Shade's Mills Group
 Tom Fournier with Zack Pinsent By Tom Fournier It is great to have a hobby. It gives you the opportunity to disconnect from your working life as well as opening up the possibility of creating new avenues of learning and inspiration. I am rather involved in the world of War of 1812 re-enacting. For myself, it has proven to be the ultimate escape and form of decompression from the pressures of work. It has taken me to events across North America and even to Europe. And as chance would have it, the hobby has brought me into contact with interesting people who offer lessons and insights that can be applied to the world of business. I would like to highlight two individuals who use social media extensively to build their brand and market their endeavours.
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 Social Selling on LinkedIn By Tom Fournier
Have you been considering a social selling initiative? Why should this be a consideration? In short, traditional means of outreach, marketing and advertising are quickly losing relevance. This is not where your potential buyers are looking for insights and options. In a previous blog post I shared information on the changing B2B buyer and how they preferred not to interact with a sales representative and how they would rather do research on their own. There is an old sales adage that “you need to fish where the fish are.” These days, that means trying to sell in social media settings. For Business to Business, that most often means LinkedIn.  By Tom Fournier
I was recently reading an article on the cost of customer acquisition as compared to customer retention. (You can see the article here: retention). Some quick fun facts: It costs 5 times more to acquire a new customer than to retain a current customer! 44% of companies are more focused on acquiring new customers as compared to 18% of companies that are more focused on retaining their existing customers. Your existing customers are 55% more likely to try new products and will buy 31% more than new customers. So, customer retention or minimizing churn is important right?  An English Pub By Tom Fournier
What does the sidewalk in front of my home have in common with a pub in London, England? Answer: both are places where I recently had enlightening conversations around business to business sales.  By Tom Fournier
I have spent a lot of time looking at sales processes and sales methodologies in the Business to Business (B2B) space. In a previous blog post I shared information on the changing B2B buyer and how they preferred not to interact with a sales representative and how they would rather do research on their own. How does a company or a sales representative stand out in this environment? You see companies building their capabilities around digital marketing and content marketing and you see sales representatives building their personal brand, establishing their credentials and developing their presence in online networking, chief of which has been LinkedIn.  Example of a Sales Process Sales Process vs. Sales Methodology.
Both are extremely important. Both are critical to setting your sales strategy. Both are often misunderstood, miscategorized or missing!  In my corporate life I had managed a Canadian business. I had three sales teams, a national account team and a national distribution account team.
The business environment was fast paced, intense and very consuming.  By Tom Fournier
I have grown fascinated by the shift to social selling, digital marketing and content marketing in the environment of Business to Business selling. One of the more active arenas for this activity seems to be LinkedIn. Once a job seeking/recruiting platform, it is now very much a business knowledge and networking platform. I will readily admit to experimenting on myself. I have been less selective around connection requests. I have signed up for interesting blogs/newsletters. I have requested and downloaded appealing articles and research papers. It has been really interesting to watch the types of responses that this activity motivates! I will happily share some of these experiences and classify them in some categories:  By Tom Fournier
LinkedIn had long been viewed as a place to match up prospective employers and job seekers. Perhaps that was once the case, but now it has also become a very active business community. There are interest groups that match up like minded individuals in specific industries or on specific business topics. It has also become a critical tool for connecting prospective customers with potential vendors. This comes into play with social selling, digital marketing and networking. It is an excellent opportunity for an individual to establish credentials as a subject matter expert and perhaps to showcase a portfolio of work. Sellers are checking out their prospective customers but customers are also researching their prospective vendors.  The development of approaches around Business to Business (B2B) selling has continued to progress and has evolved in its concepts, strategies and practices.
This sees closer alignment between sales and marketing with an emerging emphasis on content and digital marketing which in turn supports the shift from outbound to inbound selling. Buyers are now very proactive in doing their research online. They are also very resentful of disruptive or interruption selling efforts (traditional cold calling). Are you ready to jump in and be part of this shift? Is it time to train your sales representatives on social networking and social selling skills? |
AuthorTom Fournier, founder of the Shade's Mills Group, history enthusiast and happy walker! Archives
January 2020
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