Why Social Media is Ruining Your Business
August 25, 2011 at 11:15 am | Posted in Adrian Miller Sales Training, sales | 8 Comments
Tags: business development, business prospecting, Facebook, Linkedin, sales conversion, social media
I love social media and have a solid appreciation for all of the marvelous things that it does for our businesses including the following:
- Helps to build awareness of our company and brand
- Creates visibility and can generate and register attendees for events
- Provides a (free!) tool for the gathering of business/marketing intelligence
- Offers access to prospects and reconnection with dormant accounts
And yes more.
But, can social media do it ALL and by all, I mean bring in business. Now lots of you are shaking your heads and thinking that I am a bit nuts for even thinking that there are companies out there that believe that social media can save the day in their acquisition of new clients. But here’s the truth…I am saying this because I hear it and see it each and every day as I go about meeting new prospects, working with clients and speaking with business people at networking events.
Business people are doing their status updates, scrolling through the news feed, engaging in “conversations” with Linkedin contacts and are actually neglecting things like picking up the phone and calling, yes calling, prospects and dormant accounts alike. Rather, they’re using social media and email (hey, it’s fast and convenient, right?) and forgetting the personal touch points that really do matter.
People like to buy, they don’t like to be sold and they like to buy when they have a relationship built on trust and respect. Social media can help lay the foundation but that’s all.
At the end, social media is part of an INTEGRATED marketing plan. It doesn’t stand-alone, it won’t save the day and it won’t close business. That’s sales. You close sales and unless you’re an internet business with no brick and mortar and not a human to be seen on the org chart, then you need to take a look at your marketing and sales programs for the remainder of 2011 and make sure they’re positioned correctly to bring in the business you want.
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Thank you so much Adrian for that crucial perspective! Extremely well said as always!
Comment by Heidi Bernstein-Krantz— August 25, 2011 #
Social Media is a great tool for listening to your customers and prospects and giving them what they want. Use facebook, youtube or twitter to ask your customers what they want and then offer them a discount on what they are looking for, you can also use surveys like surveymonkey.com. It’s also good to know what’s being said about you, and allows you to participate in the conversation and adapt. I agree that the phone and face to face is still key to closing business, but social media really allows you to find what people want, and then give it to them, while building trust and rapport along the way.
Comment by Liran Hirschkorn— August 25, 2011 #
Adrian,
Every time I read one of your blogs, it sounds like an advertisement for my appointment-setting services. I made a cold call to a prospect yesterday who said he was interested in hiring me because his two sales people don’t make cold calls.
Norma Siciliano
Comment by Norma Siciliano— August 25, 2011 #
Well said!
Comment by john Follis— August 25, 2011 #
Adrian
Another great reminder that personal interaction will always be important, both in business and one’s personal life.
Lewis
Comment by Lewis Kknopf— August 25, 2011 #
Great post Adrian! Even though I specialize in blogging/social media/marketing content, guess where I was today? I was meeting a prospect face-to-face who had initially contacted me via my blog. She is an owner of two toy stores in town who wanted to chat about what they were doing for their marketing. By sitting down with her, I began to establish that vital relationship necessary for truly work together effectively. Social media can get you “in the door,” but making a sale still requires old fashioned relationship building.
Comment by Julie Trade Levitch— August 25, 2011 #
Great post, Adrian, and glad you put INTEGRATED in caps – that’s the key to success with any marketing, but digital marketing in particular. Unless you’re selling a commodity you can’t differentiate, or consumer goods at a very low price point (meaning a very low risk purchase by your customer), there has to be a relationship.
And you can count on one hand (maybe two …) the number of people who are soooo good at social media that their online relationships alone can carry a sale. The rest of us have to pick up the phone.
Comment by Andrew Schulkind— August 26, 2011 #
Well written Adrian and sound advice for organizations looking to build a comprehensive, effective and consistently profitable [high growth] sales / buying process. The best professionals balance email, social media, effective phone skills, creative presentation skills and true listening skills in every step of the process. When two way, fact based connections are established in the sales / buying process the prospect / client and sales professional take action together. This is how potential transactions evolve into referrals / references and trusted business relationships of long term value.
Comment by Jerry Nealon— September 1, 2011 #