Why write a book on Social Selling? By Tim Hughes & Matt Reynolds Matt and I were sitting in a coffee shop in London when the idea came to us to write a book on Social Selling. We decided that the narrative hadn’t moved on for some two years. Everything that was being written was about technology, as in how to use a piece of functionality in LinkedIn or about personal branding. In fact during the end of 2015 apart from one or two, many people had gone back to writing about traditional sales subjects like how to close a deal. In meetings with Sales Leaders we heard the same thing “Social Selling is all very well, but where are my leads?” Pretty much from the get-go we decided this was not to be a book on personal branding but a book on how sales people can use social to generate leads. We also felt that social selling had come to mean “demand generation” in many people’s heads. Marketers were claiming they owned Social Selling and it was all about lead generation. When we pitched the idea to our publisher, Kogan page, they did some market research and said, “we are interested but we’re not looking for another book on personal branding at the moment”. For Matt and I this was a moment of clarity. So what is Social Selling about? Social selling is a practical guide on how sales people and marketers in both B2B and B2C companies (big and small) can generate leads, support sales pursuits and close deals all using Social. Selling has changed, but then again it hasn’t. Social selling is not about using social to sell, it is about changing our behavior to understand and work with the technology-savvy buyer. During the writing process we talk about book titles such as “Hacking the Buyer Process”, “Social Selling 2.0” and “Digital Selling” but settled on Social Selling as we wanted to keep the narrative simple. Why?
For many people Social Selling means a change in what they are doing and change can be difficult. The book therefore is a practical guide, the first half theory and the second half practice. It’s written for sales people and marketers; leaders as well as those in the field. My suggestion to those sales leaders is that you might want to buy a copy for your team. Sales people and Marketers you might want to buy a copy for your leaders. How is it that building a community means that you no longer need to make cold calls? Social means talking to strangers, something our parents told us not to do, but what is the best way to do this? How do we spot the modern buyer? There is also a Social Selling maturity model, so you can spot where you are on the model and take practical steps as an organization to embrace and learn to love social. And finally. Don’t forget that your competition are reading this book and may have already started implementing its content to take you out of business. Social has grown up and is a competitive weapon to use against your competitors. Are you ready to new generation of salespeople? This topic and many others are covered in Social Selling: Techniques to Influence Buyers and Changemakers. Order your copy today to ensure that you stay ahead of your competition.