Miriam Hara
In an airport, recently, I came upon an out of home billboard with a prominent headline: The future of sales will be social. I was taken aback by the statement. Hasn’t sales always been social? The very essence of sales is about the building of relationships. Any B2B sales executive will tell you this. So will any entrepreneur. A retail consultant will tell you the same thing.
Sales is about connections; connections between seller and buyer, but more importantly between these two individuals.
I get that the ad was suggesting that social media is a viable place and space for sales. I understand that what has changed is the way in which those ‘sales’ relationships start, develop and flourish. I also get that the social media platform has provided many of us with the ability to cast a wider net, geographically.
Based on my experience with LinkedIn and guest blogging, potential clients have been referred to me from individuals that I have never actually met. Some haven’t even conversed with me, but have been privy to my blogs or have shared comments on the LinkedIn Groups that we have in common. In a previous post I wrote about business networking and getting ‘found.’ Sales, at its root, is all about networking. And networking is all about being social!
The future of sales is social…in many ways. Once the connect or contact is made, it is still up to you to make that connection count. Okay, so maybe it’s through FaceTime, Skype, web conferencing or webinars…Suffice to say that the physicality of sales has changed , but the socialness (yes, I made up that word!) of sales has always been there.
What are your thoughts on using the social media channel as a sales “networking” tool? If you’ve already been using the social media channel in that way, please share your success stories with us?
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