A reasonably bright school kid will build an excellent business case for a car that is 60% more fuel efficient, or a pc that is 50% faster. It's easy! He can look at reduced running costs (for the car) or improved efficiency (for the pc), and the business case will quickly form.
But selling social media, whether to a client or internally at an organisation, requires more expertise and selling skills, because the benefits are much broader, and often a little obtuse! In my experience, every business or department that buys into a social media solution has a different business case with greatly different benefits. These could range from increasing customer-based innovation, to enticing greater web traffic, to enhanced SEO, to converting more online sales, to building the brand values, and I could list twenty more possibilities...
Therefore, for example, there is no point discussing the value of increased insight from social media, if what is really needed is to increase online sales. These are polar opposite reasons to use social media.
So the first lesson of successful selling in social media is...listen to and understand your client, because there will be a compelling business case for social media and you can help the client to reveal it.
(A note regarding my terminology:- for 'client' read 'department head' if you are selling social media internally within an organisation)
So, to get to the essence of the business case, there is no better person to understand your client's business - than your client!
So ask him about it!
But this is where the skill comes in.
- Do your research beforehand
- Make the client (or department head) feel comfortable by building empathy
- What's in it for him? Establish the right to take his busy time.
- At the meeting or on the telephone, ask lots of open questions, and finish with clear next steps and follow-up.
There may be some Objection Handling, but let's discuss that some other time.
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