Does Social Media Help Salespeople Sell?
Despite the ubiquity of social media, successful salespeople prefer traditional points of contact to make a sale.
In today’s always-online, globally-connected marketplace, is there still a place for traditional selling? Or has the new emphasis on social media marketing made person-to-person prospecting an anachronism?
Without a doubt, modern communication technology has reshaped how people buy and sell. Products and services that used to depend on personalized service—from cosmetics to life insurance—can be found, compared and purchased online without any personal interaction at all. Customers can choose to be anonymous for as long as they wish while demanding complete transparency in return. Uncovering their needs is as simple—and as bewildering—as wading through comments on your brand’s socials platforms.
More traffic doesn’t mean more sales
A strong social media presence can yield substantial rewards, of course. The Girl Scouts of the USA represent one of the more venerable sales forces in the United States. During the recession of 2008, they saw sales of their iconic cookies grow steadily, due in part to embracing modern marketing channels like email marketing and Facebook to connect with a broader customer base. Mirroring that strategy, many companies in the non-cookie sector have added a Chief Media Officer to their executive suite. The CMO’s function is to raise brand awareness and loyalty—a function that is increasingly accomplished via online social media platforms as much as or more than print or broadcast advertising.
The underlying assumption of the social media revolution is that greater exposure, awareness and immediacy will translate into more sales. But that assumption comes primarily from statistics that measure clicks, shares and comments—not actual sales figures.
Tried and true over the new
Technology continues to change the sales game. We’ve seen virtual selling through email and video conferencing become more popular due to the “no contact” rules because of the pandemic. Still, once society gets back to normal, you may not want to ditch the "old school" methods just yet.
To get a clearer view of the link between computer-mediated communication and real-world results, we went to the people who know best.
We recently surveyed about 4,700 salespeople, from a variety of industries and with an average age of 40. In addition to assessing their general attitudes toward prospecting, we asked them to name which specific client communication medium they found most effective.
In response, almost 70% indicated that traditional methods of contact—face-to-face and telephone prospecting—are the most effective means of generating new sales. Only 10% claimed that email was the most effective method of contacting prospective buyers, and even less than that preferred social media platforms.
Interestingly, there was no correlation between sellers’ age and the contact methods they preferred. Seasoned sales veterans who remember rotary phones are just as likely as “wired-in” younger sellers to see conventional prospecting as the more effective driver of sales.
We did, however, uncover an important difference among salespeople in this survey. Those who considered social media a superior means of generating sales also tended to be uncomfortable with phone or face-to-face methods. Whatever their stated reasons for gravitating toward modern, internet-based methods of contacting customers, psychological assessments indicated they were less comfortable with initiating contact overall.
BSRP’s George W. Dudley, one of the behavioral scientists who participated in the research says, “Salespeople claiming social media is most effective might be struggling with Call Reluctance®, an emotional impediment to production characterized by apprehension, conflict, hesitation or avoidance specifically associated with sales prospecting. They had elevated prospecting distress scores on 11 of the 12 forms of Call Reluctance measured.”
Technology provides cover for emotional hesitation
In that regard, social media methods aren’t much different from older forms of “alternative” prospecting methods like brochures and snail-mail advertising campaigns. While social media platforms such as, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram, may be useful sales and marketing tools, it should not be a substitute for direct, "real-time" contact methods and could be a modern crutch instead. To salespeople suffering from contact-related discomfort, they represent one more way of avoiding the most direct—and effective—means of finding new customers.
Even social media gurus tend to agree that computer-mediated communication, for all its other benefits, may not be an effective sales tool. A 2012 survey revealed that CMOs believe so-called “social efforts” increase brand awareness more effectively than they translate into sales, and nearly one in four thought social media did not have a measurable effect on sales figures. And the Content Marketing Institute admonished its audience, “We applaud you for doing more and trying more tactics, although we must say we are pretty sure that throwing more content at customers is not the answer.”
We think the answer is the same as it’s been for generations of salespeople: The more prospective customers you contact, the more sales you close. And the sellers who feel most comfortable consistently getting in front of those prospects—regardless of sales support in the form of websites, blogs, Twitter feeds and online promotions—experience more success than those who can’t, don’t or won’t.
The bottom line
Social media can be great for keeping tabs on old friends, supporting your political party of choice or sharing pictures of cats doing funny things. But successful salespeople believe that to get their job done, old-school prospecting beats the “Like” button. Even in the 21st century, conventional sales contact methods are still the best way to generate new sales. If you aren’t comfortable making direct interaction with the people you are selling to, no alternative form of contact will be worth the time or effort, and the result will be fewer closed sales.
Do you want to increase your sales revenue and build your client base?
Sign up now for our Power Up Your Sales Workshop today and you’ll learn how to:
Eliminate excuses and maximize prospecting and/or engagement activity.
Eradicate negative sales-defeating behaviors.
Clear “head trash” that is more dangerous than the current market conditions.
Find out more about BSRP’s thought-leading practices and procedures for managing Call Reluctance® and explore our range of assessments, research and sales training.
