FreshNetworks Blog

Tim continues his series on Selling Social Media.

So, we’ve got the attention of the stakeholder to discuss using social media within the organisation. By seeing a glimpse of some of the incredible achievements in social media for other industries or competitors, this has earned the right for a more detailed conversation with him. It’s now time to dive into more detail with him, and to align some of the various social media benefits against the unique requirements of this particular stakeholder. But what are the unique requirements?

This phase of the sales process is known as ‘determining the needs’.

Let’s use a real-life scenario and a brief recap. Say you have used the ‘elevator pitch’ to a Marketing Director in the travel sector and highlighted that Marriott achieved an additional $5m sales from people that accessed Bill Marriott’s executive blog. This is an impressive statement of fact, and you have his attention; and as a result he puts an hour in the diary for a more detailed chat on the subject.

What do you do now? The biggest mistake is to go to the one-hour meeting and then continue blindly selling the proposition, because you don’t yet know what’s going to be the business driver for this particular stakeholder. When marketing any service (and social media is no different), everybody’s individual business needs and priorities will be different. Grow revenue, cut costs, enhance innovation, improve customer service, and so on; it’s a long list of possibilities.

So, the elevator pitch grabbed his attention, but that won’t be the reason that social media may work for his particular organisation. The specific needs and objectives will be absolutely unique to this organisation, and it is your job to align these unique needs to the social media possibilities.

The rock band Weezer has a great single out at the moment. It’s called “(If You’re Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To”. The brackets are in the title. I love this title because it encapsulates the blundering teenage angst that we can still remember from when we were that age. Sex, drugs and rock’n’roll. Similarly, the biggest mistake at this stage is to launch into the one hour conversation with a pushy “I want you to do this because….”, as if you were that teenager all over again! Instead, in this phase of the sales process it is time for a more consultative approach. You ask the questions, and then listen carefully to the answers. A bit like the doctor diagnosing the patient, you take the role of the consultant, and determine the business priorities that are most relevant for this stakeholder.

Read all our posts on Selling social media here.

Image by H. Lloyd via Flickr

One of the most important mantra’s of successful sales people is to ‘Earn The Right’; get some diary time, or hold a short telephone conversation with a new prospect or stakeholder, you must first ‘Earn The Right’ for their valuable time.

To get the attention of the stakeholder when you are selling social media, one technique is to inform what his peers or competitors may be doing. If his competitors may be gaining advantage from the use of social media then why wouldn’t he want to urgently explore this with you?

You may only have ten seconds in an initial contact with the stakeholder, and therefore your key message regarding their competitor (or other compelling justifications – I’ll cover these in future posts) must be snappy, relevant, and vital. For this reason, it is sometimes called the ‘elevator pitch’, i.e. you are in the lift (elevator in US!) with the stakeholder, and you only have a few seconds until he leaves at the next floor, what will you say to get his attention? Be concise and high level. Carefully rehearse the message beforehand. And then rehearse again, and again!

For example, I was watching breakfast television this morning, and Jeffrey Hayzlett, Chief Marketing Officer Kodak was interviewed, explaining how social media has re-shaped their business. He said that social media can excite, evangelise, educate, and engage their customers, and makes a real difference to their changing brand. Their brand was previously deemed old and out-dated, and now, with the help of social media, they have re-vitalised the company.

This is a great story. I know of at least five brands that would compete directly with this brand and I will contact them later today with my elevator pitch! Let’s see if it is effective and earns the right for a further dialog with them.

Read all our posts on Selling social media here.

Some more reading

• Kodak’s Social Media Tips (viralblog.com)
• Why Kodak Thinks You Should Use Social Media (kylelacy.com)
• Twitter at C Level (marketingpilgrim.com)