A personal perspective of social media by a Self Proclaimed “Moderate Social Networker

I have heard over the years people say Facebook is for fools, Twitter is for twits and Linkedin is for losers.

What I say is forget about what you have said in the past – even if it something your were adamant you would never do, break your rule.

I tell you from a personal perspective you are missing out on the online community and conversations, you are missing out on further progressing your relationship with your friends, relatives and colleagues and also missing out on developing new relationships.

You are missing out on the education and self-development opportunities that are presented as well as potential business or career progression opportunities. You are just missing out!

Allow yourself to change your view and be comfortable with changing it.


Safaraz Ali (Saf)

Social Selling – The Future of Selling

We all need to be open to looking for opportunities
We all need to be comfortable with Sales
We need to understand that this is our the lifeblood of our business
What do we need to do?

We need to embrace Social Selling!

Some background first….
Social selling has changed the way we buy. Social selling is a journey rather than a product.
People will go online to search what they will buy. In most cases the customer would have researched about the product/service and would know much more about it than ever before.
What does this mean for Sales people and what should we do?
A 2015 Forrester report which is the most conservative states that 22% of B2B sales people will be finished by 2020, other estimates even suggest that this figure could be as much as 80%.
B2B business is already being conducted and will be further conducted by your previously non-traditional sales people. Buyers and anyone who is in a position of being a Buyer generally avoid traditional salespeople and other key people in the business are now getting in most of the sales – starting off from the MD/CEO / OD/COO/ FD/CFO to all levels of Managers and 1st line of Team leaders.
Now, Social media and use of social media is being encouraged so that relationships can be formed, trust can be developed and business to be had as well as a tool for learning and information.



Old School Thinking: Sales People Sell
Now: Everyone sells and non-traditional people sell more without selling

Old School Thinking: Prevent access to social media as it’s a time killer
Now: Get C Level as well all Levels of Managers on there and embrace it first and then utilise it and get better at it.

So what should you do?
Set yourself up and look at personal branding. LinkedIn is Key here - In the past, people tend to have their LinkedIn profile just to get the next job or more to do with job hunting.
Nowadays a LinkedIn profile is about educating, sharing and also connecting as well as networking. It’s not about Job Hunting. It works best with other forms of communication – meeting/Telephone call an
Have a buyer-centric profile. If there was a buyer out there, they would be interested in what you’re saying. You need to have a photo and an output of what your product does.
Whether you’re Quality or Operations, say what you do. An output of what you’re doing for your customers.
When you’re online, be authentic. People want to deal with individuals not corporate suits.
You want to build trust and rapport. There’s nothing wrong with talking personal – it states who you are.
In Sales, you either win a deal or you lose a deal. You can get competitive advances by having a good LinkedIn profile.
From a B2B perspective -certainly from an enterprising level, for me- LinkedIn is the most important social network.

Please feel free to share your thoughts with me.

Saf
Safaraz Ali
Uk.linkedin.com/in/Safaraz