The Death of Glengarry

How To Educate A Sales Rep That Really Hates Being “Social”

“I don’t have time for Twitter – I’m out there closing business “

“Facebook, Twitter – MY customers don’t use that crap”

These are just a few of the common shitty excuses that I hear over and over and over again from sales reps.  As we reps make excuses for a living (the deal slipped because the CFO’s dog ate my PO), it should come as no surprise that the same employee who is supposed to be the most gregarious one on staff, is the one who is “heading for ze hills” when it comes to Social Media.

Why?  Becuase we are coddled like babies in most organizations.

As a rep, I know that many people in my former organization pacified me.  For example, any calls that I  recieved on the last month of the quarter always started with the following “I am so sorry to bothering you – I know its the end of the quarter and you are probably insanely busy”.   While that time of the quarter was certainly active, I would not have picked up the phone if I had something better to do.

Don’t Hate Educate – Adopt a Sale Rep

Stolen straight outta Crawford – “Leave No Sales Rep Behind” is a program that I would like to see implemented all over this great country of ours.  I challenge all marketing professionals to adopt 1 orphan sales rep and knock some sense into them.

To do my part in cleaning up this mess and seeing some real change, I have created 3 sales rep proof steps to educating the social butterfly on social marketing:

THREE FOR THE SALES REP

#1 – Create a Joint Twitter Account with Your Marketing Team – Tell all of your customers (past, present & future) that you have set this up to allow them another channel to communicate and interact with you.  If they need tech support, send you a tweet, if they need some logo golf shirts, send you a tweet, if they need a quote, send you 2 tweets.

What you are doing here is showcasing your ability to engage with your client, better servicing all your customers and allowing everyone to see how you approach your business.   You are savvy, take exceptional care of everyone you work with and also create a community where customer references will develop on their own.  Your marketing team can help monitor through Hootsuite and develop

#2 Set up 3 accounts  (takes 9:30 to complete all 3 on a FIOS line – I know you and know you have that much free time)

LinkedIn - If you have not done this already you are probably unemployed already so please leave this blog

Twitter - Its here, still here, get used to it

Facebook - This is for work so keep your dumb pictures to yourself – keep your eye on the prize and just create the account stupid.

#3 – Commit to 60 days – I like to think of this as my 2nd gym membership – be disciplined mentally and physically and commit to spending time on it each day.   If you do not see results in 60 days, QUIT – but give yourself some time to get familiar with what it is as I know you will be pleasantly surprised.

THREE FOR MARKETING PROFESSIONALS

Congrats on your adoption – now the fun begins

1. Stop Treating the Reps Like Babies –  Call them out when they don’t do what they are supposed to be doing for you.  If you had a number on your back, I know that you would not let 1/2 the BS slide that you presently do.

2. Help Reps Succeed by Making it Personal –  Take 10 Prospects and 5 Current Clients and see what you can find out about them.  For example, I saw that one prospect tweeted that they were going to a conference.  I called them up, said I was also going (not true) and that we should meet for coffee at Starbucks in lobby – we did and I used the informal meeting to get a 2nd meeting.  I not saying stalk, but use what you can to help your sales team focus and collect useful intel.  Once the rep sees that they can personally benefit from this, you have succeeded.

#3 – Compose 2 Tweets A Week For Your Reps –  this is just enough to get them started and puts the pressure on them to keep the activity level up.  Your tweets can be on new specials, whitepapers, customer wins, whatever – you are in marketing so I will let you figure it out.

Since I went there with the Bush Program reference, I am forced to finish with my favorite GB quote:

“There’s an old saying in Tennessee — I know it’s in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — [pauses] – shame on you. Fool me — You can’t get fooled again.”

Sad truth is that there is a lot of GB in most sales reps – Good Selling & Good Luck

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