend hours with them in what might be considered a gateway to the next sale don’t think of themselves as in sales, or don’t think of themselves as salespeople.
KEY POINT OF UNDERSTANDING: Your customers are judging every aspect of every transaction and rating everything from friendliness of people, to ease of doing business, to quality of product, to service after the sale. They’re judging how easy it is to access someone on the phone. They’re judging how the package arrived. They’re judging what the instruction book is like. And they’re certainly judging service should they need it.
The dilemma is that leadership fails to communicate and teach the importance of customer’s interactions and perceptions as they relate to the success of the company. The reason everyone in the company doesn’t perceive or realize that they’re in sales is that no one has told them and no one has taught them. 
Here are a few “teach tips” to get your team to the next level…
• Teach EVERYONE that attitude is the foundation of success, both personal and business – Tweet This
• Teach EVERYONE the importance of friendliness – Tweet This
• Teach EVERYONE that speed of response is not an option – Tweet This
• Teach EVERYONE how to respond to customer complaints – Tweet This
• Teach EVERYONE that service is as important as sales. – Tweet This
• Teach EVERYONE to ask for more business – Tweet This
• Teach EVERYONE to suggest more – Tweet This
• Teach EVERYONE to thank the customer for their business – Tweet This
The key word is “teach” because these are courses that no one ever learned in school. Yet they are vital to your success – especially in these times.
These elements may seem fundamental – almost rudimentary – to anyone’s job function. But more business is lost to apathy, rudeness, slow response, poor attitude, and lack of friendliness than is lost to low price – times a thousand.
CHALLENGE: If you tell your people everyone is in sales, why don’t you follow through and help them sell?
THOUGHT: If everyone in the company is in sales, why are only salespeople invited to sales meetings? – Tweet This
REALITY: You are overlooking HUGE sales opportunities at a time when sales are harder to come by, and every sale counts.
via Jeffrey Gitomer’s Sales Blog –. I loved this post and just had to share it with you. I even tried to tell my wife, who is a community carer that she was in sales. She vehemently disagreed. I explained she was the face of the company and her cheerful attitude and willingness to help, results in a great customer experience and increased loyalty.
What role are you in and do you perceive your self as a sales person?