I was recently visiting the Tall Ships event in Greenwich. As well as seeing some amazing Tall Ships (of course) there was an exhibition of daily life in Victorian London.
One of the demonstrations was of the use of Leeches in medicine. It was thought that sucking blood was good (Won't go into detail, but you can find more here .) but as how often happens, things change.
I'm pleased to say the use of Leeches got swept aside by modern medicine.
I read recently an article about cold calling and thought there could be a parallel here?
The article on cold calling could be summarised as "the evidence is overwhelming people actually like being cold called and if only us sales people just "manned up" things would be OK."
Two of my blogs worth reading at this point
"Accelerate your Pipeline Creation with Social Selling" - In this blog I argue you can get access to people faster and higher than using cold calling .... and no I don't use any of those "stats" that nobody seems to know where they came from, I use actual sales people talking about their own experiences.
"The Day When Stealing Somebody Else's Time Is Over" - In this blog I use a video from a Gay Vee presentation where he asks people to stand up if they are pissed off by people, who they don't know, calling them up. Watch those people stand up.
Isn't Cold Calling the new Social Selling?
Didn't we read an article on Linkedin that Cold Calling was relevant?
Let's not forget, vacuum tube manufacturers (protested at the advance of the transistor), coal miners (said it will never be economical to ship from abroad), sat-nav companies (saying they will never be build-in in every car), and all of these got swept aside.
But Tim, Change won't Happen to me!
History is littered with change and changes. When I started work we had typing pools, I wrote all my letters (email hadn't been invented) by hand and gave them to the typing pool to be typed up. Still recall getting my 386 laptop and my first word processor package, AmiPro. How things change and with the internet and mobile, things change and change fast. As this new technology was introduced we changed. We also found that sending emails, instead of letters allowed us to scale and scale fast.
Sadly though, there will be always people who will look to the "good old days".
You can understand why people protest; people's livelihoods are at stake. If you made carts for horses, you would protest at the invention of the car.
But Tim, Change is hard!
Or, people will say "If only we could go back to when…” - as a vinyl collector I know the feeling. We all love nostalgia. But as with vinyl, I also know people won't go back to owning music, which is why I consume most of my music now through Spotify.
What I don't do is lose sight of the change taking place, in fact I embrace it. Which is why you won't hear me referring to people who are looking forward rather than backwards as “ charlatans ”. Yes some new inventions are "shiny new objects" but we are all clever people and know when something is "the new". Social Media, artificial intelligence… we know they will happen, it's not ‘if' but 'when'.
Go on Dip your Toe!
We have an Amazon Echo at home not because I want to automate my home, but because I want to make sure I understand (even in a little way) the power of artificial intelligence. Having just had to help my mum with an on-line check in (a relatively new invention), where she didn't have a clue what to do, I don't want to fall behind.
Like vinyl, typing pools and cold calling, they are things of the past... “ the laser guided accuracy of a phone call ” is only laser guided if the person on the end is prepared to i) take your call (they won't) and ii) listen to your message… (they won't as they are reading social media).
But Tim, We Fired Some kid who played on Social Media all day!
I totally agree that messing about on social media all day is not Social Selling. Just because you have a high SSI score does not mean you are contributing and are making your number. The rules on sales on contribution have not changed. Here at DLA we have been called in to save failing Social Selling projects. Which leads me onto ...
Social Selling is a change of Behaviour - Well Meaning Webinars Wont Help You
Social Selling is a change of behaviour. Being able to drive a horse and cart does not mean you can drive a car. There are some similarities, but most of us took driving lessons before we started driving and many if not not all of us took a driving test.
When I wanted to learn how to ride a horse, I didn't think that reading a book and watching a few YouTube videos would help me. I had riding lessons.
We come across many "well meaning" webinars provided by well meaning and talented individuals but before you waste a lot of time. Let me be honest, this won't create the change in your organisation. Without the change, Social Selling will just become "messing about" on social media.
Translate your Social Selling Journey into Action (and additional Revenue)
We (at DLA) would love to help translate what you know into real action. Not "tick box" action, but real action that increases your turnover and creates a real competitive advantage. This does not mean taking your salesforce of the road for days and 100s of Power Points, we are the only company to use the 70:20:10 training technique to offer education, experience and exposure. The only training technique that gets the change you need to make that impact.