your goal in sales
should be to become a thought leader in the industry that you sell into
not necessarily to become a thought leader in the sales community
I think it’s really interesting how often I will see sales people
especially in the insurance industry
talking about how social selling doesn’t work on like
the agency and broker side
but then you go and you look at the content that they’re creating
and it’s all for other salespeople
as opposed to helping educate their buyers
on what they need to know about insurance
I’ve also seen this a fair amount in the tech space
where tax sales people try to become like
gurus on the software sales side of things
instead of speaking directly to their ideal target
to me that’s not social selling
that’s becoming a thought leader
who sells to sellers on how to be more effective with their sales career
which there’s nothing wrong with
but that’s not speaking to your ideal buyer and building authority with them
when I was selling software
I created content that was valuable for my ideal buyers
as they were purchasing software or implementing software
and oftentimes I had people say that they were shocked that I was even in sales
because I was offering valuable information to them
as opposed to becoming like a sales guru on social media
so instead of creating content about how to use lead sources to sequence
or how to get somebody to stay on the phone
through cold calls
if you wanna become a thought leader in the industry that you’re selling in
start talking about that industry
not your job function
demonstrate the knowledge and the authority that you have in your industry
not the knowledge that you have in your specific job function
if you want your content to create opportunity for you