The game is selling. But the rules have changed. Cold Calling is out. Social media is IN. Convincing and persuading is out. Community and attraction are in.

As your company sits in board rooms and talks sales strategy, then think about Social Media as one leg of execution.

Definition: ‘Social media’ (SM). SM is the interaction that people have online that creates conversations in which your company and/or products are centerpieces.

You, as a sales professional or sales manager, had best get hip to what’s happening online to your company/products/customers. And how to use this knowledge to grow your business. There are several vehicles in SM. Here they are, in no order.

Podcasts. You should have a podcast for your business (every business should have a podcast–and I challenge someone to convince me otherwise) if you have expertise about something. Your podcast will provide valuable information that your customers/prospects can use to see you as a resource for bigger problems. Talk to customers about problems you’ve solved for them. Record them and you have a podcast. Giving a speech at an industry event? Good, record it and now you have a podcast. Have a technical guru in the back room? Turn on the mic, interview him and now you have yet another podcast.

Don’t tell me you have nothing to talk about.

Plug: Check out The Advanced Selling Podcast, which is produced weekly. It’s 15-minutes long and takes us about 20 minutes to create/episode. We have about 12,000 listeners per month and it costs us about $100/month to produce and host. Where else can I speak to 12,000 people for $100?

Another Resource: Go to Podcast Tools to check out Paul Colligan’s podcast on podcasting. He does 5 minutes/week. Short but to the point. 

Another Point: The iPhone will sell over 10,000,000 units in the next year. Go to your Apple store, or go to apple.com and watch the instructional video. Guess what a big part of the feature set is? Podcasting delivered directly to the phone!

Your selling strategy should be to educate your prospects to the pains/issues they have that they don’t know they have. Every selling process or procedure should do this. What better way to do this than through podcasting or internet audio where your sales strategy is to help them see their problems–and help them see YOU as a solution to them?

Blogs. While there are 40,000,000 blogs, most companies don’t see them for what they could be. If you have a website and not a blog, then you’re missing a great way to lead people to your website. But make your blog a rigorous conversation about the industry. DON’T make it about you and only you.

Ask questions. Pose opinions and ask for feedback. Create controversy by being honest. Blogs should be written by people–not by some faceless company PR person.

You can also use blogs to create Case Studies on ways you’ve solved problems for your customers. Have a new product? Take a pic of it and post about it. But be honest about it’s strengths and weaknesses. Don’t tell one side of the story. If you do, it’ll sound like it came from your marketing department–more blah-blah-blah.

Video Blogs. This includes the addition of Video to your blog site. If your value can be told easier through pictures/video, then this is a great application. Here is one that came from the Executive Learning Network. I have no idea who they are, but it looks like they have a new video blog site. I spent 15 minutes watching it. Not the meatiest content in the world, but well produced. Your ideas should be flowing by now.

RSS. This is a tough one. You’ve heard about it, but you may not undrestand it fully. Here is a link to Capture The Conversation, a blog written about new media. This post tells you what RSS is and how important it is for companies investing in the web.

Every sales person should know about RSS because it might just be the future of client communications. Period.

Conclusion
The idea is that your customers/prospects aren’t at chamber meetings anymore. They are online in their own conversations with people. If you’re a sales manager or top level sales person, then here are some questions you should address:
==’How can you meet your prospects where they are?’
==’How can you create some of those customer conversations by what you know–and educate them?’
==’How can you share your insights so your market comes begging for more–which consequently puts you in control of the sales process?

If you think your goal is to merely make cold calls and get referrals, then you are thinking in the old world. Good luck with new thinking.