In this Expert Insight Interview, Bill McCormick discusses how to be an authentic social seller. Bill McCormick is the CSO of Social Sales Link. He is passionate about taking what he’s learned and really help people leverage social selling and LinkedIn to build stronger relationships.
This Expert Insight Interview discusses:
- The history of LinkedIn and how it became a widespread marketing channel
- How the “connect and pitch” came to be
- Why being authentic is vital in today’s sales world
Rise of the Connect and Pitch
A few things happened with LinkedIn throughout the pandemic. It has gained much traction over the past couple of years, as it did when the global financial crisis hit in 2008. Back then, everyone was getting on LinkedIn because they had suddenly found themselves out of a job, while today, it is increasingly used as a sales spamming tool.
With the suboptimal social behavior exhibited by many salespeople the world over, the importance of authenticity has gone up, and authentic social sellers can stand out from the crowd.
Natural Progression
Although somewhat sad, the situation social selling finds itself in is not surprising. Bill McCormick calls it a result of a “natural progression.” Back in the 70s and 80s, telemarketers figured out that they could reach people on the phone and sell them things. Then, caller ID became available, and the number of people receiving calls from unknown numbers significantly declined.
During the 2000s, sales teams widely used email, as it allowed them to reach out to vast pools of people with just a few clicks. Once the pandemic hit, and salespeople could no longer meet prospects face to face, they realized that they could use social platforms such as LinkedIn to connect with potential customers and started utilizing this option.
Being Authentic
Being an authentic social seller means slowing down your outreach to speed up your outcome. It means reaching out to far fewer people but having sales conversations with more of the people you reach out to.
Also, if you are truly authentic, the people that you don’t end up engaging in a sales conversation right away are less likely to write you off forever. Instead, they will consider you a credible source whenever they do need a similar product or service in the future.
Our Host
John is the Amazon bestselling author of Winning the Battle for Sales: Lessons on Closing Every Deal from the World’s Greatest Military Victories and Social Upheaval: How to Win at Social Selling. A globally acknowledged Sales & Marketing thought leader, speaker, and strategist, he has conducted over 1500 video interviews of thought leaders for Sales POP! online sales magazine & YouTube Channel and for audio podcast channels where Sales POP! is rated in the top 2% of most popular shows out of 3,320,580 podcasts globally, ranked by Listen Score. He is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.
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