Social Influence to build Trust is an essential strategy in the subliminal art of attracting serious and targeted buyer interest to your products and services. When combined with a focussed Social Selling culture throughout your organisation, your lead times to closure and cost of sale can be significantly reduced.

A decade ago, 2011 Forrester Research said “90% of Customer Buying Decisions were starting online” – Within 5 years 75% of buyers were using social media to preselect suppliers, and more than 50% of the sales decision was made prior to engaging a salesperson.*

Since the massive change brought on by the pandemic, the number of project decisions based on online research has exponentially increased and it is proven to have reduced cost to buyers.

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• Enterprise Teams can no longer sit through large numbers of vendor presentations, or sift through a large number of bids

• Most Projects are quickly defined (online) to a very short list – only a very small number of suppliers even get invited to the table.

• Lucky Companies had a few proactive sales folk who caught on early and influenced manually 1:1 but this isn’t scaleable - and luck is a crappy strategy

• Some started to embrace a form of social influence and social selling – they grew through the pandemic at rates of at least 30-50% barely blinking at WFH and enjoying lower cost of sale and higher productivity.

  • They had developed, informed and trusting communities, they were already shortlisted and well researched, prior to initial contact

• Field Marketing activity, and Events have all but halted – the virtual versions didn’t work for sponsors – companies need to stop doing what they have always done, hope of a return to pre 2020 is not working and its time to consider a different approach

 

Trust is the new buzz in an ocean of noise and uncertainty, it is the highest value sales strategy for 2022-23. Fear and Anxiety are at their highest levels ever personally and professionally

The Importance of Community - Forming communities, means having an opportunity to influence and sponsor those communities, to create a value based, trusted relationship that ultimately results in your community members considering your particular solution to a business problem.

• Communities and C suite do not inherently trust sales speak, and are sceptical of all “market leading” statements.

• Proof of thought leadership, and Community contribution, is a sustainable way to build trust in brand and people

• Adding value to a community is considered altruistic, and not seen as purely for gain

 

The Link Between Social Influence, Value and Social Selling = Consistent Value to a Community resulting in trusted brands, focused prospects,  long term customer relationships and revenue, based on an understanding of the full, strategic value you bring to their organisation.

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Stewart Mannings’ league of independent consultants have broad industry experience, who are regarded as thought leaders and specialists in their fields.

Our Principal Consultant is a leader in the field of Social Influence and Social Selling Culture, with over 15 years proven experience in using these techniques to build businesses. We are also privileged to have access to global independent influencers with thousands of connections and followers in the volatile and dynamic world of Cyber Security.

Many of our colleagues are ex CIO, CSO, CISO who have chosen to leave the world of large enterprises and public entities, and work to support others needing their broad and deep experience. Their credibility as a trusted source of community contribution is beyond question.

Stewart Manning can assist marketing and sales teams collaborate to better use their content creation, build trusted communities online and increase revenue.

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Contact Us  today for a confidential discussion on how we can help you reduce time to close, and lower your cost of sale, by building online value and trust with your targeted prospects and customers.