Other Mediums > Social Media and Email

Social media has a place in selling. It can be the right medium for some outcomes.

• Social media is better for building your brand than cold calling (unless you are truly a value creator with real phone chops).
• Social tools are better for nurturing your dream clients than cold calling.
• Social is better for researching a prospective client than cold calling.
• Social media is better for planning a sales call than any set of tools previously available, with the exception of human intelligence.

But social media isn’t better than some other methods and tools for different outcomes.

• Cold calling is better for scheduling first appointments with clients than social.
• Cold calling is better and faster for scheduling first appointments than email. Especially a spammy LinkedIn chat.
• Cold calling is better for initiating a discovery conversation with a prospective client than social media or email.
• Cold calling is faster for generating appointments that create opportunities than social media.

The phone isn’t better than some other mediums.

• Demonstrating that you have “chops,” the business acumen and situational knowledge that creates value for prospective clients, is more valuable and effective when attempting to create an opportunity during a face-to-face meeting than it is over social media.
• Collaborating with your prospective clients and building consensus within the organization is faster and more effective in face-to-face meetings than over the phone, social media or email.
• Gaining the commitments that create opportunities and move them successfully from target to close is easier, faster, and more effective when you are sitting face-to-face with your dream client then over the telephone, over social media, or over email.
• Certain tools in certain approaches lend themselves to certain outcomes. Some tools are more effective in some situations than others. You wouldn’t, for example, hammer a nail into a wall using a Phillips head screwdriver.

Choosing Mediums

Certain mediums create an advantage over other mediums.

Social media can get you the attention necessary to build your brand if you have something worth people paying attention to in the first place. The social tools can also help you establish your expertise by allowing you to publish value creating content (which is far more powerful than simply sharing other people’s content).

The telephone is a faster and more effective tool for gaining appointments because it allows you to have a real conversation with your prospective client.

If speed is of the essence, then you want the telephone.