I have a friend who I go back at least 10 years. When I was still in the printing space we met and he worked for large corporate printing company. He works for different, large company now but he is still in the print industry. He is a good sales professional, a really great human, caring sales person and insightful to help his customers be successful.  

Unfortunately, and way too often, digital sales and social sales systems and tools are not included in the provided tool stack for sales professionals.  It just doesn’t tend to be part of the marketing mindset to help sales professionals.  I don’t know the details for this particular company or sales professional. This is just the unfortunate trend that I see way too often. 

Modern sales professionals need tools, and accountability, to grow their influence digitally that therefore grows quality, measurable pipeline and create more opportunities for sales.  

Again, unfortunately, most corporate marketing departments tend to provide the sales team with very limited tools like an employee advocacy tool that automates marketing approved social posts to personal LInkedIn accounts every day. This is not good sales behavior. Sharing brochure information in social media is not social nor effective. No buyer wants to read a brochure! 

Here is a typical post and the results that this sales professional received from a post provided through the provided advocacy tool. Remember, engagement from social posts are exactly like conversations. If you post and no one responds, it is like speaking into an empty room. No one hears and it has absolutely no value for you or your sales. 

Typical Corporate Post and his results

Note, there are only 2 Likes and 0 comments.  This translates into very little value. Not many people see it, they don’t have an interest, it doesn’t trigger the algorithm to show the post to more people. It creates very little value for Bob, for him staying top of mind with others and being seen as a influential, thoughtful sales professional who can truly help customers solve challenges.  

Sharing posts like this is similar to walking up to someone at a networking event, handing them a company brochure and walking away. It produces very little value for the recipient and the sales person.  

Here is an overview of Bob’s last 10 social posts using the corporate marketing system that simply automated these type of corporate brochure posts to his LinkedIn account. 

The data is not good! These type of posts tend to just quietly go away and produce little to no value for the person who publishes them. In fact, they tend to have more of a negative effect because they train your network, and the algorithms, to simply ignore your posts.  Let’s look at a highly engaged and value post that leads to productive sales conversations now.  Here is Bob’s recent post that he created and published for himself. 

Click the image and go visit his post here. Click on “see more…” and read how he crafted a personal message into a message about the challenges facing print companies and how they can think differently to solve some of their most pressing challenges.  

Here are his results from this single post. 

• 3,846 Views
• 70 post Likes
• 36 post comments
• Multiple direct messages from his contacts that led to conversations
• New connections that expanded his personal influence

Here is what this single post contributed to his LinkedIn presence within a week. 

This data usually brings up 2 big questions from skeptics. Let’s address them head on. 

1. So what? This doesn’t produce sales. 

WRONG!  This is the foundation of creating pipeline, expanding our network and increasing the amount and quality of daily conversations that we have every day. The more we are seen and the more people engage with our content, the more people know us, connect with us and get to consume that content that we share. 

Sales success is not based on what you know. It is based on who knows that you know and their willingness to work with you to solve their problems. If your ideal customers don’t know you exist, it is really hard to influence them. 

2. How do we use a popular post to get sales? 

I’m glad you asked. Well, that is exactly what we do at FunnelAmplified.  

We train and equip sales people to use digital sales activities to grow their influence, increase a high quality pipeline and close more deals. 

There is not a magic bullet to digital sales. It takes daily focus like all successful sales strategies require. But, it is not difficult. It takes building new skills and creating daily systems because they work. They lead to more WINS.  

Want to learn more? We provide a daily free training webinar on the Digital Sales Success Triangle and how you can implement 3 simple strategies today to change your revenue generation fast.  Use my links above and let’s see if we can help your sales team be more successful!