The future of selling has arrived…
Here is how it’s going to be…
1) Random emails or cold calls = fail
2) Access to decision makers and co. (a.k.a. “the juice”) by warm and trusted introductions only
3) Good product and services = many intro’s, many meetings, stronger relationships, robust pipelines, win win scenarios, bright futures
4) Shitty products or services = sorry I don’t them very well or ah we only met once, get it ?
Just blue sky thinking about the next big breakthrough in the world of social / professional networking. The rate and direction of evolution appears to be in the hands of the big three maybe four. That fact in and off itself is a bit stifling to innovation. Where is the competition that will drive the next relentless rounds of productivity ?
I believe Google + and Salesforce.com are providing us a glimpse of how new networks will spawn. I also believe they have the potential to arise quickly. Large web services / SaaS organizations and even Internet service providers have an enormous number of the elements (exo-skeleton) required to build a social or professional network. It’s about the user data, large numbers of contacts, titles, companies with long histories of emails with to and from (relationship potential) data. These networks could potentially be “inflated” quickly.
The real challenge is in creating a virtuous equilibrium of benefits for all the members of the network. This is the only way to sustainability. How is Laslow connected to these networks ?
How can you capitalize personally on the streams of big data being created on professional networking sites such as LinkedIn?
If you have anything at all to do with business development. Pay very close attention. There is a massive shift underway in how people identify, relate and engage with potential business prospects. Conversely, potential customers are pro-actively tapping into the collective wisdom of their own professional network in order to help them identify trusted and referred solutions to their needs.
Let’s take a closer look at some of the elements of a typical business transaction, from both the prospects and a vendor’s point of view.
What is driving the prospects need or want? Is it a painful business challenge or is it an opportunity to capitalize on an advantage in a market space? We assume the prospect will want to make the very best business decision possible. It is also important to understand that in using corporate assets (spending) there is risk to both the buyers brand and organizational performance. If the buyers purchasing decision does not lead to the desired outcome, the buyer “wears” that decision on their personal brand. The decision will also affect the organizations performance. So how do you make sure your making the right decision? Major purchasing decisions are typically well structured events. They are often consensus buys that are made by multiple stakeholders to share and reduce the risk. These stakeholders are representing a line of business’ best interests. They almost always include references and reference material, but these days they do not just include those glowing references that a seller is eager to provide. Prospects are applying much more rigor early in the buying process by reaching out through their professional networks to gain a much more informed and balanced perspective. People and markets are demanding greater transparency for their hard earned money. When you think about the last major economic purchase that you made either at work or at home, did you ask anyone you trust for their opinion or advice ? The point here is, the process of asking for others opinions and advice is the beginning of the referral process.
As a business development or sales professional, you are responsible for growing the business. Given the current economic climate, it is a very demanding job that forces you to focus and to prioritize your efforts daily. Discovery meetings, conference calls, presentations, customer inquiries training sessions are just few of the things that you do in a given day. So how do you make sure that you or your organization is on the receiving end of that referral process?
It starts with focusing on your own professional brand. Last quarter over 4 billion people searches were executed on LinkedIn. When people run a reference search on you on LinkedIn what are they finding? Are they finding a cutting edge profile that helps differentiate you from the other 187 million people they could potentially do business with? Why are you unique? Why should they trust you? What are your qualifications? The first thing to do is to stop thinking of LinkedIn as your online resume. It should be thought of as your own distinct professional profile of record. Your connections by association and their endorsements lend credence to your claims and provide the muscle to create economic opportunity. The more authentic, reference able goodwill you create for your network through your day to day activity, the stronger this muscle becomes. The wider your network, the stronger your brand; the more likely that referral is going to be channeled to you. This branding strategy applies to companies as well. Some companies have hundreds of thousands of employee on LinkedIn, with millions of unique first degree relationships across hundreds of thousands of businesses. Do the largest businesses have the largest networks? Pretty much. They don’t necessarily have the highest quality of network however, and it’s the quality of relationship that catalyzes the call to action.
The imperative is to pro-actively grow the size and quality of your network. Quality is driven through goodwill, in helping your network be successful. And finally here it is – instead of waiting for opportunity to reach you, you need to pro-actively reach out through your network to find and create it.
Rp
Why is social so important to the business?
In a recent study of purchasing managers by IBM, it was found that 57% of the decision-making process had been concluded before the purchaser had even engaged the vendor(s). So where are people getting their data ? From this point in time forward, any customer or prospect will be able to pick up the phone and do a reference check through a trusted source in their network on every person, product and company . This level of transparency in the market will demand new levels of product and service excellence from the enterprise. In fact, company stock market multiples will depend on it.
People, products and companies that deliver real, measurable and reference-able value will wield a major competitive advantage in the marketplace. Their brand will resonate strongly and quickly through taught professional and social circles. Time to market will be dramatically impacted. Case in point, the rate at which iPhone and iPad penetrated the market . Great product + great network = record revenue growth in record time.
Organizations must pro-actively identify, engage and nurture critical relationships with customers, prospects and partners. They need to establish connections and enhance brand at both the organizational level and at the individual employee level. Fostering relationships at these layers will increase opportunity pipeline, reduce sales cycles, increase initial customer commitments and reduce the selling general and administration cost of sales; driving profitability and shareholder value. These relationships are an enormous asset and can range into the millions for large enterprises. For smaller organizations with fewer relationships, each relationship is even more precious. In many ways these relationships are a leading indicator of an organizations “goodwill” and brand presence in the market.
Alternatively, companies that do not create value will face increasing scrutiny and the accompanying risk to their business. Their social brand can diminish quickly, their sales cycles lengthened because of lack of trust, initial customer commitments will be reduced, cost of sales increase and profitability and share holder value eroded.
It ia a strategic imperative that corporate leadership identify, grow and capitalize on these assets in the marketplace across three major axis. Hiring, marketing and selling.
Next Generation Web
I have had the pleasure to work in sales for over a decade now. It has been extremely satisfying to help people solve their problems with solid solutions. One of the key variables in a sales reps world is their territory. In my experience, sales accounts (customers and potential customers) are typically aligned to reps at the beginning of the year based on the following criteria; Install (Existing), Prospect, GEO (Geography), Vertical, Size (SMB – Small Medium Business, Enterprise, Global) or in any combination. In the future accounts may very well be aligned by their sales reps connection density or graph. Further, the quality of this relationship graph will be the next evolution. I think there are a number of very compelling reasons for this.
- Faster sales cycles
- Larger initial commitments
Why ? Because trust would act as a force multiplier. Trust reduces the time interval and friction in a number of key stages of the sales process. Prospecting and initial outreach are faster because the relationship has already been established. Selling time will be extended because of existing credibility. Assuming there is a solid fit and great customer value, the process has the potential to be accelerated greatly.
Next step, choose a new prospect account from that new customers relationship graph and use them as a reference to meet a new contact.
The key ? Do a great job for your customers and they will help you succeed.
Just pondering whats possible in this brand new world of Social Networking. What if you could mouse over any email address, on any web page. Suddenly a little mouse-over bubble pops up and tells you in how many degree’s you are connected to that person ? More importantly, what action can I take to connect to that person. In a business context I think that could be a very valuable piece of info.
Your thoughts ?
What if ? When you visited a company’s website to investigate their products or services. The website dynamically showed you who your company representative was and their contact information ? What if you could see who in your network used that product or service ? I imagine it would look something like the company pages at LinkedIn. e.g. http://www.linkedin.com/company/linkedin/products . But what if you could make your entire site dynamic ? Lets take it one step further. What if you could mouse-over an ad on the internet and identify who your account contact was ? An immediate call to action ? This could change the game for Digital Marketing.
Thoughts ?
Is there a good chance that in the business world, LinkedIn will become the “key” reference lookup table? Could it play “the” central role of relating people, products and services? Does the term Socio-Relational Search even exist ? It’s not on wikipedia, but that doesn’t mean much.
Had a good thought the other day. I received a call from a recruiter who works with a top notch hospital in Toronto. She was trying to understand if LinkedIn could help her recruit participants for a diabetes type II clinical study. The obvious initial response was that LinkedIn was probably not the best fit. Then I got to thinking, there are lots of healthcare professionals on LinkedIn. As a vertical population, this group likely represents some very significant numbers in terms of membership. Why not appeal to this healthcare group as a whole to participate in the trial themselves ? Perhaps via a targeted ad campaign on LinkedIn? Who better to understand the urgency, the impact and the value of good clinical information. Perhaps in the past there was no easy way in which to reach out to the entire group efficiently as they are not a part of the same organization. A Social platform such as LinkedIn could potentially address the majority of members within a healthcare vertical very quickly indeed.
Social Esteem 