Survey: 21st Century Salespeople and Social Media

Actually, Jerry Stiller didn't talk about sales, but I just watched his Capital One commercial again where he says, "People. Look at you. Texting. Blogging. All this technology, but you're still banking like pilgrims..."

Some days, I know that I must sound like Stiller when I criticize companies that are still selling like pilgrims. They still expect the techniques, tactics and tricks that worked in the 1900's to work today.

I've made door to door and telephone cold calls using lists and straight out of a directory. (What's a directory?)

I've worked Expos, trade shows, home shows, flower shows, etc. You put people in a room, I show up with my smile and a pile of business cards and brochures. (What are business cards and brochures?)

I've been the recipient of 'bingo card leads', yellow page call-ins, Executive Luncheon leads and had some success with each. (When was the last time that you used the yellow pages?)

There were a lot of ways to generate leads. Many still work. Even Hubspot, the inbound marketing company, uses demo tables, meet-ups, good old faskioned PR and self-promotion to generate buzz so that their name will be recognized when their cold callers call.

However, this is not an article about different ways of generating leads. Let's face it. If you're not doing inbound marketing and you're not doing it right by using a partner that's been certified, you're denying reality. You're living in La-La Land. You're giving your market share to your competition.

BUT (and this is the point of this post), selling has changed. In the door-to-door days, they were called marketers, but were taught sales. As advertising, PR, promotion, etc. became vogue, marketing and sales developed a chasm so that they could blame each other for the lack of success and each take full credit if they did succeed. Inbound marketing only works if marketing is totally synchronized with sales. Sales needs to know how marketing is setting the leads up and marketing has to know how sales is following up. There are different strengths and skills required in the two jobs, but there's one body of knowledge and target market and if you really want to cover the bases, contact me to evaluate your people, your marketing process and your sales process as to whether they can execute on your strategies.

I wrote this in September of 2009. Since then, a lot has happened. Jerry never started a blog, but he's still fishing.

September 15^th, Tuesday morning, 8:30 AM MT: I'm sitting on the deck overlooking Ashley Lake. It's been about 18 hours since I've had internet access or a cell signal and I'm still alive.

Our host, Jerry has written a syndicated column about fly fishing for 30 years. We've had several conversations about starting a blog on the same topic. He's curious, but honestly, if I could fly fish and I lived where he does, I'd be very reluctant to do anything other than fish, hike, or otherwise be close to nature. Nonetheless, I can't help thinking that he's got 60+ years of experiences in his head that people who wear suits to work and occasionally cast a line or take a walk in the woods would love to read. I can't help but thinking that if he started writing about all the spots that he's fished, things that he's seen and lessons that he's learned, that people who dream about living the way he does, would get a little closer. Whether he does or doesn't, I'm glad that I had the chance.

I should point out that I had Jerry read this post before it got published. First, I'm sharing tidbits and my impressions of very private conversations. Just two guys, brought together by their kids, drinking beer and passing the time, getting to know each other. He may not want any part of it shared and if he says, "No.", you'll never read anything past the word, "alive". Second, I want to make sure that my sharings are accurate. Memory, even within a few hours, can be fuzzy. So, I want to make sure that I get my facts straight.

OK, so, Jerry's shared a few pieces of wisdom.

Don't move to Montana if you don't want to enjoy outside activities when it's cold.

Montana has six months of winter and six months of crappy sledding.

Jerry teaches a fly tying class. He's had lots of seniors take the course because they have it on their "bucket list". Why do they wait?

So, I guess I just want to say, "Thank you, Jerry." The lesson for us all is that with all that fishing, hunting, hiking and enjoying nature, you still made time to have a rewarding career, build two homes, raise a couple of great kids, and be a great host.