Jamie Shanks - Social Selling Expert

Do you think the act of using social media is going to regress and become a fad? 

 

Jamie Shanks, CEO of Sales for Life, is here to tell you that society is going to use digital platforms more and more. This is especially relevant when it comes being a successful sales leader. Social selling isn’t a new thing but it is still in it’s growing phases. That means the online buyer and seller relationship trends are going upwards. With the world around us becoming more digital, it only makes sense that the buyer and seller need to start meeting in that digital world. 

The question is: Are you ready for the transition from analogue to digital?

 

In episode 43 of the Digital Delusion, we sit down with Jamie Shanks author of The Social Selling Mastery book to discuss exactly how to become a top sales leader in the digital world. Jamie shares tips and tools that are key to a smooth and speedy transition. In his experience training 300 plus global customers, Jamie has perfected a daily sales routine called FEED that can be taught in 30 days yielding results you can see within 60-90 days. Let's face it, buyers have become digital from underneath you and its time to future proof your business. 

 

In this Episode!

 

Jamie shares with us the process of what it takes to be the best online sales leader and how to future proof your business by joining the digitization. You’ll learn important steps and processes like: 

• The evolution of sales from analogue to online and how to bridge the gap: “Let the seller beware the buyers is now an informed buyer.” 
• Why the “broke-fix” model won’t work in online sales 
• Three stages to become the best online sales leader
• Triggers that indicate you need to make a change to your sales leadership
• Strategies to become a top social seller
• The two biggest pitfalls to avoid when selling online
• How to get out of the “dead zone” and make the sale
• Learn to use a daily routine called FEED to increase online sales
• How to get ready for the inevitable digitization of the commercial sales force

 

3 strategies for sales leaders looking to improve their online sales force

 

1. Undergo a mindset shift, a skillset shift and a toolkit shift

“I'm a believer that every seller or sales leader needs to go through three stages. You basically have to go through a mindset shift, a skillset shift, and then you have to go to a toolkit shift to help you. 

 

Mindset: You have to recognize that as a leader you're willing to look at your own playbook and how your coaching and leading and keeping my team accountable and say, ‘Guess what the world has evolved around me and I am willing to admit that I need to change my skills. I need to address the new buyer.’ And so that mindset shift has to come first. They say you know what the playbook I've been running maybe it's not good enough anymore. 

 

Skillset: Arming yourself with the information to understand what are the new digital activities you should be measuring. What are the skills that the team needs to have? And a lot of that is going to be foreign to the sales leader. 

 

Toolkit: Turn to your sales enablement team or a third party and say, ‘Help teach this to me.’ Go find a way to learn new tools and arm yourself with these.”

2. Get more yield and throughput for your sales reps

 

“‘Improve your skills by saying, ‘Hey, the phone and email is not the only way to strike up a conversation and to generate new business!’

 

There are two valuable ways to get more yield and throughput. One is training & education and skills. Second is sales automation and tools which create efficiencies within the sales model. Companies are segmenting their sales professionals to not do all the all the tasks from top of the funnel the bottom of funnel. Hyper-specialization is a way that companies are improving yield and throughput. This is exactly what social selling is. It’s a process that every sales professional should throw into their into their tool kit. Its like icing on the cake. You need to have a baseline sales methodology or the baseline way of selling.”

3. Avoid the two biggest pitfalls of selling online

“Two major pitfalls I see with online sales all the time:

 
1. First, frontline sales managers falling down and not keeping accountability or coaching towards the very digital activities that would drive results. So basically they look at social selling is like a pill or a widget and they say, ‘OK let’s, let's educate our team and the