I’m tired of people saying how social selling is the only way to develop prospects.
Does social selling work as a way to develop prospects? Yes, but developing a prospect is not the same thing as selling to the prospect.
Here is my issue…
Social selling works as a way to create relationships, develop awareness, and generate insights — but to think we’re going to close sales purely based off social selling is simply not a solid business plan.
Relying too heavily on social selling to sell is simply put a great plan if you want to NOT achieve your numbers.
This is a key reason why I stress with both salespeople and sales managers that social selling cannot replace the traditional selling process.
I go so far as to say doing anything related to social selling should only be done outside of the normal workday. This may seem harsh, but I find too much time being wasted — and I mean WASTED on social selling, because it can become a giant time suck.
Social selling is very similar to networking. How many times have you been to a networking event and came away thinking how that was a big waste of time? We all have.
Sure, you meet people and have great conversations, but in the end, how many of those turn into anything meaningful in a short amount of time? Very few do!
Social selling is really nothing more than virtual networking. I know such a statement is going to anger some of my peers who believe strongly in the power of social selling.
We have sales quotas to meet and relying solely on social selling is simply not going to generate the level of sales fast enough to sustain you in your sales career.
If you really want to develop prospects in a way that leads to sales, check out Breakthrough Sales University.
Copyright 2015, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter.” Sales Motivation Blog. Mark Hunter is the author of High-Profit Selling: Win the Sale Without Compromising on Price.
