I posted my thoughts yesterday about what social selling is and is not. And now, I have another perfect illustration of how focus on technology while ignoring the basics of creating relationships, earning trust and selling value is a big problem.

For the first time, I’m leaving in the person’s name and the company, although I got rid of their email address.

“On May 10, 2013, at 4:47 AM, “Marry ” wrote:

Hi – I hope you don’t mind the direct contact, however, I have an offer I thought might be of interest to you.

This is Bryan Blair; I handle the pre-package list division of my company Realbase Marketing Group. We specialize in B2B marketing lists that will enable the growth of your company by adding new contacts to your marketing database.

Regards, Mary”

I couldn’t help myself and responded with…

“Actually, I do mind. If you had bothered to do a little homework, you would know that in the work I do, I rail against these horrible approaches to trying to sell something. This is SPAM email that doesn’t even conform to federal law regarding email marketing.”

In case it isn’t painfully obvious, let paint a picture of what is wrong with this sales message.

1. It comes from Marry. Her name is Mary. Can’t even ensure that her own name is spelled right?
2. Not personalized and addressed to me.
3. Hi. I hope you don’t mind? Stupid.
4. I have an offer that might interest you. Really? What is it?
5. I’m Bryan Blair. Hum. Well, which is it? Are you Mary, Marry or Bryan? I’m getting confused.
6. You specialize in B2B marketing lists that will enable the growth of your company by adding new contacts? Sure. You spammed me. Is that what you encourage your clients to do? You are breaking the CANN-SPAM Act rules of email marketing folks.
7. Regards, Mary. Again, who is sending this email? Bryan, Mary?

Why am I bothered about the abuse of the term social selling?

Well, for two reasons:

1. The misguided assumption that the use of social tools (LinkedIn, Hootsuite, Twitter or Facebook) on their own is the strategy that will increase sales and cure sales performance problems.

Use of technology is NOT a sales strategy!

Far too many of the “self-proclaimed” social selling experts want you to believe that all your sales people need to know is how to use LinkedIn, and once they do, sales will magically increase. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been a fan of LinkedIn since I became member number 874,098 on July 22, 2004, and am thrilled that my company was recently selected as one of seven to join LinkedIn’s Sales Solutions Certified Partner program. But for all the love, I know, as you need to know, that LinkedIn – just like any other technology – is a sales tool that enables a sound sales approach but does not replace it.

Ask yourself, what good is technology if your sales people do not follow a sales process; they lack basic common sense, good communication and sound selling skills?

I don’t need to tell you the answer. You already know what it is.

2. The over reliance on technology is quickly replacing the basic principles of great selling.

The gap is only getting wider as more and more sales people seem to think that the technology will do the actual selling for them. Good communication, listening, business and sales skills and even the basic principles of etiquette is disappearing…quickly!

Social selling is not merely a set of tactics reliant on one technology platform or even a combination of platforms. I believe that Social Selling is a strategic way of thinking about what today’s buyers want and expect from sales people. Yes, technology is part of the equation and can help you reach your prospects more quickly, but what are your sales people saying and doing once they get in front of them?

What do you, as the sales leader, really need to know about social selling?

Unless you have a plan that is aligned with sales objectives, the right people with the right skills, a process followed consistently, use of the right platform(s), sales messages communicated from the customer point of view, defined metrics to track, and an approach that is mixed with equal parts persistence and patience, you haven’t a prayer of achieving the sales results you seek.

Technology is only a fraction of the real sales story, but the so-called experts won’t bother to tell you that!

The feature also lets you mention companies and when you do your message is then linked to their LinkedIn company page from your update or comment.

Here’s how it works:

1. Go to your homepage share box to post your update or click “comment” on someone else’s update.
2. Type “@” and then begin typing a name in the box. You’ll then see a list of potential people or companies you can mention.
3. Click a name you want from the list and continue typing your message.

Note: LinkedIn members outside your network can also be mentioned if they’ve commented on the same update.

After you select someone from the list and finish your update, that person will receive an email that lets them know that you’ve mentioned them. The name will also be linked to a profile or Company Page from your update.

Maria mentioned me in her Status Update, and I received an email notification. Not only is it clear she is giving me visibility with her network of connections, but I have the opportunity to respond and thank her for doing so.

LinkedIn has certainly progressed since back in the day. As one of the first 1 million members using LinkedIn – number 874,098 to be exact, much has changed. In case you weren’t aware of it, LinkedIn celebrated its 10^th anniversary on Cinco de Mayo (that’s May 5 for you gringo’s). In 10 years’ time, I’ve seen the platform evolve into a powerhouse sales tool. From the beginning, I believed that if LinkedIn could help someone secure that next career gig by harnessing the power of their LinkedIn network, it seemed obvious that the same principle would apply to sales.

Check out the new Mentions feature and keep me posted on how it is improving the engagement in your LinkedIn network. And remember that this feature is just the next in a wave of more to come. In an upcoming post, I’ll write about what’s coming with Contacts. You will be wowed!

P.S. Ask me how I know my LinkedIn member number. Do you know yours?

Your account managers need to understand their customers business, key initiatives and what products they sell. At the same time, they need to build and maintain strong relationships that are essential to closing more business.

But what happens when a person your account manager has a key relationship with leaves the company? That change can often have a detrimental effect on sales. Most account managers have strong relationships with a few people in the companies they support, but what they really need to do is to connect with as many people across the organization as possible. B2B sales tools like LinkedIn make that easy to do.

Here are 5 tactics that account managers can implement right now to deepen relationships and better service and support their accounts:

Follow Companies: LinkedIn gives your account managers the ability to “follow” up to 1,000 companies. As a homework assignment, have your account managers take their existing account lists, search out each company in the Company Directory and then click on the Follow Button to keep tabs on each organization.

Daily, account managers can scan the “Followed Company Updates” to stay current with what their accounts are posting – blogs, key business announcements, job changes and promotions and new career opportunities. By paying attention to what companies are sharing on their page, your account managers can do more than “check in” to say hello. They can share business articles with key players in their network who may be a potential customer for their account, reference a new product announcement during a phone call, congratulate people on promotions, and introduce themselves to new employees and more.

In our recent report, The Impact of Social Media and Sales Quota and Corporate Revenue, we wanted to know if using social sales tools like LinkedIn actually led to revenue results. Not surprisingly, the answer is yes! Sales leaders need to know that not only do sellers who use social media outperform their sales peers in relation to quota objectives, but they are also able to track back their social selling activity to closed deals.

Of the social networking tools that sales people told us they used when networking, prospecting or doing their sales call planning, LinkedIn is by far the leader. And that leads me to my Sales Mastery Interview with Jill Konrath.

Jill recently co-authored an e-book with Ardath Albee called Cracking the LinkedIn Sales Code. Their survey of 3000+ salespeople revealed that 4.9% of them were blowing it out on LinkedIn. And, what they’re doing with LinkedIn is fundamentally different from what most sellers were doing.

During the interview, Jill and I talk about:

• What differentiates the top sellers and everyone else using LinkedIn.
• How top sellers use LinkedIn as a platform to build their professional presence.
• LinkedIn capabilities that top sellers use frequently.
• Social selling strategies that lead to more sales.
• How top sellers use LinkedIn to prepare for their sales calls.
• The differences in how top sellers approach groups versus everyone else.
• The truth about the investment in time and why it matters.
• Action steps to better leverage LinkedIn for prospecting.

As with all of my interviews, I learned from another sales master! Jill is a sales thought leader and best-selling author that I’ve followed for years, and just a few weeks after this interview, I had the opportunity to hang with Jill and enjoy dinner and drinks while she was in Atlanta on business. If you don’t know Jill, and I’m not sure how that could be possible, here is what you need to know. She is the author of SNAP Selling and Selling to Big Companies. Using fresh strategies that actually work with today’s crazy-busy buyers, she helps sellers create new opportunities, sell more to existing clients and speed up sales cycles.

Her newsletter is read by over 100,000 salespeople globally. And, she’s a frequent speaker at sales kick-off meetings and conferences.

Her expertise has by featured by ABC News, Fortune, Forbes, The New York Times, Inc. and Selling Power. Everywhere you look, you see Jill’s name today; she’s on the leading edge of what it takes to be successful in a challenging business environment.

Enjoy the interview!

There is no doubt that sales people and the process that they use needs to evolve. Why? Because buyers start most of the buying process before sales is ever engaged. Some argue that by 2020, sales people will not be needed at all. While I do not believe that to be the case, especially in B2B sales, I do believe that the sales folks left standing will be the ones who adapt to buyers demanding that sales people, and the companies that employ them, do things differently.

In my recent interview with Tim Mushey, who I met and got to know in a LinkedIn group called SalesPlaybook (and then we connected on Twitter and Facebook and…), we talk about what top sales performers do that set them apart from their peers, as well as how social media is changing the game.

Let me tell you about Tim.

Tim is a sales professional, leader, blogger, Toastmaster and social media enthusiast. He has been blogging about sales, leadership and several other topics since January, 2012. He is working on a business to supplement his full time sales career and is looking forward to coaching, writing books, marketing information products and speaking engagements in the future.

His outside sales background is extremely diverse, and he has represented many product lines and services since 1996. His tough as nails determination was developed knocking on doors in Australia in the very competitive photocopier business.

Tim is a passionate leader who prides himself to be the best he can be, no matter the circumstances. He leads by example, and has always prided himself in working hard.

He has connected with many great people via social media in the sales and leadership space, and is amazed to have developed such an incredible network in less than three years. It has given Tim new perspective on the profession, and he is certainly learning something new each day!

During the interview you will learn:

• How sales has has changed from Tim’s perspective.
• How to adjust gears in a world where business moves faster than ever.
• What top sales performers are doing that their peers are not.
• What a brand new sales rep ought to do from day one.
• Advice for sales leaders who feel overwhelmed with so many things to be conscious of and get done these days.
• Why top sellers are not always the best candidates for leading and managing teams.
• How social media affects today’s sales process.

And so much more…

Enjoy the interview!

In fact, most of the sales messaging that I see or receive are overly “me” centric and are focused on what companies and their sales people want to sell versus actually caring about what buyers want and need.

Unsolicited messages that are ill conceived, generic, boring, use jargon that means
nothing to your prospect and are not tailored to the needs and interests of the people receiving them. These messages are so commonplace that it seems that sales people, marketers and the companies that employ them just don’t care. If I could point to one thing that I think needs immediate attention and correction in sales and marketing orgs globally…this would be it!

I’ve shared examples before of the types of emails that sales people must stop sending. I had one all cued up when another jewel of a message arrived in my inbox that I just had to shine some light on. Sort of sad really that I have so many to choose from!

The twist is that it comes from a competitor and it reads like this…

“Barb – I’m sure you know a salesperson or two that could use a good selling tip from time to time (whether they know it or not).  Is there anyone in your network that’s recently mentioned prospecting or networking as a challenge for their team?  Or, maybe they’ve mentioned not getting good leads from marketing?  If so, how would I go about connecting with them?

I appreciate our connection and the value it brings!  By the way Barb, any connections I can help you with?

Regards, Your Competitor”

Clueless never takes a day off!

I am loosely connected to this guy at best. We sell competing services…in the same geographic market, I might add. Yet, he still asks if I know people who have mentioned prospecting and networking in today’s business environment as a challenge. He must know that I do; otherwise why is he reaching out to me?

Or, does he? Listen to what some colleagues on LinkedIn have to say.

I did a little crowdsourcing today to find out what some of my colleagues thought. Here are just a few of the comments:

“So much stupid. Where to begin? a) Mass emails are a bad idea if you want actual customers. (If you just want to show your boss you’re doing some “work,” then sure, go ahead and send out emails blindly.) b) Take time to develop a qualified list. Research the companies and individual targets. Find contacts that can introduce you and get you in the door. c) This isn’t rocket science.”

“I get so tired of people looking for the quick-easy fix. If they had invested some time developing or establishing a professional relationship with you, they could have gotten somewhere. Looking forward to reading your post.”

“Unfortunately, some are now using LinkedIn to build “suspect lists” for unrequested prospecting rather than an introduction process. I’ve had the same happen to me. Sure we all do it to some extent, but blatantly is both annoying and disrespectful. We have a growing number of members who have a different set of values.”

“I seriously doubt the sender KNOWS you’re a competitor. They harvested your email somewhere and sent unsolicited, un-targeted email. I get stuff from competitors all the time and occasionally, I write back and say, “Hello? Do you not have any idea what I do?” But that’s cuz I’m a redhead and think it’s my mission to beat the stupid out of people sometimes.”

Should I do the competitor’s job for them?

Though I’m the first one to make referrals, as they make sense, I’m certainly not going to do my competitor’s job for them. Am I wrong to believe that this guy should cultivate his own relationships with the decision makers he wants to reach?

The irony is that this sales person is so naïve that he probably doesn’t even realize how stupid his email sounds.  If you are blatantly going to approach a competitor to try and gain access to their list, perhaps you should be more creative and interesting.

Doesn’t this seller understand that what he sends is a brand killer?

More importantly, what if I’m the prospect for what he is selling? You can see the problem, right? Why would I send people from my sales team to your sales training when you can’t even sell worth a darn yourself?

Buyers are assaulted with emails from sales people who use this type of unthinking approach all the time. Yet, sales people and marketers continue to complain that decision makers are harder to reach.

Well, of course they are.  Stop confusing ACTIVITY with EFFECTIVENESS. They are not the same thing!

Change your message, change your approach and maybe you will finally get somewhere!

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Join me on April 24th, along with colleagues Trish Bertuzzi, Nancy Nardin and Lori Richardson to learn how to make your sales approach more interesting and get more sales!

John’s product is called Amacus and it is designed to accelerate revenue from Business Development by revealing what’s working and what isn’t. Its auto-analytics show buyer reactions to seller efforts. They enable sales teams to hone best practices using trial and error with small, fast, tests of new tactics. Imagine what you’d like to know, if you could, about sales performance and how to improve it. That’s what Amacus is all about.

Let me tell you about John…

With innovative information inc., John’s leading efforts to improve sales performance using auto-analytics that provoke learning and improve habits. Amacus is his firm’s award-winning application.

John’s spent over 30 years harnessing the capabilities of technology and information in ways that accelerate business performance. His mantra: design innovative uses of information that let clients out-perform expectations.

He’s been doing it for a while. Dropped his first deck of punch cards in 1977. Used his first spreadsheet in 1980. Had his first email account in 1981. Co-produced the first internet video for the PGA tour in 1999. Through  these and other learning moments, John’s pursued ways to use information that drive business performance by making work fun; by getting people, faster, to the value creating parts of their daily routines.

When you listen to my conversation with John, you’ll learn:

• Why producing analytics for sales people makes sense.
• The problem he is helping sales people and their management solve.
• Why the right kind of data is more important than more data.
• The benefits that added accountabilities create for sales people.
• Bad habits that firms might be practicing without knowing it.
• Client benefits and learning.
• Gauging whether the sales approach and message you are using is working.

And more…

Enjoy the interview!

Look. I get it. You want to sell something. Anything. But slinging hash up against the wall hoping that it will stick is a pretty lousy strategy.

Here is a great example of what NOT to do. I’ve removed the name to protect the clueless, but otherwise, the email is as it came to me with grammar errors and all. My commentary is after the email.

“Hi Barbara,

My name is XYZ, and I’m with XYZ company. Given that companies in the Entertainment industry are constantly hiring and back-filling positions, I thought you would be interested in what we offer. Do you happen to know who evaluates recruiting tools at Talent Builders Inc, if not yourself?

XYZ company has over 10,000 small business customers, many of which are looking for the type of candidates that exist on our site or visit our job board aggregator partners. In short, our software gets your jobs out there, organizes, and speeds up your hiring process. You can be up and running in minutes.

Features:

• Unlimited users
• Unlimted job posts that syndicate to 20+ top job boards including Indeed, SimplyHired, JuJu and more
• Automated re-posting to your social media accounts
• Access to XYZ’s extensive resume database
• Pre-screening and filtering ability with video, audio, multiple choice and more
• Interview scheduling and applicant tracking
• Share application link – for hiring managers
• Dedicated account support

Largest package is only $99/mo or $800 for the year

Do you or the person who oversees your hiring strategy have 15 minutes next week for a quick call?

Still in the dark? Check out the video on our homepage at whatever.com

Thanks in advance!
XYZ Sales Rep”

Where do I begin?

At least he got my name right, but the email is one that has never existed, so somebody just tried making it up.

I’m NOT in the Entertainment business. Talent Builders, Inc. is my corporation and we DBA as Social Centered Selling, an LLC that Talent Builders owns. It is not uncommon for someone to think that Talent Builders is in entertainment or recruiting, but we are not.

He gives me all the pricing. Why do I even need to talk to him? I can just simply file this away in the “maybe I will get to it someday”, but then again, probably not.

Do I know who oversees hiring? Of course, I’m the owner.

Still in the dark? Well, actually, I didn’t know that I was in the dark. Thanks for insulting me. But I get it, you want me to do your job for you and go figure out for myself why I should bother spending any time with you.

The problem I have with this email, beyond the fact that it is unsolicited, is that the sales rep is just lazy. I’m guessing his marketing team cued up this email and he just blindly sent it out. Or, maybe he came up with this piece of genius on his own. Whatever the case, it is a classic example of what too many sales people are cranking out there. Why would anyone bother to waste time getting back to you if you send these sorts of messages?

If you want to engage a prospect, and it is important to you that you get a sales appointment, STOP – take 5 minutes to THINK about what you are sending before bothering to hit send.

That is all.

When working with sales organizations in the business-to-business (B2B), space we are constantly asked if using social media as part of the sales process actually generates a measurable return.

Jim Keenan of A Sales Guy Consulting and I decided to find out if social selling truly impacted sales. With all the hype that surrounds social media and the term “social selling”, we wanted to know if social made a difference where it mattered…in quota.
With that in mind, we conducted a random, anonymous survey to find out what sales people had to say.

Our “Social Media and Sales Quota” survey report is packed with great highlights about how sales people use social media to sell.

You will discover that 78.3% of our survey respondents do use social media in their selling process and that 72.6% of sales people using social media outperformed their sales peers in 2012!

Here are just a few of our key findings…

• Quota attainment and sales performance. In 2012, 72.6% of sales people using social media as part of their sales process outperformed their sales peers and exceeded quota 23% more often.
• There is a direct correlation between closed deals and social media usage. Sales leaders want to know where the Return-on-Investment (ROI) is if their sales people spend time on social media sites. 54% of our survey respondents have tracked their social media usage back to closed deals.
• The time investment in using social media to sell. A common concern among sales leaders is that their sales people will spend more time on social media sites then they will actually spend selling. It turns out that their concern is unwarranted. 50.1% of sales people told us that their time spent using social media ranged from less than 5% to up to 10%.
• The report includes other eye openings insights and clearly shows that those sales people using social media significantly outperform their peers when it comes to achieving/exceeding quota and closing deals!

Help Us Get the Word Out!

Sample Text:
FREE Social Media and Sales Quota Survey Report. Find out how savvy sales people use social media to achieve quota and close deals! Get the results from our 2013 survey.

Sign Up on the Home Page RIGHT NOW to Download Your Copy!