Social Selling Should Be a Mindset, Not a Toolbox

If, like me, you are in B2B sales and are active at all in social sales, you are well aware that there are literally tons of sales-related applications to choose from for today’s social savvy salesperson. All make promises in one way or another to either make you more effective at what you do or, at the very least, to make your job easier. Likely the pitch is … both. Should you be at least investigating some of these offerings? Sure but, please remember that …

The goals of selling have not changed

The fundamentals of selling remain. Most of what worked well for us yesterday continues to be effective today, despite some opinions to the contrary. Let me clarify that. Our customers have changed, and their buying habits have also evolved. We need to do the same but, everything that we know to be the right way to sell still comprises our sales mindset.[Tweet “Learn why social selling should be a mindset and not a toolbox”]

We still need to find qualified buyers, build relationships with these people and companies, convert them to customers, and then keep and develop them into even better customers. Therefore, the question becomes, how can we select and deploy the best tools to increase our selling effectiveness and then apply each to achieve our goals without compromising our sales mindset and the focus that accompanies it?

“Social sales should be nothing more than applying select tools and strategies to the traditional selling mindset.”

Before we go any further, this post has been written primarily for individual B2B salespeople or small sales teams. Enterprise organizations may, in fact, have multiple sales related positions for different parts of the sales process and each of those may/will have different needs.

You need sales skills in order to use sales tools

Let’s start with this … no amount of sales tools will do you any good if you do not have the necessary selling skills to effectively deploy and manage them. This is a given. A professional salesperson will also be keenly aware of the return on investment that each tool will yield. Contrast this with the neophyte who could rise to levels of expectation if “only I had this … to help me”. Giving new tools to the untrained can be likened to providing someone with a gun but, not telling them which end that the hurty thing comes out of. Read on at Maximize Social Business …

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Craig M. Jamieson

Managing Member at Adaptive Business Services

Craig M. Jamieson is a lifelong B2B salesperson, manager, owner, and a networking enthusiast. Adaptive Business Services provides solutions related to the sales professional. We are a Nimble CRM Solution Partner. Craig also conducts training and workshops primarily in social selling and communication skills. Craig is also the author of "The Small Business' Guide to Social CRM", now available on Amazon!