Social media is now an inescapable part of our lives. For many of us, it is our primary source of information. It allows us to connect and interact on so many different levels and with people from all around the world using a variety of platforms. Once looked upon as a curiosity (at best) by most organizations, it is now part of any company’s digital marketing campaign, regardless of size. One aspect of social media which is beginning to gather more traction lately is social selling.
The Social Sales Academy was co-founded in 2015 by Dealer Marketing’s Darrell Amy and former copier salesman, Larry Levine, to draw attention to the importance of integrating social selling methodologies into the copier sales process while coaching copier reps how to increase their potential through an optimized LinkedIn profile and presence.
Larry Levine Conducts LinkedIn Roadshow
From the beginning, Levine and Amy have employed both online and onsite training, but last week they returned from a week-long LinkedIn Copier Roadshow which included stops in Chicago, New York, Phoenix and San Francisco.
For Levine, addressing the misconceptions surrounding social selling and communicating the benefits that social business development brings to copier sales reps’ funnels was the primary objective of the roadshow.
“Everybody thinks social selling is some new term that has fallen out of the sky,” he says. “But we’ve been social selling forever. Back in the eighties I was social selling, but it was just done differently. It was all face to face and on the phone — no internet or PC!”
Levine explains that social selling, just like traditional selling, is fundamentally the art of building a relationship. The only difference is that emerging technologies have made it necessary to reshape old-school principles into messaging which can be communicated to a broader audience incorporating the LinkedIn platform. So far, he reports, there has been a major uptick in interest as LinkedIn has become a big deal for copier reps within the B2B space.
“The copier channel needs to understand the many benefits integrating LinkedIn into the sales process have to their sales reps pipelines,” he says. “Understanding how to integrate LinkedIn can reignite the flame for prospecting. Sales reps have lost the passion for prospecting. Showing them the benefits of digital prospecting makes it exciting. In addition, this is one fantastic way to socially surround your client base.”
Levine emphasizes that the old school method of pounding the pavement and knocking on doors still remains a viable method, but diminishing results in some market places demand greater efforts. Leveraging digital prospecting through LinkedIn and incorporating a social presence only strengthens those efforts. He insists that dealer principles must mandate all sales reps maintain a forward-facing spot on LinkedIn because this is the first impression most visitors will have of the dealership and the sales rep.
“Copier sales reps today not only have to sell, they’re at the front and center of the dealership,” explains Levine. “They’re out there taking care of their customers and prospecting for new business. The information people discover or don’t discover about the reps online informs their opinion of them and the dealership.”
“If the sales rep’s LinkedIn profile is unsatisfactory or incomplete, there’s a good chance they never get to the dealership’s website because they’ve already formed an opinion and possibly even vetted out the sales rep,” he adds.
Levine likens a LinkedIn profile to the “About Us” page on a dealership website. He says that if copier sales reps can craft their profile into a more precise selling tool, they’ll begin to see tangible results. He insists that it must be integrated into the sales process for reps to reap the benefits.
“The problem is most copier reps self-build, self-teach themselves and think they just need to have a basic profile – that’s it,” he says. “They need to ask themselves, ‘If I was a C-level executive, would I set up an appointment with myself based on what is currently on my LinkedIn profile?’”
Why is Levine capable of drawing so many old school copier dealers to a roadshow about utilizing a modern social media platform? He offers an easy explanation.
“I’m just an old school copier guy with a modern twist,” he explains. “That’s why I had instant credibility at this roadshow. I’m an excuse remover. I am a baby-boomer who walks it, talks and uses it.”
Levine delivered the message to over 135 sales reps over the span of four days and says he was very pleased with the results.
“I think I saw the light bulb come on in about 95 percent of them,” he says.
