My Blog is Dead …. Long Live my Blog! #SocialSelling

Published my first blog on the 25th February 2014, following that I’ve publish 65 posts.

My objective was to get read, never thought I would get some many followers, retweets and meet so many interesting people. Back then I didn’t really understand what community meant, I do now.

But the time has come to move on. Wednesday 5th August, will be the day I cut new blog and a new adventure.

I’m hoping you will stick with me.

socialsaleslounge.com Will be the same me, writing about Social Selling and as I’ve always written. No fluffy, meaningless slogans, but real solutions you can implement to over achieve your number, quicker.

In addition, I’m going to invite the people that influence me to guest blog.  (If you are interested in guest blogging then please contact me tim_hughes1@hotmail.com )

There is a new Twitter handle @SocialSalesLnge to support this community, and you can still find me at @Timothy_Hughes

My partner in this new adventure @Mbrit will make his own contributions as well has support the venture from a technical nature.

Do hope we can count on your support.

 

Tim Hughes is a Social Selling Innovator and Pioneer his blog has become a reference point for Sales People throughout the world to get hints and tips to get into Social Selling; Newbies and Influencers alike. Tim’s 27 years as a quota carrying salesperson, means he cuts the fluff and speaks in a no nonsense style. The blog is not about slogans but about how you can use Social to allow you to over achieve your quota, quicker.

Tim Hughes is a Speaker and Blogger on Social Selling and be can be contacted @Timothy_Hughes or Tim_Hughes1@hotmail.com or contact me at LinkedIn

 

Marketing for #SocialSelling Success, an interview with @Timothy_Hughes by @traackr

Influence Marketing software company Traackr interviewed me on Social Selling and the use Of Influence Marketing.

The full interview can be found at the link here

@delph003 EMEA Marketing Manager for Traackr asked me a number of questions and we chatted for such a long time that we split the interview into 2.  This is part 2.

You can find Part 1 here

The questions I answer in this second half of the interview are:

Q1 – What is the role of marketing for social selling success?

Marketing Content

Marketing Automation

Q2: How can influencer marketing support social selling efforts?

Q3: Where do you source your best content?

Would be interested in your comments.  Have you come across something similar?

 

Tim Hughes is a Social Selling Innovator and Pioneer his blog has become a reference point for Sales People throughout the world to get hints and tips to get into Social Selling; Newbies and Influencers alike. Tim’s 27 years as a quota carrying salesperson, means he cuts the fluff and speaks in a no nonsense style. The blog is not about slogans but about how you can use Social to allow you to over achieve your quota, quicker.

Tim Hughes is a Speaker and Blogger on Social Selling and be can be contacted @Timothy_Hughes or Tim_Hughes1@hotmail.com or contact me at LinkedIn

Social Selling With @Timothy_Hughes – Interview with @KymLamSam #socialselling

Link to interview with Kym Lam Sam @KymLamSam.

Kym writes blog for Entrepreneurs and Small Businesses and was keen to understand how Social Selling will / can impact SMEs (Small Medium Enterprises) and Sole Traders.

He is also keen to understand the impact of “rejection” in sales and how Social Selling can reduce rejection.  In other words, how can we increase the chance of success.

Over the 30 minute interview Kym asks me the following questions:-

Q1. You have 25 years of sales understanding under your belt. Is the practice of social media selling the same as traditional real world selling? If so, what are the similarities and if not, what are the differences?

Q2. Personal branding is becoming more and more of a necessity with the increased use of social media. People are wanting REAL connections. What are some of the most important things to consider when you want to get noticed online?

Q3. Rejection is a big fear that a lot of people share. It can also be quote deflating when you’re excited about what you have to offer and somebody throws it back in your face. Is there a way for someone to minimize the chances of rejection?

Q4. On the topic of rejection, when one is rejected, what is the best way to review/analyze your rejection in order to learn from it?

Q5. How can people be assertive without being pushy?

Link to interview is here http://www.kymlamsam.com/?p=11272

 

If during your journey you come up with other ideas, I would love to hear from you. Please leave any suggestions or comments below.

Tim Hughes is a Social Selling Innovator and Pioneer, his blog has become a reference point for Sales People throughout the world to get hints and tips on Social Selling; Newbies and Influencers alike. Tim’s 27 years as a quota carrying salesperson, means he cuts the fluff and speaks in a no nonsense style. The blog is not about slogans but about how you can use Social to allow you to over achieve your quota, quicker.

Tim Hughes is a Speaker and Blogger on Social Selling and be can be contacted @Timothy_Hughes or Tim_Hughes1@hotmail.com

 

Social influencer Tim Hughes: Big Ideas for the next Industrial Revolution

The Procurement Social Network Procurious interviewed me about a number of subjects and below is a link to that interview, the questions being:-

Procurious asks: In your Twitter bio you call yourself a pioneer of Social Selling – could you distil it for the uninitiated?

Procurious: Mastering social selling – if you were to promote best practice, what would be your top 5 tips?

Procurious: Innovation in the social space – your thoughts on the likes of Periscope and Meerkat. Will they stick around, what do they offer social storytellers etc.

Procurious: Gamification – is it important/how can it be used to effectively breed user loyalty?

Procurious: Why should we be encouraging procurement professionals to face their fears and get on social networks?

Procurious: Can you recommend some actions to help social-networking newbies spread and grow their online influence?

And finally, look forward to 2030. How will the social landscape have changed, what’s your Big idea for social?

https://www.procurious.com/blog/generation-procurement/social-influencer-tim-hughes-big-ideas-for-the-next-industrial-revolution

 

If during your journey you come up with other ideas, I would love to hear from you. Please leave any suggestions or comments below.

Tim Hughes is a Social Selling Innovator and Pioneer, his blog has become a reference point for Sales People throughout the world to get hints and tips on Social Selling; Newbies and Influencers alike. Tim’s 27 years as a quota carrying salesperson, means he cuts the fluff and speaks in a no nonsense style. The blog is not about slogans but about how you can use Social to allow you to over achieve your quota, quicker.

Tim Hughes is a Speaker and Blogger on Social Selling and be can be contacted @Timothy_Hughes or Tim_Hughes1@hotmail.com

 

 

5 Steps to #SocialSelling Success #smlondon

5 Steps to Social Selling Success http://socialmedialondon.co.uk/social-selling-success/

Please listen to the audio podcast or the article written by Jorgen Sundberg after a conversation with me.

In it we discuss why Social Selling is Important, we also discuss my 5 Pillar Methodology to Social Selling Success.

 

If during your journey you come up with other ideas that can help Social Sellers out there, I would love to hear from you. Please leave any suggestions or comments below.

 

Tim Hughes is a Social Selling Innovator and Pioneer his blog has become a reference point for Sales People throughout the world to get hints and tips to get into Social Selling; Newbies and Influencers alike. Tim’s 27 years as a quota carrying salesperson, means he cuts the fluff and speaks in a no nonsense style. The blog is not about slogans but about how you can use Social to allow you to over achieve your quota, quicker.

Tim Hughes is a Speaker and Blogger on Social Selling and be can be contacted @Timothy_Hughes or Tim_Hughes1@hotmail.com

10 Ways You Can Start #Socialselling That Don’t Take a Lot of Time

The number one objection I get from Sales People about Social Selling is “Tim, with all the other pressures I have, I just don’t have time for this.”

While I can give many arguments about changing your priorities, new ways of working, etc etc. Here are some ways you can short cut the time you spend on Social Media. Of course, don’t expect the same results, but it might get you into a Social Selling habit.

A member of my family, who is not a big reader, once asked me, what books should I read to get me into the reading habit. My advice was to start with magazines, start in small chunks then to move onto a Harry Potter or Dan Brown book. George Orwell, (as one person suggested) might not be the best place for her to start.

This blog is about how a new starter can start the Social Selling journey. If you are a purest or a long time Social Seller stop reading now this isn’t for you. In addition, thsi won’t get you thousands of followers but let’s get in to the habit first.

First things first. There are many Social Networks but unless you have a particular reason to get into YouTube, Pinterest then as a B2B sales person I would focus on LinkedIn and Twitter.

How often should I post? At least once a day. You can post the same content on LinkedIn as well as Twitter.  Here are the ten things you can do to Hustle your Social Selling

1. When you get into work in the morning and you get your laptop / Mac out, post something to Twitter and LinkedIn. There must be something you read in the paper on the train on the way in or came in on email overnight.

2. Use automation. If you have read my post “Why don’t we just automate Social Media, we can then go back to doing our day jobs”  you’ll know I’m not a big fan of automation but Buffer and Hootsuite can be used to help you “batch” up a bunch of tweets in advance.  When you get in the office in the morning, why not batch some Tweets or LinkedIn posts?

3. Work as a Team. In all of the presentations I’ve seen on Social Selling, Social Media is positioned as a solo effort. Rather than searching for content, why not retweet others?  Form a team with work colleagues and agree to retweet each other or like posts on LinkedIn.  Don’t expect an explosion of followers, but you will start building a presence and (hopefully) start getting into the habit.

4. Your Marketing department should be providing you with content. Agree, in many cases this can look very “corporate”, but using tools discussed in 2. You can batch this up and schedule a number posts.  Check out the 4.1.1 Rule.

5. Reuse content. Why not use meeting notes to create Points of View (POV) LinkedIn / Blog posts. “These are the top 5 issues we see in Accounting systems in Media today” for example.

6. Take corporate videos, events, areas that interest you and write a LinkedIn post. 5 lines of introduction and context and then post the video / link to the event. Not the most elegant way of working but it gets you started.

7. What is your passion? Ask anybody about their passion and their eyes light up and immediately they become positively animated. Why start blogging about serious subjects, why not start with your passion? Sailing, Photography, etc

8. Download a content curation tool like Flipboard or Klout and find content, there must be time waiting in reception at a customer or on the train where you could find something relevant to Tweet?

 

9. Create a list on Twitter of Influencers or subscribe to one of my lists and as mentioned in 3. retweet that content.

10. Stop being a corporate suit and be human. OK, so it’s a terrible clique but why not post a photo of your lunch / dog walk / airport lounge you are sitting in? In her book “Social Executive Dionne Lew says ….. “Why not take a photo and post it, show your human side.”

Finally I often get asked how much time should I spend on Social Media?  In my view, the world has changed and this requires us to change with it.  On that basis, 30 mins a day would be a good target. Yes this is a lot of time, but what worked 20 years ago might not work now.  Many Sales people I talk to work out what old ways they need to drop and find time for the working practices of the 21st century.

If during your journey you come up with other ideas that can help Social Sellers out there, I would love to hear from you. Please leave any suggestions or comments below.

Tim Hughes is a Social Selling Innovator and Pioneer his blog has become a reference point for Sales People throughout the world to get hints and tips to get into Social Selling; Newbies and Influencers alike. Tim’s 27 years as a quota carrying salesperson, means he cuts the fluff and speaks in a no nonsense style. The blog is not about slogans but about how you can use Social to allow you to over achieve your quota, quicker.

Tim Hughes is a Speaker and Blogger on Social Selling and be can be contacted @Timothy_Hughes or Tim_Hughes1@hotmail.com

12 Reasons why you should be on Twitter (Without even Tweeting once!) #Socialselling

Twitter is no different from any other communication method. It is bit like an on-line telephone, people can communicate with other people or companies. You just do it in a short and snappy way.

I Know I should be on Twitter but Don’t Want to Tweet

50% of accounts don’t Tweet, they listen.

Let me talk about my Granny for a second.  She had a phone so we could call her, but never made any calls herself.  In the same way you can use Twitter to listen, but you don’t need to Tweet.

12 Reasons why you should be on Twitter (Without even Tweeting once!)

1. Save Money – Companies often offer money off vouchers or discounts. When you get onto Twitter, follow your favorite brands and save money.

2. Get tickets for West End shows — Tickets for shows, Opera, Ballet are often offered over Social Media a day before the show. They are often released via a hashtag you need to search on.

3. Win – Companies will run competitions over Twitter with prizes.

4. Get Packages Redelivered — You are away from home and a package is delivered and you need to get it redelivered. Contact the Courier Company over Twitter.

5. Find out about Travel Delays – Most Travel companies are online, such as airlines, airports and in most cases there is a “real person” that you can interact with.  I’ve been in situations at Heathrow where information boards went down, but was able to keep up with delay information by “talking” over Twitter with the airline Twitter account.

6. Get Pre-Sale Tickets – When you get on Twitter follow you favorite bands / artists / groups; often they will offer tickets before they are offered to the general public.  One gig I went to “exclusive small event for fans” was only offered over Twitter.

7. Get Up-To-Date News — Follow you favorite news channels, Social Media now carry the exclusives before the television.  You can also find news channels or interesting people (like me) who Tweet about information in a niche subject area you may have.  (Why not jump in and debate these subjects?)

8. Get a Job – Get a Better Job? –Employers want to employ people today who are Thought Leaders in an area.  While 10 years ago having Word or Excel on your CV was a requirement, now employers look for (at least) an understanding of Social Media.  (50% of the people I have trained in Social Media have gone on to get a better job.)

9. Get Answers to Questions — Many people use Twitter as an alternative “search engine” for search (I do, for example).  As Social Search becomes more relevant than Google, it’s a useful source of data.  You can of course Tweet questions out to your followers.

10. Learn Something New — If like me you think that “every day is a school day” and that life is about continual learning, you can follow people and learn some amazing facts.

11. See some incredible photography, from amateur and professional photographers.

12. Keep up with your favorite celebrities, bands and TV shows.  Many TV shows have a hashtag which you can follow while you watch.  Watch or join in the debate.

 

 

Tim Hughes is an internationally renowned Thought Leader in the field of Digital Economy, Social Selling and Social Media Networks. He is well known for his Pioneering and Innovating work in relation to Social Selling.   Based in London, he can be contacted on @timothy_hughes

I work in Human Resources, #SocialSelling has nothing to do with me, right? #HCM

The phones goes and I don’t know the number; it’s either a Cold Call or a Head Hunter / Recruiter.  I’m in the Office so I find an empty meeting room to take the call and answer.

It’s a recruiter. He goes through the usual story. Would you be interested in Company ABC.  Pre-IPO, all the sales people are making more many than they can spend (I exaggerate but any sales person will know the drill). (Why is it that Head Hunters sound like a broken record? Maybe another Blog for another day?)

Now, I need to say that I’m not looking for a new role, but anybody like myself, who is “out there” will get these calls from time to time.

Back to the call.  I ask the name of the company the recruiter is working for and (as I’ve got my headset on) type it into Google.  Find that one of their Execs has been arrested for a minor offense (it happens) and go to their website.  Don’t really understand the messages on the website, so I ask the Recruiter.  “What does “We’re a global strategic consulting firm that specializes in helping companies solve their strategy execution challenges through a suite of integrated services.” mean?.”  It’s a direct quote from the website.  Then wish I’d hadn’t, as he struggles to explain.

On reading such a company (not customer) focused piece of jargon filled rubbish, I’m pretty sure I don’t want to work there.  With him still struggling to give me an explanation, it gives me time to check them out on LinkedIn.

Great, I have a contact who works there, which would have been great, as I would have spoken to him, had I decided to have taken it further.

I now look at the LinkedIn profiles of the people who are second degree away and it’s all very uninspiring.

I politely turn down the approach from the Recruiter.

Now, I’m not having a go at this company, I’m sure they are well meaning managers and probably have an amazing product.  But in their search for talent, they are dead in the water.

So while if you are in Human Resources or a recruiter and reading this, I would agree that maybe “Social Selling” is right for you.  But maybe an “Employee Advocacy” program is.

As I hopefully demonstrated through that call I had with the recruiter, your website and your employees LinkedIn profiles are an extension of your brand.

Finally

Two great friends of mine @StandardofTrust and @ronmci  posted this article on Facebook this morning, quoting the following statistic “7 out of 10 employees are disengaged and 1 out of 10 are actively sabotaging their employer.“

Now I’m in no position to argue with that, I just hope it isn’t true!

Should Employees Be Encouraged to Tweet? http://mitsmr.com/1E1K9Dp via @mitsmr

Tim Hughes is the #2 Social Seller globally and has been called a “Social Selling Pioneer and Innovator” he can be contacted at @timothy_hughes

I’m in Pre-Sales, #SocialSelling has nothing to do with me, right?

I’m in Pre-Sales, Social Selling is Nothing to do with me, right?

Wrong!

Social Selling has many facets through the desire building and direct sales process. This includes Demand Generation (which should probably be called Social Marketing or Social Prospecting) through to closing a deal.

Pre-Sales can play an active role, in fact with the world changing, pre-sales people need to change to meet the world today.

Social Selling for Pre-Sales – The Basics

If a pre-sales person goes to meet a customer in the world we live into, I’m pretty sure the prospect will have checked you out on LinkedIn before you arrive. If you have a boring LinkedIn profile, the prospect will be expecting a boring meeting. You have lost before you have started.
(Whenever I go to a meeting I send a LinkedIn connection request ahead of time.  That, maybe a Blog for another day.)

This way, I hope, my prospects and customers will be thinking “Wow, looking forward to meeting this guy!”
Which means I already I have a competitive advantage over the “corporate suit” LinkedIn profiles.

Customers Want to Meet Thought Leaders not Thought Followers!

So you have a Cool LinkedIn profile and Customers look forward to meeting you.  But let’s take a logical step and transform you into a Thought Leader.

As a Thought Leader; people will seek you out as part of the buying process and ask your advice.  Think about it. Companies will seek you out.  (For the Sales People reading, this means, leads for free!).

While there are many definitions of what a Thought Leader is or should be.  I’m not saying you suddenly need to be the next Brian Solis on the speaker circuit.  But if you sell Human Capital Management (HCM) for example and are posting, publishing, blogging about HCM, I’m sure you are going to get spotted by somebody who is thinking about buying some HCM.

When people want to buy something, the first place they go to search for ideas, will probably be Google.  I can get you on the first page, now wouldn’t that be cool?

So How Do you Become a Thought Leader?

This is actually more straight forward than some people think.  I’ve made an assumption you are interested in what you do (if not, please don’t waste your time reading this).

You can start by curating content and posting through your Social Media channels.  But, Please don’t become a corporate bore, think before you post.  Is the person you want to read your posts really interested in your “Jargon, Jargon, my company is great #Meaninglesshashtag” posts?  I’m not, for sure.

Let’s assume you have seen an interesting PWC white paper.  Why not take a screen shot of one of the Infographics and ask an engaging question.  “PWC survey says that 85% of CFOs think XYZ, is this similar for you in your industry?”  Attaching the Infographic.

(If we go back to my point at the start of the blog.  If a prospect and casual observer of your LinkedIn profile, sees your interesting posts they are going to think.  This person knows their stuff, sounds like they know my industry and understands the issues that are keeping me awake.  (They might even contact you ….)

As a Pre-Sales person you are given an amazing gift every time your meet a customer or prospect.  Free business advice and consultancy.  The customer will explain their business issues etc.  You will, I assume, take notes and  write these up.  Why not turn them into a blog?  Of course you cannot mention the customer, but you could write a 500 word piece on “What Business Issues we are Seeing in the XYZ Market right now and the Business Outcomes our Customers are Obtaining”.

Post this on Twitter, LinkedIn, Googleplus (you did claim your Google Authorship, yes?) and I can assure you, people will seek you out and free leads will come your way.

Conclusion

There is an old saying in sales that “People buy People”, this hasn’t changed, in fact in the Social world this is more appropriate.

Assuming you are a Pre-Sales person that wants to be recognised as a Professional in your industry, are interested in what you do and what to win your bonus; you need to wake up to Social Selling

 

 

Cloud – Is there a Killer App? #SaaS #Paas

“That Isn’t Mountains, it’s a Wave. And it’s coming right at us!”

Anybody who has seen the film Interstellar should remember that line.  “That isn’t a Mountains it’s a wave!”  Apologies, I’ve used changed it slightly to fit this blog, but the context is the same.

If you haven’t seen the film, the “two stars” land on a planet and they see this beautiful calm sea, stretching out before them.  On the horizon it looks like wonderful mountains, they have a job to do, removing some debris and they can take their time.  It is then they realise (too late), the mountains are actually a wave, so high, it will engulf them.

I remember watching it and realising it made a great analogy to the parts of the technology industry which are ignoring cloud or hoping it will go way.  Somebody recently said to me “Cloud wont happen as the cost of hardware will reduce so much, you won’t need to go Cloud”.  But like the “mountains” in this film, Cloud / SaaS, is coming and coming fast!

(Great film if you haven’t seen it.)

This blog, covers what I define as Cloud; (yes, we have seen this all before;) but why this time it’s different.

 Is the move to Cloud Just Managed Services 2.0?

Everybody is talking about Cloud right now.  Cloud, some people are saying, is just like going back in time.  You put your thirty year old software in somebody else’s data centre and it’s cloud, right?  Sounds like what we have being doing for years.  I always called it Managed Services or Outsourcing.  Is this the age of Cloud or are we really in the age of Managed Services 2.0?

With the arrival of SMAC (Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud) there is also major software change taking place.  People now expect to access their applications on their mobile; Social and the ability to collaborate should be standard (like on Facebook) and people expect report writing should be built in and not some after thought.

What Did We Learn Last Time There was Major Software Disruption?

Back in the day when we moved from “Green Screens” to GUI (Graphical User Interfaces), companies took legacy systems and then built a “screen scraper” GUI on the front end.  Will people be duped again?  If you put Lipstick on a pig, it’s still a pig!

So be careful some people are saying they are Cloud, but it is still the same old, same old.

Why Are Things Different This Time Round?

When I post the diagram on the left on Twitter, it always creates debate.

The great thing about Cloud, is you no longer have to buy hardware and you no longer have to worry about “feed and Watering” the systems.  At this point it all sounds like traditional Outsourcing contacts – just like I say above, Managed Service 2.0.

Cloud – The Secret Ingredient / “Killer App”

BUT Cloud should also offer you upgrades within the cost of the monthly subscription.  This is the “Killer App“.  Imagine you have an Enterprise grade application such as SAP and still get the system fed and watered (as you did with any Outsourcing contract) but no longer need to pay for upgrades?  The Cloud vendor will take care of the hardware upgrade, operating system upgrade, the database upgrade and the Application upgrade with the subscription charge.

So while we can argue about the diagram above about the Cost of running On Premise(S) Vs Cloud, if you didn’t have to pay for another upgrade again, now that would impact massively on your budget. Right?

Cloud – This Time The Software Has Moved on Too?

Business users make decisions about software now, not IT.  They buy software that has been written for the Cloud.  There is also the expectation that (as I mention above) that the applications we use at work, will, look and feel like the applications we use at home.

This is the change taking place right now!  Applications should no longer look “clunky” and cost you significant money to upgrade.  This must be a win for companies and end users alike.  You save money, but more importantly the software moves from Transaction Process (TP) to Process Processing (PP).

 

Really keen for your comments and opinion below.

Tim Hughes is a speaker and a blogger.  He is also the #2 Global Social Seller and is recognised as a pioneer and innovator in the area of #Socialselling.  Tim can be contacted at @timothy_hughes