Landy Chase is co-author of The Social Media Sales Revolution. He recently took a few minutes to chat with me about his book.
Bryan: What motivated you to write The Social Media Sales Revolution?
Landy: The telephone is obsolete as a business prospecting tool. Sales professionals must follow their customers and prospects to the Internet - and specifically, social media - to continue to succeed.
Bryan: How does a follow, a like or a connection translate into commissionable sales?
Landy: The key to building relationships online is to build TOMA - “top of mind awareness” - by providing value to others. Prospects and customers who follow you are much more likely to buy when the key factor over which we have no control - timing- kicks in for a purchase.
Bryan: What type of results can be expected after reading and applying the principles in your book? How long will results take?
Landy: A reasonable time-frame is six months to a year. After a year, we feel that social media will replace traditional prospecting methods for most sales people.
Bryan: There are those that would argue that social media involves building relationships with hundreds (even thousands) of people that will never become a client, and for this reason, its a waste of time. How do you respond?
Landy: That is nonsense, because with social media, you have the ability to target who you want to connect with. People who connect with you outside of your targeting efforts are simply a bonus.
Bryan: What percentage of salespeople are using social media to build a professional online presence? In your opinion, how effective are they?
Landy: It is miniscule, because most sales people do not know how to use social media to develop clients. Our goal is to change that.
Bryan: How do you suggest keeping control of social media, so it doesn't take over the work day?
Landy: The key is a daily commitment of 30 minutes of marketing time. That's all it takes.
Bryan: In the book, you recommend Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn as the primary tools for salespeople. What secondary sites, tools and apps do you recommend to manage, promote and improve the primary ones?
Landy: Any site that focuses on sales skills is worth following. We suggest creating a separate email address solely for the purpose of receiving RSS feeds from these resources. The information can then be redistributed to the sales person's online community. This is what we mean by the term “value generator”.
Bryan: Which of the top four tools (blogging along with Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn) are the most powerful in your professional life?
Landy: For me, these are the top four.
Bryan: What role did social media play in the launch and success of this book?
Landy: I sold a single order of 200 copies to one of my LinkedIn connections.
Bryan: What blogs/books are you currently reading?
Landy: Sales Gravy, Sellingpower, Seth Godin
Bryan: Whats up next for you?
Landy: Kevin and I will update The Social Media Sales Revolution soon, as the technology is continually changing.
Landy Chase is co-author of The Social Media Sales Revolution. He recently took a few minutes to chat with me about his book. Read the full review.
