Social Selling is a Bad Idea

I love buying stuff but I hate to be SOLD.  My guess is you feel very much the same.  Don’t get me wrong, good sales people exist and can be quite helpful but not when they are more focused on selling me than helping me.  Can I get an AMEN!?

Social is huge right now and people who are in the Sales Profession are smart to take advantage of this very connected world we live in.  However using social sites such as LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook to “sell” simply doesn’t work.  It actually gives you, your product and your company a negative mental image for your prospects and causes them to ignore you or worse unfriend you.

So can you use Social in your sales plan?  Absolutely!  But please don’t waste time selling.  Instead use your valuable time doing what Vanilla Ice instructed us to do in his song Ice Ice Baby… Alright Stop, Collaborate and Listen! (Look it up.  Its after Yo VIP lets kick it and before Light up a stage and wax a chump like a candle).

1. Stop – If you have been trying to sell socially using standard sells techniques please just stop.

2. Collaborate – Every Social site is about collaboration.  Instead of selling you should be trying to educate and help those you are connected to.  Your buyers are looking for solutions to their problems.  The more you can directly answer their questions, provide links to helpful sites, blogs, and other content the more they will listen and trust you.  You are on Social to build relationships and build trust… not sell.

3. Listen – Another wonderful aspect of Social is the ability to listen to what the market is saying.  Whatever industry you serve I can promise you that there is some sort of breaking news. Your prospects, accounts and contacts are all socially active and posting all sorts of interesting things online.  If you listen carefully there are may conversations you can join and add your opinion and expertise.  What are you competitors saying on Twitter? What are your current customers saying about your company on social that they are not saying to your face? Hmmm.

Using Social to HELP and EDUCATE your market versus trying to SELL them will pay dividends.  Try it for yourself and share your stories with me.