Key Account Management is a very complex and comprehensive process that generally addresses what happens after the sale. What we want to explore today is how we can leverage social selling in order to assist us in achieving our goal of breaking into major accounts. Nothing happens until somebody sells something. It is also important…
About Craig Jamieson
You Can Own Your Market With Social Selling
There’s good news and … there’s bad news. The good news is that, with social selling, your market just got a lot bigger. The bad news is … your market just got a lot bigger and you will need to be more diligent at managing it. But, there’s also some really good news! If you…
How to Leverage Social Selling Research Without Being a Creeper
I spent some time last month helping a friend get set up on LinkedIn so that he might start to leverage that platform in order to find a good B2B sales job. He’s a younger guy who has a fairly extensive background in B2C selling. Once we got his profile set up to an acceptable…
A Primer on B2B Social Selling with LinkedIn – Part 2
Last month we started our discussion of social selling on LinkedIn. If you missed it, you can catch it here. As a reminder, social selling on LinkedIn or on any other platform is only about two things … Connecting with the right people and … Building individual relationships with these same folks The right people…
A Primer on B2B Social Selling with LinkedIn – Part 1
Last month we talked about social selling on Twitter and how important it can be particularly as a path to initiating meaningful connections on LinkedIn. Today we switch to LinkedIn and, in the end, social selling on LinkedIn or on any other platform is only about two things … Connecting with the right people and…
A Primer on B2B Social Selling with Twitter
Our next two articles will be discussing social selling with two separate platforms … Twitter and LinkedIn. A few years ago, I recall a conversation on one of the social networks that asked the question … “Which platform, Twitter or LinkedIn, is the most effective for B2B selling?” Certainly, there are arguments for both. Then some…
The Toughest Challenge in Sales – Find New Business
Selling is not a “chicken or egg” riddle. There is no question that, if you can’t find new sales opportunities, there will be no new revenues. In today’s world of social selling, this task falls into two disciplines … being found and finding. Both can be applied to recurring orders from existing accounts as well…
The Social Media Noise Has Become Deafening!
This is not the first time that I have touched on this subject but, it’s certainly not getting any quieter out there. There’s an old saying that “you are either a part of the problem or you are a part of the solution.” This still holds true. In today’s social media chatter … “are you…
What Is a "Social Selling Process" and Why Should You Care?
Simply put, a sales process defines the steps in a sale that are proven to work so that this success can be consistently replicated. Think steps in a pipeline or a yes/no flowchart. Some might also include cadence as a part of this process which will, among other areas, define the frequency of selling steps….
Is Selling Still a Numbers Game?
I began my B2B selling career back in 1977 when I went to work for a national company and I was assigned a geographic territory in Los Angeles where I was expected to make 30 in-person cold-calls each day. We were offering business calculators that averaged $500 each although we also provided specialized and accounting…
Optimizing Your Social Selling Network Activities
You have joined a social network and, most likely, you have joined more than one. Now comes the time for you to lean back and wait for the orders to magically float into your inbox. After all, shouldn’t your mere presence be enough to attract buyers to you and then spur them to give you…
4 Simple Social CRM Activities That Will Increase Your Sales
Before there was CRM (Customer Relationship Management) there were Contact Managers (CM) and good contact management practices are neither dead nor are they old-school. The CM features that I grew up with are still valid 30 years later. Social CRM (SCRM) will now allow us to leverage our social relationships as well our traditional ones….
How to Weave Social Into Your Traditional Selling Strategies
For those of us who have been around for a while (some of us longer than others), the mere thought of upending our proven routines can be … unsettling. Speaking for myself, I abhor change. I thrive in a system of perfect order, rules, and predictability. Hence, when approached with the prospect of social media,…
Why and How Salespeople Should be Publishing on LinkedIn
Way back in 2013, I wrote an article for this site titled “If Salespeople Should be Blogging, Why Aren’t You?” Consider this a follow-up. I’ve been writing now for about 7 years. This has included my own blog, guest articles for a number of other great sites including this one, and even a book. Never…
Leveraging Your Team to Increase Your Social Selling Sales
It seems that sometimes we can’t see the forest for the trees. Or, maybe it is that we neglect the obvious, the people who are already around us while we diligently search for new business. Not that long ago, a member of my networking group asked during a meeting … “Does anybody know anybody who…
Social Sales Should Be a Mindset, Not a Toolbox
If, like me, you are in B2B sales and are active at all in social sales, you are well aware that there are literally tons of sales-related applications to choose from for today’s social savvy salesperson. All make promises in one way or another to either make you more effective at what you do or,…
How to Use LinkedIn Groups for Social Selling
LinkedIn Groups can be extremely valuable tools for social selling but, I find them to be somewhat of an anomaly based on the relatively small percentage of group members (I’m guessing single digits, on average in any given group) who are actually active on this platform. Active means contributing, not merely belonging. Certainly, for all…
What Sales Managers Should Know About Social Sales
In past lives, I have both been a sales manager, and I have also worked for a number of sales managers. Not all of those were created equally … Some were also accomplished salespeople whereas others had never sold. I call these non-selling background managers “sales administrators”. Some sales managers handled their own selling duties…
The New Sales Model is Social Listening
At least by classic definitions, I have never considered myself to be a particularly good salesperson. That doesn’t mean that I don’t get the job done. For example, while I despise closes, I am a good closer. I’m really not much good at conquering objections either. Instead, I avoid them altogether by anticipating and addressing…
You've Connected on LinkedIn. Now What?
How many of us can honestly say that we even know, let alone have a relationship with, any more than a small fraction of our connections on LinkedIn? I’m ashamed to admit that I do not. I accept your invitation and … that’s it. We’re connected. What a waste. Based on my experience that few…
The Bad News Is … You Are Meeting My Expectations
There are only three possible impressions that a customer will walk away with having done business with you and/or your company. You have either … Not met their expectations or … Met their expectations or … Exceeded their expectations Not meeting your customer’s expectations speaks for itself. Meeting a customer’s expectations is a neutral experience…
My $50 Per Month Recommended Social Selling Tools
There sure are a lot of free applications that are well designed for social selling tools that are available on the marketplace these days. With all this free stuff, why pay for anything? The simple answer would be, if you have a specific need that cannot be addressed by something for free, or can be…
Social Sales | Identifying the Decision Maker
Properly identifying the decision maker(s) may be the single most important aspect of the sales process. Certainly, this is no different in social sales. Specifically, we are looking for that person who has the … Money Authority Need Otherwise known as the “MAN”. If they don’t have the money, or they are not willing to…
Social Sales | Unlocking the Gatekeeper
One of the biggest challenges in sales is often just getting past the gatekeeper and some of them are very good at keeping you away from the decision maker. As a sales professional, you will never let anything get between you and your bone. Gatekeepers and cold calling are practically synonymous and, in our article…
Social Media for B2B Sales – 11 Tips for Building Better Client Relationships!
Selling has always been about relationships. Particularly in B2B sales, people buy first from individuals and then from their companies. Social Media presents us with an outstanding opportunity to … Discover potential new relationships Create rapport Establish relationships Maintain, nurture, and expand those relationships You now have, and quite literally at your fingertips, more arrows…
Social Media For B2B Sales – Ready, Set, Slow
Last month we discussed the importance of proper planning and of setting goals prior to jumping into social media for B2B sales. Today let’s talk about your critical first steps. Call it setting up house. Although we are going to concentrate on LinkedIn, the basics of what we discuss and advice will apply to all…