WORLD’S LEADINGLINKEDIN TRAINING COMPANY

TRADITIONAL SELLING VS SOCIAL SELLING

INTRODUCTION

We live in exciting times.

We live in an era where almost all industries are being disrupted by technology in some way shape or form. Daily we read news about a new technology being launched that can replace the need for humans driving cars, detect diseases with more accuracy than doctors and robots that replace the need for manual farming.

And the sales industry is no different.

So in this article we are going to talk about Traditional Selling vs Social Selling, how things have changed, and what you can do to equip yourself for success in the modern era of sales.

THE ARM WRESTLE

Traditionally sales has been like an arm wrestle, an interested person would come for more information around a product or service. Or alternatively the sales person would reach out cold to an ideal prospect whether that’s by phone or in person.

The salesperson would give the prospect information on the product or service, but lead them towards buying the product or service from them by tying the benefits back to how it can positively affect their lives.

The sales person gets a commission on the sale, so even though the product or service is unsuitable for the buyer they could influence the purchase just to get their commission.

A CHANGE IS HAPPENING

This then creates a poor perception around sales as we’ve probably all been convinced to buy something we shouldn’t have by someone who couldn’t deliver, but was a good salesperson.

Now the information age and social media has given a lot more power back to the buyer, often the buyer is coming into the sales conversation with more information and therefore the sales process has had to change from a push conversation to a one to one consultative approach.

The new aged salesperson has had to add other strings to add to their bow in order to get the sale.This is where social selling has developed.

SOCIAL SELLING

Incase you’re unaware Social Selling is the art of finding, engaging and building a meaningful relationship with your target market to get them into the start of your sales process. We’ve written an article you can see here called ‘What the FEC is Social Selling’ for more information.

This is one of the new strings salespeople need to add to their bow (in particular in B2B sales).Traditional forms of selling are becoming wastelands, look at cold calling for example, on average it takes 18 or more calls to get in front of someone now. Which shows this traditional method of selling is fast becoming obsolete.

Social Selling is all about creating relationships with people so they ultimately want to buy from you as they ‘like’ you compared to other people with similar products.People no longer buy into product or services, they buy into the people behind the products or services.

BUILD RELATIONSHIPS

Social Selling is all about creating relationships with people so they ultimately want to buy from you as they ‘like’ you compared to other people with similar products. People no longer buy into product or services, they buy into the people behind the products or services.

So the salespeople who are effectively building quality relationships with prospects before and during the sales process are the ones who are seeing the most results.

And where is the best place to build a relationship before the sales process begins? Social Media of course as that is where people are spending their time online – it’s where the attention is.As we spoke about earlier, prospects often come into sales conversations with more knowledge than the sales person.

THE STATSAnd the stats support this, 75% of all buying decisions are now made before the sales process starts.

Those leveraging Social Selling effectively are the ones who are going to do well in the future of sales.

According to a study by LinkedIn salespeople leveraging social selling effectively create 45% more sales opportunities than those that don’t.

As well as that they are 51% more likely to hit their quota and they are outselling their peers who are using traditional sales by a whooping 78%.

THE FUTURE

So if this is how things are looking now, only expect an increase in this as sales armageddon hits.The sales armageddon for people in this industry is Artificial Intelligence.

A study by Forrester predicted that 1 million B2B sales people will lose their jobs to self-service e-commerce by 2020.

So if half the jobs are lost who would be the first to go? Well, the ones who aren’t performing and as the stats show us – that’s the people unwilling to start leveraging Social Selling.

GET OUT OF YOUR COMFORT ZONE

They are stuck in the comfortable place of doing what they know, thinking they are safe.But from a buyer’s position, wouldn’t you rather deal with an artificial intelligence that can help you make an informed decision based on the information at hand.

Rather than it trying to pressure you into a sale to get a commission.

So if you’re in sales the decision is yours whether to take the plunge and decide to learn everything there is to know about social selling and see your sales results improve dramatically. Or you could keep doing what you are doing, stay comfortable. Just like taxi drivers who are now struggling for work when Uber first came out.

DON’T LET HISTORY REPEAT

History tells us that skills & industries can fast become obsolete when something faster, better and stronger comes along.

So the choice is yours on which side you want to be on. The progressive or the obsolete. A great place to start is by reading our blogs, following influencers on LinkedIn in Social Selling or even signing up for our free digital guide and video where we will show you how to best social sell on LinkedIn using our 3 step methodology.

If not from us then do your research and start learning this key skill that’s going to positively affect your sales abilities well into the future and beyond.

DISCOVER THE 3 STEPS TO LINKEDIN MASTERY

Want to learn more about LinkedIn? Download our FREE digital guide today and learn how you too can start using LinkedIn to generate a ton of media exposure, secure joint venture partnerships and build hundreds of new leads for your business. Over 18,000 businesses have now benefited from this methodology. Access it Here!

18,000