The Secret to SCALE: Share/Care/Add Value/Listen/Earn

Never before have marketing and sales been in such a radical state of change. The playing field is moving rapidly to the social sites. We know that 72% of buyers use social media to conduct research (Demand Gen Report), but how do you connect with them, influence them, and yes, sell them something?

Here is why you should read this. The experts weighed in this week in a Google Hangout and the reality is that effective social selling requires a completely different mindset, skill set and cadence than what sales success has previously required.

Three social selling leaders connected this week to discuss the keys to social selling success. Koka Sexton, Brian Franz and Jim Keenan (if you don't follow these guys, you need to) delivered a blueprint for ringing the cash register with social media. In addition, I checked in on social media guru, Dave Kerpen. Here are the keys to making it work for you:

1) Give way more than you take-Koka Sexton of LinkedIn may be the father of social selling and his words were clear. Social selling success is built on a foundation of social capital. The more you give, the more you share, the more you help, the more you care--results in more deposits in your social account. You will expand your reach, become a known thought leader and subject matter expert. People will seek you out. Conversely, the more you ask, take, push, interrupt, and bother leads to withdrawals from that social account. The givers will be flush with social capital and the takers will be heading toward bankruptcy. Give free advice, answer questions, share content. Brian Fanzo (@isocialfanzo) tirelessly shares great content along with tips and tricks for navigating the social selling arena. As I am writing this post, Fanzo is Meerkat-ing the live stream of Jay Baer's keynote from the Social Media Marketing World Summit in San Diego. He is a classic giver!

2) Listen more than you talk- Dave Kerpen of Likeable Local (and Meerkat-er extraordinaire) this week said the biggest mistake marketers and sellers make on social media is that they do too much talking and not enough listening. Social media is a '24/7/365 focus group.' Pay attention to what your prospects are asking about, the issues they are wrestling with, the help they need. The more knowledge you have, the more credible you will be in solving your clients' challenges and the better chance you have of landing a new client. It's not about broadcasting, but asking questions and starting conversations.

4) What is Your Personal Brand? - Buyers are on social sites looking for solutions, and people who can help them achieve their goals. Just as organizations are busy changing their marketing language to focus on the issues they solve and away from themselves, and their products, so too must social sellers do with their personal brands. Too many social profiles are created with recruiters in mind as the audience, but the reality is that your social profiles need to focus on your buyers and prospects. How can you help them? What skills can you bring to the table? How have you helped similar clients? Are you a subject matter expert? What business challenges do you solve? What were the results? What have you written on these subjects? "You are the CEO of Me, Inc.," says Sexton. Personal brand matters more than ever. What does a prospect see when they come to your social profiles? How authentic are you?

5) Always Add Value- Whenever you are about to act on social media, you must first ask yourself if you are adding value. Sharing relevant articles, case studies, writing a blog, podcasting, meerkat-ing, liking, congratulating, cheerleading, connecting, recommending, and helping. As Kerpen says, its not about asking people to 'like us on Facebook’, its about answering questions, giving free advice, delivering an environment for learning. Give them a reason to 'like' you.

6) Be Creative/Lead the Way- The social selling space is evolving and changing at such a rapid clip that Sexton is hesitant to write a book on the subject for fear that by the time the book hits the shelves it will be out of date. Thus there is a huge opportunity here to be creative and to lead the way in social selling. Learn from the experts or become an expert. Innovate, experiment, get noticed. Create a new category.

Social selling is not a technology, it's not a tool, but an ecosystem, a methodology, a new way of doing business--which helps you identify the right targets, build insights, develop relationships, create a personal brand, solve problems, and of course, ultimately create revenue for you and your organization. Happy selling!

[Shout out to Jim Keenan (@keenan) for hosting and leading this provocative social selling rap session.]

Thanks to @Dave Kerpen for the SCALE acronym!

Dan Sixsmith is a VP at Alinean, Inc./Founder and CMO at Trammel Marketing Group /Chief Content Officer at "The Digital Advantage by Dan Sixsmith." Twitter:@DigitalAdvantg/ Meerkat: http://meerkatapp.co/digitaladvantg

Meerkat: The Hottest New Social Engagement Vehicle

Meerkat is here! The latest disruptive and addictive technology has arrived, delivering the ability to stream live video across Twitter. It started gaining steam @ SXSW last week and is now spreading like wildfire across the connected world. If you haven't downloaded it from your app store, go do that now. I will wait for you for you to get back. Ok, let's discuss the implications for marketers.

1. Interactive Real Time Communications! Video has fast become the preferred method of driving engagement. With buyers enduring serious email fatigue, video is a welcome tool to connect with buyers. But in a fast paced and rapidly evolving connected world, how do you stay up to date? What's happening out there right now? In addition to being able to stream a live event, Meerkat enables viewers to make comments, ask questions, retweet the event and like the event. Last night, I watched a live presentation by Kati Kleber (@nurseeyeroll) which was taking place in Charlotte (I was in CT). Kati is a social media expert and author of Becoming Nursey. The event was 'meerkat-ed' by Social Fresh (@socialfresh). Now I am not interested in nursing, but I enjoyed learning some innovative social media and community building tips from Katie. I connected with others who attended via Meerkat, picked up 3 great book suggestions, added new followers and followed a bunch of new people on Twitter.

2. Advanced Personalization-Meerkat enables a new layer of personalization that straddles the virtual and real worlds. See your Twitter followers in action; let them see you in action. I tuned in to social selling guru, Koka Sexton of LinkedIn, answering questions on his way home in San Francisco and was able to send him a question regarding companies that are leading the way in social selling. During the Meerkat, he was able to project his personality. He appeared casual approachable, yet knowledgeable. The two of us connected on LinkedIn shortly afterward. Likeable Media's Dave Kerpen has a daily lunch program from his New York Office or wherever his is in the world. 

 3. Greater Reach- You are doing a keynote at that marketing conference which has 1500 attendees at the event. Now there can be thousands more watching you from Meerkat in real time. Answer their questions. Find out what they think. Mashable's recent Meerkat about Meerkat attracted people from all over the world including China, Denmark and the Czech Republic. Interact with the audience. It's more powerful than watching the video 2 weeks later. There is a greater sense of community with others that are watching. 

4. Build Authenticity and Increase Trust- By Meerkat-ing on your way to the gym, with your son or daughter, you are able to reveal more of your real self, and that authenticity translates into a human and relatable you. It's a golden opportunity to build trust with your audience.  

5. Social Selling 2.0-Meerkat delivers an additional tool for the social seller. Get to know your buyers better--what they are talking about right now. What they are thinking about right now. Find a way to help them now or create another touchpoint on the way to building a relationship with your buyers.

6. First Mover Advantage-before the floodgates open, take your message to Meerkat and stream a live event, conversation, story, or presentation. Guy Kawasaki today delivered an awesome lunchtime presentation regarding The Perfect Pitch. Meerkat is a hot new content delivery vehicle. Capitalize on the newness and novelty and establish a presence early and get noticed before it becomes another overcrowded medium.

Have a great week or weekend, depending on when you read this. Or I will catch you live on Meerkat!

3 Steps To Social Selling Stardom

Forrester put 1 million B2B salespeople on notice last week at their Sales Enablement Forum in Arizona. The pendulum has swung so far in favor of buyers over sellers, they claim, that by 2020, there will be 1 million less B2B salespeople-1 million! --That’s roughly a 25% reduction. Buyers want to buy and not be 'sold to'. Order takers are definitely goners. The landscape is changing fast and salespeople need to evolve or become extinct. But all is not lost for Sales. Social selling is here to stay and is going to provide the doorway to new levels of success in sales. If leveraged properly, a large portion of those 1 million sales execs will be spared. 

So what do you need to do to become a social selling superstar? First let's understand why it's important. Your prospects and clients are all over the social media playing field. They are researching solutions, delivering information about their company, providing detailed information about themselves, their careers, goals, challenges, interests, background, and education. This modern social media-craving buyer is more knowledgeable than ever before and in a high stakes game to grow their organizations--it’s winning now or go home. The long term is not in the vocabulary of most companies today. Buyers want to learn and exchange ideas with thought leaders. The socially advanced companies understand this fact and their leadership and associates are positioning themselves to be discovered. L

So how should sales execs use social media to effectively find and connect with these buyers? Here are 3 keys to social selling success.

1. Content is Critical To Success: Social media sites are tools to be used, but its up to you as to how you will be viewed-the digital personality you put forth. Establishing a credible social media presence is the first step. Be active, both to learn and research your clients, prospects and to share relevant facts about you and your company. There are countless articles about what an effective LinkedIn profile should look like. Your profile should not look like resume. Rather it should act as a personal website that tells prospective customers what you can do for them. It's not about selling but helping according to one of my favorite thought leaders, Jay Baer (@jaybaer). Educate and inform, don't interrupt and sell. You help through content--white papers, guides, how to videos, podcasts, webinars and slide shares.

Content marketing is the backbone of social selling. Positive word of mouth on social media is a powerful tool-a virtual PR machine. The strength of the content you curate, create, comment on, enrich, harmonize is key. Many of the great content experts have mastered what Jay Baer refers to  "..and therefore" content. It's taking the news and providing commentary on the implications, or how your clients and prospects for success can leverage it.

2. Thoughtfully Grow Your Social Networks: Its no coincidence that 98% of sales execs with 5000 or more LinkedIn connections achieve their quota numbers (Sales Benchmark Index). It may be a steep climb to 5000 connections but it needs to be done thoughtfully and strategically. It doesn't mean engaging in a promiscuous speed dating-like invitation spree. The end result of this will be a very low percentage of acceptances and in all likelihood a warning from LinkedIn to cease and desist and a threat of going into the penalty box. Connect with those prospects that can make a difference to your business, but send a personalized invite. So many of us receive random invites from strangers that leave it up to us to figure out what the motivation is. And 9 times out of 10 it’s a sales call waiting to happen. To personalize your message click on the drop down next to the send a message radio button and it will prompt you to personalize the invite. Send a brief note with why you are interested in connecting. Our team usually mentions a common interest around business development, technology, marketing or sales enablement, and express interest in sharing ideas and staying in touch. We usually have a few connections in common which will also help. We are not selling them anything or talking too much about my company or myself. HootSuite recently likened doing business on social media to dating. It takes time to build trust--and it’s a process before you get to that first date which might be a coffee and eventually (hopefully) more. You will be successful in winning the trust of your targeted contact with this approach and as a new 1st level connection, there is a greater chance they will be exposed to your blogs, tweets, groups, comments, favorites and the like. Again, put yourself in a position to be noticed. Build out your Twitter profile, and then Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, SnapChat and anywhere else your target clients frequent. If you have something interesting to say, people will notice and come to value your advice.

3. Make It "Real Time": David Meermam Scott, author of a number of books including The New Rules of Marketing and PR spoke last year at the Richardson Client Forum in Philadelphia, Pa and spent a good portion of his energetic presentation renaming social selling, ''real-time selling." The most successful companies are agile and can leverage their social presence to pounce on the needs that are occurring now more so than at a future point in time. It's about instant engagement, and monitoring the digital buying signals. Some personal tools I like to use to mine for digital buying signals are Google Alerts, which sends real time news via email from my target prospects and current clients in addition to Twitter feeds which I have sent directly to my phone as texts as news unfolds.

As in the early days of digital marketing, the companies and individuals that help blaze the trail in the area of social selling by engaging in real time, mining for digital buying signals and creating thought provoking content will be in a strong position to supercharge their sales.

Dan Sixsmith is a VP at Alinean, Inc. He is Founder and CMO at Trammel Marketing Group and Chief Content Officer at "The Digital Advantage by Dan Sixsmith." Twitter: @DigitalAdvantg

Mastering The Consensus Sale

CEB, the creators of the 'Challenger Sale', is back with a new wrinkle. Not only should Sales challenge its prospects, armed with new intelligence and personalized insights to win more business, but now the research shows it also needs to proactively identify and build consensus among all of the decision makers. CEB's research around the increasing role of buying committees tells us that on average there are 5.4 individuals involved in signing off on B2B purchase decisions. Those sales execs who successfully uncover the identities of and build consensus with 'the 5.4' in their deals are winning more business today.

In a new HBR article and in a recent webinar, the authors of the ground-breaking book, "The Challenger Sale" describe some background on the rapidly changing B2B purchase decision process. First, despite an improving business climate, there is still an overall slant toward risk aversion. Not many individuals want to stick their necks out alone. Further, CEB says that the selling organizations themselves have some culpability for the rise of the decision-by-committee process.Many companies have unknowingly elongated the buying process through the creation of more complex solutions and packages which require the expertise of several stakeholders at the client organization. In short, CEB says that the B2B buying process today is broken. The successful companies of the future will need to deploy integrated marketing and sales teams who will research, inquire, investigate, mediate, counsel, problem solve, and repair the buying process on the way to building consensus for a greater share of wins.

What will be key is to understand each member's individual perspectives and challenges and then connect the dots around a common language among all of the potentially diverse constituencies. CEB also calls out the need to find the 'mobilizer' in the buying committee and work to reduce the risks for her to successfully lead the charge against the status quo within her organization. The mobilizer seems like another name for 'champion' which has been used now for years. When we think of a champion, it is usually around someone going to bat for you and your solution within the organization. What is new and backed up by CEB's research is that consensus building is required much earlier in the decision journey. We know that buyers are 57% through the decision journey before reaching out to sales. In the new research, CEB tells us that group conflict peaks at 37% of the way through the journey. 

That means organizations need an integrated effort between marketing and sales to connect earlier, be more consultative and to make the case for change--not necessarily for your solution, but helping prospects acknowledge and agree that there is an issue and it needs to be addressed. Alinean CEO Tom Pisello and I outlined a strategy to more effectively connect with your client's buying committees in a recent blog post:http://ow.ly/3xqzlX

The research proves out the importance of making the connections within your client organizations. The top performers evaluated their recent wins and losses and found that for the deals that were successfully closed, they typically had identified and connected with 6 or more stakeholders. For the deals lost, the number was 5 or less, which brings us to the question: "Do you know your 5.4?"

Comment below on how you or your team have successfully built consensus among members of the buying committee.

Dan Sixsmith is a VP at Alinean, Inc. He is Founder and CMO at Trammel Marketing Group and Chief Content Officer at "The Digital Advantage by Dan Sixsmith"