solution selling

Contrary to what you may hear, social selling isn’t a NEW idea. I can say that because I’ve been using the term in my writing and speaking since early 2009, as I was writing my book, The New Handshake: Sales Meets Social Media. Rather than trying to take credit for the term though, I want to suggest that you, as a sales leader, need to be wary of the sales trainers and software platform sellers merely trying to capitalize on a “buzz term” they think is hot.

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 profession of sales continues to evolve. With that evolution comes new thinking about how best to approach the process of selling our products and services. Being in the business of working with sales teams to up their game, I stay on top of new ideas and trends in the industry. I heard about the book The Challenger Sale earlier this year and recently made the time to read it.

The authors, Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson wanted to understand what top performing sales reps are doing that their average performing peers are not. That led to an intensive study of thousands of sales reps across multiple geographies and industries. They investigated the attitudes, knowledge, skills and behaviors to get to the heart of what really sets the top performers apart.

The core insight from the book is that the best salespeople aren’t just building relationships with customers. The best salespeople challenge them. The traits of the Challenger were identified as someone who:

Offers the customer unique insights and perspectives that the customer had not considered.
Has strong communication skills and is very good at engaging in two-way dialog
Takes the time to really understand the customer’s value drivers
Is able to identify the economic drivers in the customer’s business
Has no problem discussing money
Is comfortable putting pressure on the customer to take action

Though it goes against traditional sales wisdom, the research showed that relationship builders – the people we typically believe make the best salespeople – actually performed the lowest in complex sales situations. Yes, building relationships is important, but relying on the people skills alone isn’t going to cut it.

Sales success isn’t about what you sell, it is how you sell that makes the difference. If you’ve read any of my other blog posts, you know What also needs to evolve is how salespeople engage with a prospect from the very beginning. Most of us learned a solution selling approach and we were taught the importance of uncovering needs and pain points by asking a series of questions, so that we could more successfully demonstrate how our products and services could solve them.

At SCS, we don’t believe that approach makes sense anymore. With so much information available to us through the Internet, social networks and business intelligence tools, we shouldn’t be wasting our prospects time with “fact finding”, and it turns out that the Challenger rep doesn’t approach the sale this way. Sure, you might need to confirm information that you’ve uncovered, but what sense does it make to ask questions that you can find the answers to with a little bit of time invested?

What I loved about the book is that it supports our philosophies about more effective ways to sell. We hadn’t coined a fancy term for the salespeople that are the highest performers, but we certainly have been working with our clients to help all their sales folks to develop the traits and approach to the sales process, as I noted above. I encourage you to pick up a copy of The Challenger Sale. It is worth the read and may open your eyes to the fact that your best salespeople are likely not who you think they are.

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