When looking at all of the content around social media being published to the blogosphere everyday I can’t help but notice that much of it is centered around the organization or company.  What should the company do to increase involvement in social media? What role does the marketing department of a company play in leading social media efforts? The questions asked in this space seem endless and more will continue to be asked.

I’ve spent the majority of my adult life involved in the sales profession, primarily on smaller sales teams without the backing of a marketing department.  In most cases the sales teams I’ve been involved with have acted like a team and worked together well, however, at the end of the day it is the efforts and smarts of the individual salesperson that is going to dictate their paycheck.  My more recent experience is with a larger sales team, first as an account executive and now as the team’s sales trainer. It is also my first experience having the support of a marketing department.  This experience got me thinking about how and when the individual salesperson should with engage the prospect, customer and client, whether there is the support of a marketing department or not.

In a perfect world there would be a synchronized set of events between sales and marketing in which marketing attracted inbound prospects that sales follows up on.  Both sales and marketing would use social media tools to help foster a stronger connection with the customer throughout the entire sales cycle. I’ve only seen a few examples of a system working in harmony like this.  What happens in most cases if a company is utilizing social media, it is typically the marketing department utilizing those tools.  Generated leads are then distributed to individual salespeople to move the sales process forward.  I see two potential inconsistencies happening at this point.

First, the connection with the prospect initiated through social media is lost because the salesperson isn’t engaging the prospect in that way.  Most salespeople leave this role to the marketing department and as a result, even though the prospect has shown a propensity to communicate through social media tools, the sales person is likely to not take full advantage of the relationship.

This brings up a more basic question – should a salesperson brand themselves outside of company sponsored marketing efforts?  If so, what does this look like?  Paul McCord recently posted his opinion on his blog and I agree with him to an extent.  Paul suggested that if a salesperson pays for their own marketing, they should take top billing over the company on marketing pieces.   The idea of personal branding for the salesperson is on the right track. However, I believe it would be a waste of time for the salesperson to spend time using traditional marketing methods mentioned in this post (i.e. – ad, the flier, the brochure, etc).

The salesperson would be much better off to engage the customer through some non-interruption based method such as social media or opt-in permission based marketing.  The salesperson has an opportunity to create real differentiation from their competitor by making a connection with the customer through the exchange of information and ideas that will be helpful to their customer, rather than trying to interrupt them with a message they think their customer wants to hear.

For those salespeople without the support of a marketing department, social media tools could be a great differentiator in attracting more qualified prospects and fostering a higher quality relationship.

The second challenge this situation creates centers around the fact that an inbound generated lead is likely to be more familiar with the company at the first point of salesperson contact.  This requires that the salesperson understand where the prospect is at in the sales process. In my experience, salespeople don’t spend enough time doing this and as a result try to present a solution before really having a solid understanding of the customer’s problem.  In addition, is the style of interaction by the salesperson congruent with the prospect’s desired way of doing business?  For example, an inbound generated lead is likely to be turned off very quickly by a high pressure sales person.

What do you think? Should the salesperson be proactive about engaging the customer through social media?

Photo credit: ineedmotivation.com

I’ve been on Twitter for a little while now and have used it primarily to connect with others who have similar interests – triathlon, social media, sales profession, etc.  During my time on Twitter I have also read about businesses utilizing Twitter in creative and unique ways, though most of those business have been of the small and nimble kind.

It was a rare find when one could find big business taking hold of social tools and using them in an effective way.  So rare in fact that I co-authored a post on the Hubspot blog with Peter Caputa on the subject. Tonight I was able to see how Comcast is ahead of the curve is using social media to connect with their customers.

After experiencing several power blips throughout the day, I returned home to find no Internet.  So I gotComcast on the phone to help me figure out the problem.  While I was on hold I sent a tweet that I was on hold with Comcast.  Soon thereafter I see an @reply from @comcast cares on Twitter asking if I needed any help!

It turns out that I the tech was able to help me out and I didn’t need the assist of @comcastcares, but Comcast just gained huge points in my book by proactively reaching out to me.  In the big picture, social media is in it’s infancy but I think it is companies like Comcast, who are jumping into the game early, that will create a deeper connection with the customer and yield the greatest returns from their early adoption.

Any time I felt like my business really mattered to a company it has been from a small company and never with a company the size of Comcast. Thanks @comcastcares.

What other big companies are early adopters of social media?

Let me preface my comments with the fact that I have absolutely zero experience in the magazine publishing business. However, I’m an avid triathlete and a believer that the web is changing the way how everybody does business. I believe it is pretty reasonable to assume that the print business in general as we have known it is going the way of the newspaper.

So, imagine my reaction when I recently got the latest issue of Inside Triathlon with a special notice on the cover indicating they were changing their format. The message essentially said they are no longer going to be a monthly publication but instead a bi-monthly publication that goes into more detail on each story.

I sincerely hope that I’m wrong about Inside Tri. Maybe there is some grand plan to incorporate their website with this new format. Maybe my extreme lack of magazine publishing experience will make this blog post pointless. Time will tell…

So, I’ve kept a blog for the past couple of years on my experiences and thoughts on the triathlon side of my life. Over the past several months I’ve found myself either writing, or wanting to write about more.

As I thought about a theme to focus the blog on there were several things that I wrestled with. My family and friends are the most important thing in my life, should that be my focus?  Professionally I’ve been in some kind of sales role since I was 16. I could write a ton of content on sales.  I’ve been experiencing an exponential interest in social media, to the point where I’m trying to weave it more into my professional life – that would be a great focus. I’m already writing about how triathlon impacts my life.  Too many things to write about!!

My answer, write about them all in a new blog titled (for now at least) simply Dave.

Enjoy and thanks for participating in my social media experience!