INTERVIEW WITH
Aash Sood
Director & Head of Marketing
B2B Customer Acquisition: The role of human engagement in a world of digital-first enterprise marketing
Social listening is a great way to research your prospects before you’ve even spoken to them as it can reveal what success looks like to them.
What does it take to be a great enterprise sales person?
Enterprise sales are not simple propositions. Enterprise solutions are typically very bespoke to the buyer and are priced in tens of millions of dollars. Because of this, salespeople have a large responsibility to find out as much information about their prospective customers as early on in the sales process as possible. This knowledge is crucial in helping the sales person know which route they should take with any particular buyer and whether the buyer is serious enough to invest time into.
But to get to this stage requires a lot of preparation from enterprise sales people. They might only get one chance for a ten second elevator pitch, so every word has to count. Social listening is a great way to research your prospects before you’ve even spoken to them as it can reveal what success looks like to them. And if you know what their definition of success is, your pitch can become a clear demonstration of how you will help them achieve their success. Alongside this, social listening allows salespeople to digest the way in which their prospects talk and the language they use. When a salesperson can speak to a prospect in their language, they have a far higher chance of success.
To achieve sales success on an enterprise level, different departments must work collaboratively together.
How has enterprise selling changed in recent years?
The role of sales people has evolved in such a way over recent years that the name ‘sales’ is no longer appropriate in many enterprise organisations. Instead, ‘business development’ titles have taken its place. This simple change of title reflects a larger change in attitude when it comes to selling, as enterprise businesses adopt the belief that their customer’s success is their own. As a result the sales process has become far more collaborative than ever before. Technology and product specialists are now brought into sales meetings to help answer technical questions and provide a balance to the skills of the business development professional. Marketing teams have also evolved in recent years and are no longer responsible for just lead generation. After a business development lead and a technical colleague have had a successful meeting, marketing now have a responsibility to share relevant case studies with the prospects that show how they have achieved success for other customers who look similar to them. To achieve sales success on an enterprise level, different departments must work collaboratively together.
As long as your engagement is genuine and authentic, social media is a powerful tool to build trust and rapport outside of sales meetings.
AASH SOOD
Director & Head of Marketing CINEPLEX DIGITAL MEDIA
Do social media platforms help or hinder sales people?
Great communication is not about talking. It is about listening, and then talking. We have two ears and one mouth for a reason! Social media presents sales people with the opportunity to listen to and engage with their prospects on a far more regular basis, often on a more personal basis too. Liking and sharing the content of a buyer is the simplest way to keep your name front of mind as a sales professional, but it can come across as a bit shallow without real engagement. Take the time to comment on the content shared by your buyers, perhaps share it with your network too and add in a relevant observation. This then shows the buyer that you not only care about the content they share, but also have something meaningful to add as a subject matter expert. As long as your engagement is genuine and authentic, social media is a powerful tool to build trust and rapport outside of sales meetings.
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