Social media can enhance the buying decision

My friend Vanessa DiMauro (social media and decision making guru) had a nasty PC problem. As she attempted to resolve it, she wildly Twittered her frustration. She received this note:

“I hear you are having difficulty with your PC. Sounds like you’re having one of those frustrating technical problems. Are you looking for any tech support to help? I handle these sorts of issues, and happen to live right near by and can help. Please take a look at my site to see my capabilities and let me know if you think my skills could help you.”

Guess who is now handling all of Vanessa’s computer work! And what a lovely tale of the best uses of social media.

SOCIAL MEDIA ACCELERATES POSSIBILITY

Sales is solution focused. The buying journey is change management/systems driven.The sales model and the buying journey are out of sync with each other. And buyers buy using their buying patterns, not a seller’s selling patterns.

Enter social media.

Social media enables personal connections, with the capability of developing a sort-of a relationship and a modicum of trust. The time factor gives people the ability to get to know each other at least superficially over several connects, enabling more trust. And associations are self-selected, offering some compatibility.

Until now, you’ve mostly contained your use of social media to being personal, or used your ‘relationship’ to  push solution data.

FACILITATE CHANGE

It’s quite possible to use social media to facilitate a buyer’s pre-purchase activities. After all, until they get on board with the change issues involved (people, policies, initiatives, buy-in) with creating a fix, they will not purchase a solution. And the sales model does not handle this. But with well-placed questions and considerations between ‘friends’, you can certainly get them to think in ways they hadn’t.

I use Facilitative Questions to be my prospect’s GPS system: Facilitative Questions such as:

• How are you currently handling X? And what has stopped you from making that work better for you until now?
• What needs to happen for your full Buying Decision Team to get on board so they can figure out their criteria for helping you all decide on a route to change?

The question for you is:

What would you need to know or believe differently to use your new relationship to lead prospects through their buying decision journey in addition to introducing a solution?

Think about the sorts of skills you’ll need in addition to your sales skills. Keep asking yourself:

Would you rather sell? or have someone buy? They are two different activities, of course.

Social media is a great way to add new capability.  You can email me to discuss. And we can chat :)

sd