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    HBR is wrong again - social selling is not the remedy for lousy salespeople

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    A while back, the Harvard Business Review Blog ran this story on how social selling will benefit B2B Selling. Really? Aside from the fact that it's old news, the story contained some misleading information!

    In November of 2014, following a year of research, I published a comprehensive study - The Modern Science Behind Sales Force Excellence. You can download the free White Paper here. One of the conclusions in the study was that the B2B companies that were having the greatest success were formally engaged in Social Selling. Those companies reported that they were experiencing nearly 40% more qualified leads.

    Salespeople must have a great milestone-centric sales process that leverages a consultative approach to selling, supported by technology like Membrain.
    Dave Kurlan

    The HBR article says that if companies don't change their outdated thinking and sales models then 1,000,000 salespeople could become obsolete. True. In March of 2015 I wrote that 1,000,000 salespeople would find themselves obsolete - more old news. But the answer to this problem is not where they say it is. The article claims that Social Selling could be the solution. Wrong. Social Selling works at the top of the funnel, before a first conversation has taken place. Social content might be applicable after a first conversation but by then it's too late. It is during the first and subsequent conversations where differentiation takes place and that is exactly where changes in selling strategy, tactics, process and methodology must occur.

    Companies with a transactional sale will always be vulnerable and their salespeople are likely to be replaced. The most important thing to understand is that there will always be a several categories of company which will always require salespeople - but they must change in order to remain relevant: Those who require salespeople include, but aren't limited to those:

    • Who don't have the lowest price (like Priceline)
    • Who aren't the easy, low risk decision (like IBM used to be)
    • With a high-ticket, complex sale (like capital equipment)
    • With a new company, new product or new technology (with a story to tell)
    • Who aren't the recognized brand leader (like Apple)
    • Who aren't the recognized quality leader (like Ritz Carlton)

    Companies that meet my criteria above are perpetual underdogs and underdogs must have great salespeople to help change minds. But those salespeople must also have a great milestone-centric sales process that leverages a consultative approach to selling, supported by technology like Membrain.

    I have written extensively on sales process before as well as the adoption of a Consultative Selling approach.

    Let's use common sense. Social Selling helps salespeople to be more visible and helps them passively connect with potential customers. If you look at the graph at the top of the article, you will see that of the 1,000,000 salespeople that have been assessed and evaluated by Objective Management Group, 77% of them suck. Social Selling will not overcome the ineffectiveness of that large percentage of the sales population.

    I continued this conversation on my Blog, Understanding the Sales Force, where I asked, "Why Do You Think That Harvard Business Review Does This When it Comes to Sales?"

    Article originally published November 17, 2016 on
    Dave Kurlan's LinkedIn Page
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    Dave Kurlan
    Published April 16, 2017
    By Dave Kurlan

    Dave Kurlan is a top-rated speaker, best-selling author, successful entrepreneur, and sales development industry pioneer. The founder and CEO of the Objective Management Group, the leading developer of sales assessment tools, headquartered in Westboro, Massachusetts. He is also the CEO of Kurlan & Associates, a leading salesforce development firm. He has 3 decades of experience in all facets of sales development, including consulting, training, coaching, selection, strategy, systems, processes, and metrics.

    Dave is also the creator of the Membrain Baseline Selling Edition, a pre-configured Membrain with Baseline Selling built-in, including Dave's sales enablement content. This Edition will help your salespeople to make your way of selling into a competitive advantage.

    Find out more about Dave Kurlan on LinkedIn