Selling In The Age Of Facebook

From TJ McCue:

Selling is tough in today’s economy. In fact, it's tough in any economy. Here are eight practical truths I want to share with you—my personal perspective on how to succeed in selling in the age of Facebook.

I’m wrapping up a project with book author Phil Simon and I’ve learned a ton. Phil just published The Age of the Platform which is about the “Gang of Four” (Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google) and, you guessed it, how they have built successful platforms.

Some of us are using Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, a website or blog to create a plank in a platform—or one spoke in a wheel. But Phil’s advice, at its core, is you need to pull those planks together in a logical way so that you can extend your reach and presence with a platform. This post isn’t about a specific technology tool. It is about opening up to the marketplace so that your sales approach is in sync with a new type of customer. I know that some or all of these will seem obvious, but because I meet dozens of entrepreneurs and small business owners each week who are trying to navigate the waters of social media, I wanted to highlight these eight traits.

1. Be honest and honorable

Liz Strauss, founder of SOBCon and blogger here on OPEN, generously spent time on the phone with me last year and shared tons of great advice. She didn’t tell me to be honest or honorable (at least not in those words), but she told me a version of her “be irresistible” tagline which had to do with following my passion and that the world needs more people with passion. Not rah-rah-pseudo-passion, but genuine passion that comes from being honest with yourself. If you honor yourself and others, you can succeed in today’s economy.  This isn’t some soft platitude. Just look around at the people who are not very transparent. Why not? Are they being honest with you and with others? People decide to buy from you, based on that vibe.

2. Listen

I have learned to let the prospect speak first, but I struggle with this in every sales presentation. Yes, there’s a time for presenting your ideas and solutions, but if we listened more we would find the answer to the problem the prospect wants to solve. Time yourself in your next sales presentation. How long can you listen without saying something or interrupting? There will be time to share what you are selling. Try it.

3. Be more man (or woman)

There is a scene in the movie Rocky where Mick, his coach, is at Rocky’s side as he is getting beat by Apollo Creed. Mick is telling Rocky, “He is just a man. Just a man.” Rocky agrees and mumbles, “He’s just a man” and stands to go back into the fight. Mick shouts at him, “Be MORE man!”

I’m not a win-at-all-costs competitive person, but I believe in being more than I was yesterday.

4. You do not own your brand

Okay, this point alone is going to create a lot of conversation, but you do not own your brand. Your customer owns it. You might have a trademark, a copyright, that little R next to your name, but it doesn’t mean much. The customer experience is your brand. Your brand is only as good as your customer service and your response times. You can’t sell today if you don’t understand that your customer controls the purchase and is the reason behind your brand's existence. Read Paul Nolan’s post here on OPEN: Keeping It Real From Twitter To E-mail.

5. Ask for help

Forget the idea of having 10,000 connections on LinkedIn. What good is that? Focus instead on the 30 people who really care about you and your work and will help share you on social media. I am part of five or six tribes that rock. We don’t mindlessly tweet each other’s stuff, but we look out for one another. I can go to these different niche groups and ask for advice, or a retweet, or some comments on a post. Am I gaming systems? Not at all. This is what a network is for, so pull together your trusted allies and colleagues and loosely formalize helping one another.

Better yet, build an informal group of customers who you can help you spread the word. Read SmartBrief on Social Media where the editor at large is one of the top Word of Mouth experts, Andy Sernovitz.

6. Be fearless

Chris Brogan posted that no one had it all figured out and could claim to know it all, especially in social media. The point is to try, to test ideas, to go forward with innovative campaigns. Don’t let the so-called experts tell you something can’t be done. Be smart, but be fearless. We are all exploring a new frontier. There’s some great advice out there. Don’t spend all your time reading; do something! Take baby steps if needed. You can sell in social networks, but not in traditional ways.

7. Go deep

I know that most companies think that “everyone” is their customer. Not. Drill down into a niche or community or group that you can serve and dwell there, provide expertise, and earn trust.

8. Share

Share what you learn. Not the basic vanilla stuff that everyone else knows. Share your secret strategies. Give away the secret sauce. Okay, here’s the caveat: If all you have is one sauce and one recipe, don’t share it. But if that’s all you have, you better diversify…Even Colonel Sanders had a couple of different versions of his fried chicken. If you give away your secrets, it forces one amazing thing to happen—you have to think of some new profitable sauces.

Spend a few minutes on these practical truths and you’ll write more effective e-mails, build a better repeat customer base, find the right new prospects, and you’ll know whether you should have a mobile website or a Facebook page, or both.

*Disclosure: I have done paid work for Phil Simon; however, this post is about what I personally gained from reading his book and is not part of any pay I’ve received in the past. And this is not a book review.

Source: http://www.openforum.com/articles/selling-in-the-age-of-facebook

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