This article is part 4 of a 6 part series
- PART 1: Social selling defined and the 5 pillars success formula
- PART 2: Pillar 1 - Social Listening
- PART 3: Pillar 2 - Social publishing
- PART 4: Pillar 3 - Social Research
- PART 5: Pillar 4 - Social Engagement
- PART 6: Pillar 5 - Social Collaboration
PART 4: B2B Social Selling - "Social Research"
In this fourth interview in this series Tony Hughes reminds us to do our research, understand the customer's business context, and understand social proximity. When we're trying to go and sell solutions to people, we really need to understand the problems and the domain of the people to whom we sell.
Tony goes on to say "It's always been important to prepare for meetings really well. With social now it's so easy for us to go and do research, not just on the individual that we're meeting with or the people we're targeting, but also the organisation and their industry".
See the full interview below.
Tony is a leading author and keynote speaker in the word of B2B sales and sales leadership. He is well known for his strategic selling book "The Joshua Principle" and for the RSVPselling methodology.
See more of the 'TALKING SALES' series here
Interview
John: Welcome back, Tony!
Tony: Hi, John!
John: Hey, you talked about the five 'social selling' pillars, and we've covered a couple, but I'd like now to talk about 'social research' as your third pillar.
Tony: Yes.
John: Can you tell me a little bit about what you mean by research in a social selling environment?
Tony: Certainly for business-to-business (B2B), and when we're trying to go and sell solutions to people, we really need to understand the problems and the domain of the people that we sell to. It's always been important to prepare for meetings really well. And the thing with social now today is that it's so easy for us to go and do research, not just on the individual that we're meeting with or the people we're targeting, but also the organisation and their industry.
John: And there's so much available too, isn't there?
Tony: It's a huge amount.
John: I mean, one of the issues I find is there's too much available. I'm trying to filter down and get the insight I really need before I go into a meeting or before I approach somebody; there's almost too much information.
Tony: Well, that's true.
John: How do we go about filtering?
Tony: That goes back to the first pillar of social selling for me, which is social listening. There are tools out there that we can use to really filter back and find the trail that we want to follow with somebody.
John: So, research and listening are related obviously.
Tony: Yes, and there's lots of social research tools out there. I won't go through a whole list of products, but it's very easy to get some products and tune them to filter, to go and listen for the things and then do research, so that we can contact people and engage with context.
John: So, the bottom line on research in a social selling environment B2B is...
Tony: Is do your research, understand the context, and understand social proximity. Getting warm introductions is an important thing as well.
John: Great advice - thank you, Tony! Look forward to the next time we talk!
Tony: Thanks, John!
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More interviews with Tony Hughes:
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