Show notes
Business today is different, and those who have not adopted pandemic and post-pandemic selling skills are running into a lot of trouble. Some people are determined to wait it out. And while I'd like to think that we can all just return to business as usual when the pandemic is over, I am far from convinced that will be the case. For that reason, I believe the skills that we learn and implement now will be critical to our selling efforts going forward.
David: Hi and welcome to the podcast. Today cohost Chris Templeton and I will be discussing pandemic and post-pandemic selling skills. Welcome Chris.
Chris: Hi David. We are living in some interesting times, aren't we? If you had told me at the beginning of this year that we'd be doing a podcast on selling skills for a pandemic, I probably would have said, "David, you're losing it." But here we are. So what are some of the skills that you have in mind?
David: Well, it really is crazy. You know, just the idea that for so long, so many salespeople have traditionally counted on in person networking referrals, canvassing, drop-ins, other methods that have historically been done in person. And now a lot of that stuff has been taken away. And I think a lot of people are viewing it like, okay, well I can't wait till we get back to that, and maybe we will and I'm hoping we will. I'm hoping that all those things that were previously available will be available to us again. But if they're not, then the skills that hopefully we've been learning over the course of the past several weeks and months, will come in handy on the other side. And the way that I'm viewing this is that if we can sort of layer in additional skills that will help us to be able to continue to get customers, regardless of whether or not we can be in front of them, we're going to be in much better shape than people who are simply waiting for things to get back to normal. Because the truth of the matter is, we may get back to "normal" in a couple of weeks or a month or so and then we could potentially have it all taken away again. If they decide, okay, well we've got to do social distancing again, then all of that's gone. And I think it will be very difficult for people if they're banking on the fact that things are going to go back to normal. If they don't and they don't develop those skills, I think they're going to be in some real trouble. So essentially what I'm talking about are alternatives to face to face prospecting and figuring out the types of things that we can do, regardless of whether or not we're able to get in front of people.
Chris: It is a big order, isn't it, David? The good news is there's so many things that help us with prospecting that doesn't have to be face to face, but still I think having the attitude of "I need to make changes now based on how this could come and go...
David: Right.
Chris: ...is really the most important thing, isn't it?
David: I think so. And so when I look at, okay, what are some of the skills that we need to develop (or hopefully that we have developed,) a lot of them really go to things that people have been doing online for quite some time now, and a lot of things that internet marketers have done to get business, right. And I think I've been fortunate in my sales career, I was never too married to the whole idea of having to be face to face, to sell to someone. I was always comfortable with the idea of being able to sell to someone on the phone. I was always comfortable with different aspects of being able to communicate, whether it's through email or whatever and through social media or messaging and all these different types of things. So for me it hasn't been disastrous in terms of being able to continue moving forward, but for people who have really only ever done face to face selling, this has been really challenging. So when I think in terms of the skills that are necessary, a good first one to start with would be can you prospect using social media? And it's either a yes or no. Either yes you can do it or no you can't. Or maybe you've tried different things on social media and some of it has worked or some of it hasn't, but that's a good place to start. Can you do that? Can you do some of your prospecting using social media?
Chris: Right, exactly. And you know what? I think that a lot of people, especially if you're used to selling face to face, are gonna say, well no, how could I possibly do that? And I think that the bigger question is, are you sure? Are you sure this isn't one of the ways that you can generate that flow into the top of the funnel?
David: Right, and if you can't, then can you develop the skills to start making that happen? And I think that's going to really be the challenge of a lot of what we're going to be talking about in this podcast, and very likely the next one as well, if we continue on this topic. It's not just about "can you do these things," it's "are you willing to learn these things? Are you open enough to adapt to be able to change an approach when a change in approach is necessary?" So just starting with this one, prospecting using social media, a lot of people have been sort of dabbling with this for a long time. And by dabbling, what I mean is they go on social media, they know they should be able to use it to attract customers, but they're not quite sure how. So they're on there and they're doing typical social media things like just sort of whatever, posting cat videos or posting different things that people tend to do on social media and they're not doing it strategically. Because if you're going to be going online and using social media to prospect, you're going to have to be taking a different approach than if you're just going on there to interact with people and to use it for social purposes as opposed to business purposes.
Chris: Right. And from that standpoint, do you think that there needs to be a separate account that salespeople have that splits their personal and their business into two different approaches?
David: I used to think that, and it's a great question. Let's say we're talking Facebook for example. You need to have a business page, right? You have to have a business page on Facebook, right? The problem with business pages these days is that they get no distribution. You can set up a business page, you can have thousands of followers on your business page and you can post something there, and maybe a dozen people are going to see it because Facebook wants you to have to pay to get your page content shown.
Chris: Boost that post!
David: Exactly. Boost the post. That's what they want you to do, and if you don't boost it, then very few people are going to see it. So I do think it's good to have that. I think it's important to have that. But if you want to look at things holistically, then I think the reality is that you're going to need to be able to have your page for your business. You're still going to need to have a personal account for yourself, and you might want to have something like a group where you can have your people get together. Because if you post something in a group, then the people who are members of the group are more likely to see it. In a group setting, Facebook actually allows people to see the stuff. In a page setting, they don't. Also in your personal Facebook settings, they will normally allow more people to see what you're posting. So to answer your question, I think in a sense the answer is "all of the above." You want to have a page for your business, you want to have a personal account for yourself and you want to potentially have a group for your customers to be able to follow you in so that you can get material out to them that may not be available to the general public. And as far as the real question you asked, which is "should I post business stuff on my personal profile," I'm afraid the answer to that is going to have to be moving more and more toward "yes." And the reason for that is, even if you don't do that, let's say you have a business page and you've got a group for your people. If you're just posting personal stuff on your personal page, well one of the first things that people are going to do, when they come to your business page is they're going to see that you're the person who's leading this discussion and they're going to want to check you out, right? So they're going to go to your personal profile anyway. And if your personal profile doesn't demonstrate some sort of authority or some sort of positioning in terms of "this is what I'm all about, this is what I do, this is how I help people." Then there's going to be a disconnect in their mind. So my feeling is that now you pretty much are going to need to be sort of cross pollinating between your page and your groups and your personal profile.
Chris: It brings up a number of things that I think we should talk about here that are really important. Number one, you better take some time before you start going down this road and take a look at the posts that you have personally, to make sure that you're putting an image for that you want and that what you have posted isn't going to just distract people. Boy, that can sabotage your quicker than anything going you think.
David: Oh no question, and you can immediately alienate half of your potential audience by saying something political. It doesn't matter which way you lean, what your opinions are. If you've got something political on there, you're either going to alienate half your audience or you're going to simply target the other half. There is a client that I have who is very political on Facebook, but he does a lot of work with one particular political party, so he's sort of expected to be partisan. So he can sort of get away with it, because people from the other party are not going to buy from him. He knows that. So unless you're in a situation like that where you've got a very highly targeted,