SKX Blogs

Six degrees of separation? Or is it five? Maybe four? Even three?

Todd — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 09:55:13 +0100

The idea that any of us is at most six steps away from a connection with anyone else on the planet has been around since the early part of the 20th century. A web conference/conversation with a Bermuda-based client yesterday put the notion in whole new perspective.

And it’s a perspective with HUGE implications for the sales profession. (Especially with regard to what I’ve been calling the “E-Rep.”)

In the process of trying to convince this client to dive into social media and web 2.0, I pulled up the network statistics page of my LinkedIn account. It showed that I currently have 139 connections; 20,600 2nd degree connections and 1,819,000 3rd degree connections.

This was followed by one of those painful, drawn-out silent periods… Instead of hearing the expected stream of objections, I was asked the following question: Do you know the population of Bermuda? The answer is 60,000. The next question was, ”Do you know anyone who has 400 direct connections?” There are 11 people among my direct LinkedIn connections with 400 or more.

My client, Charlie, then puts his finger on an amazing insight. “So you’re telling me if I can get 400 direct LinkedIn connections, I can in theory have at least a 2nd degree link with every man, woman and child in my country? You’re telling me it’s not six degrees of separation, but more like three?”

Do the math. It’s absolutely possible! Here’s what that means to the sales profession; the profession focused on establishing and developing relationships with decision makers: Social media – all by itself – can reduce the traditional six degrees dramatically. Maybe not down to three, but who wouldn’t be happy to take just one link out of the chain?

Quit reading this blog post right now …actually, share this blog using the button below first. THEN, quit reading and start connecting with these new-found tools!

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You can't afford to let the knowledge leak out!

Todd — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 13:47:05 +0100

Listen and/or subscribe to the podcast!

Quick thought...

Todd — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 23:01:41 +0100

Was it lunch or a lesson in selling with technology?

Todd — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 13:11:55 +0100

I never heard of Dreamland. 24 hours ago I couldn't have told you it's in Birmingham, AL. 20 minutes before I parked in front the place I didn’t know it’s a legendary barbecue joint. So how on earth did they convince me to buy three lunches from them?

Here’s the story… Two colleagues and I had a 1:00 meeting scheduled with one of my AL-based customers. We left Atlanta a little early (and I guess I was speeding some) and as we were getting close realized we had more than an hour to spare. Stone Payton said he was hungry and asked if Todd Schnick or I know of a decent place to grab some lunch. This is when it got interesting…

Schnick pulls out his Blackberry and checks Twitter. Turns out he had tweeted the day before he would be in Birmingham and asked for restaurant recommendations. 3 of the 5 tips he got were for Dreamland. (All 5 of the tips, by the way, came from business contacts he has never spoken to face-to-face!) A few seconds later we’ve got the GPS guiding us to the place.

As we’re crossing the street, Todd takes a picture & tweets it; and when the “gourmet appetizer” arrived, it’s image got the same treatment. Before we finished eating, two of the recommenders had responded to the photos and insisted we try the Brunswick Stew.

Now put your business/selling hat back on. Want to try to convince me Twitter is useless for selling? (I bought three lunches from them remember.) How about trying to convince Schnick Twitter is useless for reinforcing business relationships. (He’s now “has to” get back to three prospects to thank them for the tip.)

OK, not what you’d call a major money transaction, but I’ll bet you’ll think about eating at Dreamland next time you’re in Birmingham. (Think hard about this point! It’s not the owners of the restaurant trying to sell this lunch to you, it’s me. I got sold by a majority vote of five people I don’t know. Without Twitter, this whole scenario would NOT have happened.) Also, not a huge leap in reinforcing business connections, but aren’t ALL business relationships built with tiny steps over a long period of time?

And there’s more… The objective of the meeting with my customer was to explore ways to use social media and web 2.0 for B2B sales and marketing! We walked in with a real, live, personal example of exactly that in action. Right out of the chute, our credibility got jacked up a few notches.

And oh yeah …both the Brunswick Stew and the barbecue were awesome!

Social media is a fantastic B2B sales tool, but only AFTER you train them

Todd — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 01:21:16 +0100

Had one of those flashes of insight today. This time with regard to the effectiveness of social media for B2B sales and marketing. My conclusion is: Social media is fabulous, but only after your prospects and customers are trained on how to use social media. Grunt through the background info here, the B2B point will emerge...

I'm on the board of my community's symphony orchestra and have seen with my own eyes an astonishing burst of growth in our youth programs. Our Executive Director and Creative Director are both really smart, workaholic, 20-somethings who whacked the daylights out of FaceBook to attract the cream of young metro Atlanta musicians. The results? Three years ago, our youth orchestra did not exist. Today it’s the largest in the southeastern US with 400+ members. Whoa!

We big-shot-board-member-doubter-converts concluded we should promote our flagship symphony with social media too. We have hard data! We have proof that social media can attract hundreds of followers (aka, paying customers) quickly!

Here’s the insight-providing, humbling lesson part. My personal task was to invite all my “FaceBook Friends” to become “Fans” of the Cobb Symphony Orchestra. Problem is, I have no friends! No, I’m not a psychopath, but my peer group, my neighbors and friends, don’t do FaceBook. Does that mean I’m useless? Does that mean social media is useless? No!!! It simply means my target market is not yet up to speed ...yet.

Shift gears now… Get back into business mode. Think LinkedIn + Twitter + Blog + E-Newsletter + Web Site vs. FaceBook. I (and you too!) need to use the combo mentioned first to reach out to our prospects and connect them. Only then can our content provide value.

The fact is social media WILL BE the front-line B2B marketing vehicle. We all need to get out in front of the wave so we can ride - as opposed to getting washed away by - it. We need to show our customers how they can attract more customers by teaching them how to attract more customers with social media.

Eeeeeessssshhhhhh… My “insight flash” was really good (I think) and useful, but it gave me (and us) a whole ‘nother load of challenging To-Dos. I need to teach them how to sell more via social media so they'll buy more of my stuff via social media. It's like trying to run a business...

An action item for EVERY sales rep

Todd — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 13:22:11 +0100

I lay no claim to any special or unique ability to craft compelling value propositions. I DO claim to work at it more than most, however. My belief is we all need VPs at 5 distinct levels:

Overall Corporate Value Proposition
Value Propostion for each Industry Served
Value Proposistion for each Line of Business
Value Proposition for each Customer
Value Proposisiton for each specific Opportunity

Number 5 is the easiest (but not easy) and number 1 is the most difficult. Most at level 1 strike me as hollow claims of "leadership" at something or another or "superior service." Ughhh ...empty corporate-speak BS.

Here's the action item: Start building your collection of value propositions at all 5 levels. Invest 30 minutes a week at it. Keep improving each of them. Do it!

A friend's daughter tells me that "e-mail is retarded."

Todd — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 21:27:53 +0100

First off, let me make it clear that I firmly believe in e-mail as an indispensable business tool. That said, my buddy's 13 year old did have point.

So far today, I have received 3 e-mails with LARGE files attached; 2 videos and a pdf. They were all business-related, but in a general sense; in other words, not pertaining to a specific project or topic of interest to only me. The 3 folks who sent me these e-mails did so because in their judgment, I would be interested in the content.

And there's the key...

I was interested in the content of all three. I'm willing to bet that lots and lots of my contacts' other contacts would be interested as well. All those other contacts probably don't want giant files cluttering up their in-boxes either. Maybe "e-mail is retarded" for this sort of thing. Actually, I want to revise that last sentence. "E-mail is retarded" for this sort of thing

That's what blogs are for!!! If I trust you and/or like you and/or respect your opinion, I'll read your blog. I'll read it when it's convenient for me. Plus, who else might see your post via a Google search? Might those strangers start to trust and respect your thoughts and opinions as well?

I think they call it "getting with the program." Get a blog and use it! Build your credibility and reputation!

FYI - Here are links (as opposed to attachments) to the stuff I got, just in case you might be interested:

BPM
Music Machine (Actually, this is a hoax, but still very cool.)
Neil Rackham on Bloomberg

Why Are Most Value Propositions So Awful?

Todd — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 12:55:49 +0100

For the last 90 days or so, I've been asking customers, prospects - actually everyone I talk to - to quickly state the overall value proposition for their organization. I've been amazed at the dismal quality of the responses.

Over half fell into what I'll call the "I dunno" category. There literally were a few that didn't know! Most, being the quick-witted sales type, made something up on the spot. Some actually sounded pretty good, but it wasn't all that hard to pick up on the ad hoc nature of the statement. (Do we really think customers don't have a fine-tuned BS detector?) "Well, ya' got me!" was the most common response to me directly asking if they had just made it up. The most depressing were those that said, "Hang on, I've got that here somewhere...," or "Um, oh, ah I'm pretty sure it's on the web site."

Most of the rest prefaced their reply with, “We’re still working on it," and/or "We're not happy with it yet." At least they have conscious recognition of the importance of a compelling value proposition.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I'm "not totally happy with The YSP Group overall Value Proposition, and we're still working on it." Here it is though: "A well-executed Sales Process Engineering initiative can generate an 8 to 12% annual, incremental increase in your effective sales capacity." I like the fact that it's customer-focused, quantified and acknowledges that there's no magic; i.e., its' got to be well-executed.

What's your value proposition? What are the characteristics of a compelling, overall value proposition? Use the comment section below to share your wisdom.

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10 Things Social Media Can't Do

Todd — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 15:23:34 +0100

Good things to keep in mind...

Quick Thought for this week

Todd — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 20:02:42 +0100

Todd Youngblood's "Quick Thought" for the week of 11/2/09