At a meeting recently, another speaker was relating to the audience that a client of his had mentioned that their company was “losing sales to the Internet.”
The speaker’s pithy response was, “Yes, you ARE losing sales to the Internet. Your sales people are sitting on the butts playing on Facebook and Twitter rather than closing your prospects.”
- Naturally, the audience laughed…and it all made sense…until I read of a study from Warwick University Business School in the United Kingdom. Titled “Exploring social network interactions in enterprise systems: the role of virtual co-presence,” the research suggests that social media connections actually RAISE productivity in workers!
As the MediaPost.com blog from Erik Sass states, “Warwick business prof Joe Nandhakumar summed up the results: ‘We found that the ubiquitous digital connectivity altered workers’ sense of ‘presence’ and helped rather than hindered the effective completion of collective tasks.‘
“He added: ‘Ubiquitous digital connectivity should be seen not as an unwelcome interruption but as part of the changing nature of knowledge work itself that needs to become part of normal, everyday practices of contemporary organisations.’” (emphasis mine)
Here’s the point: If social media helps connect your colleagues with one another to share information and assist connectivity…it’s a good…dare I say…GREAT thing.
And, from my perspective, it’s easy to take this to another logical level: If your sales team is using social media to connect with, respond to the concerns of, and serve customers better…their productivity can be enhanced, as well.
In other words, it’s easy for those of us who have been around for a while to dismiss social media as “sitting on butts, playing on Facebook and Twitter.” And, as we do that…those who use it effectively are selling and serving at a higher level.
I’ll bet when they were first installed, our sales ancestors made fun of those who used the telephone to connect with customers, too. Don’t you?
- How relevant…and distinctive…will YOU choose to be?
Showing you belong with the greats establishes your greatness…
Often times, I have an organization or individual complain to me that they just can’t get the recognition they feel they deserve.
“We’re just as good...if not better…than our competition — but the marketplace just doesn’t get it,” I hear proclaimed. ”I am just as good…if not better…than someone who got a promotion — but the boss just doesn’t see it,” is another, more personal version.
Last night, Tammy and I were guests of our good friend, Brad Lea — CEO of LightSpeed VT, the global leader in virtual, online learning — at a private event where the band Train performed for a small crowd I would estimate of about 600.
If I were to make a list of the top lead singers of bands of all time, I would say there are four: Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones, Steve Perry from Journey, Steven Tyler of Aerosmith, and Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin. (Your list could be different, naturally! However, you have to agree — this is a pretty powerful list, right?)
What did Pat Monahan of Train do to prove that he could belong on the list?
Early in the show, he started singing the Stones, “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” — and bridged that into the Train hit, “Drops of Jupiter.” Very cool.
Then, mentioning that Train…like Journey…was a San Francisco band, he pulled some fans onto the stage as the keyboards sounded the unmistakeable intro of “Don’t Stop Believin.’” I saw Journey a few times when Steve Perry was the lead singer — and Monahan, as much as it pains me to admit it, sang the song just as powerfully.
After performing their hits (and they have more than you might realize), Train returned to a thunderous ovation and played their encore — a note for note cover of Aerosmith’s “Dream On,” right down to Tyler’s scream leading into the last chorus.
(OK — so, he didn’t do Robert Plant. However, this morning I discovered that Monahan’s first band was a Led Zeppelin cover group in his hometown of Erie, Pennsylvania!)
The coolest part is that they didn’t do these songs with a “look at us, we’re just as good” attitude — they just fit into the flow of the show, engaging and entertaining the audience. However, they also proved that they belonged in the conversation with those other groups…something I NEVER would have said before I saw them live.
Interestingly, this event in Vegas has featured top bands annually — from the Eagles (my favorite group) the first year, to Maroon 5 last year. However, Train is the only band they’ve had twice . When I asked why, the response from our host was — aside from the obvious quality of the show — that Train was easy to work with, seemed to sincerely appreciate the charity efforts of the organization, and all acted like they really wanted to be there.
What concepts for ANY business!
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