Are We Sharing Value or is it Just Spin?

With all of our tweeting, blogging and updating are we just spinning or are we adding value? (Disclosure I am on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter)

As I read the feeds and the updates I notice a trend. There is a lot of one way communication. People and organization are telling me things not necessarily engaging me. That leads me to wonder where this will go.

One of the first rules of selling is let’s not “Show up and Throw Up.” That is, we don’t want to sit down with a buyer and start spewing all of the features and alleged benefits to the buyer before we really understand their situation and have identified a way to help them solve a problem. And yet in all my years of selling and making joint calls with other sales reps, there are very few, that I have met, that do a very good job or questioning and then listening.

In the Social Media world where I get bombarded with messages from you that let me know about your upcoming seminar, your newest book, the best way for me to engage you as a supplier and nothing that is about me, I soon lose interest. You have become noise.

In many respects I think Twitter may be becoming my favorite media for getting value. I follow and am followed by about 1,000 people. I have set out my “Go To” list and a few others so I can sort through the stream of information flowing my way. I know that the people that have made my go to list are sharing valuable links that they found interesting. And because we share similar interests I will probably find them interesting as well. They do this without trying to sell me something. Instead they are building a relationship.

Just because Social Media is relatively cheap per message we should think twice about cheapening the media by just spewing.

The other trend I see as a result of all of this is that even in the off-line world people are becoming even more about sharing their views and less about listening and learning from others.  A nightclub has opened recently with reinforced furniture so that people can get up and literally dance on the tables and draw attention to themselves.

Want to stand out from the crowd? Do you want your buyer and influencers to feel as if you have something of value? Do you want to make the sale?

Be different, listen and engage your audience. Remember it is more about we than me. People want to engage with people that engage with them as opposed to people that talk to them.

Take Good Care