Social Selling & The Competition

This afternoon I will be speaking on Sales 2.0 & The Social Shift to Executives at the ACA International Convention.  We will address a few core issues that will be top of mind to attendees: 1.  Is social media a business tool or waste of time? 2. Show me the money (this one is easy). 3. Can I get an advantage over my competition? 4.  Do my prospects and customers care about social media? 5.  Won’t my competition be able to see who I am connecting with or learn more about us if we are more social? I just finished reading the Ad Age article, How Social Media Can Derail Your New Business Efforts.  I was also asked during my breakfast business summit last week about the danger of the competition seeing your contacts on Linked In. It is true.  Your competition can and will learn more about you if you go social.  My thought about that.  So what? My advice to any sales organization, leader or individual contributor would be to focus on being better than the competition. Social Media doesn’t make or break your sales strategy, process, work product, pitch plan, preparation cycle or prospect and customer experience.  They merely serve as access points and additional opportunity to demonstrate your value proposition. I hope my sellers (they know who they are) are reading this and connecting on linked in early and often.  I hope they are selling with carefully researched and expertly crafted POV (Point of View & Position of Value).  I hope they are presenting clear and compelling proof of concept with case studies that include ROI. I hope they wake up ready to step into the arena of competition and lean into the challenge of taking on the very best.  I hope they out prepare, out think and out hustle the competition.  I hope they present to win. I hope they put their process, strategies, ideas and insights on display for the whole world to see, including the competition.  I hope they earn commitment and identify next steps at every inflection point in the sales cycle. I hope they never worry about what the competition might see, think or know about what they are doing, who they are connected to or where they are checking in. I hope they are that confident.  I hope they are that much better. Sell from a position of strength.  Not fear.  Focus more on the customer.  Less on you.  Even less on the competition. If you are with us in Dallas join me this afternoon at the #acaconvention.