What's the Difference Between "Sales 2.0" and "Social Selling"?

Ok here's my take on it... For starters, the term "Sales 2.0" to me is just jargon. Here's why I feel this way:

Sales 2.0: World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee (the guy who really did invent the internet, sorry, Al) when asked about the term Web 2.0 said its just jargon as he invented the internet to be collaborative...

So "Sales 2.0" was just a term someone came up with but has in actuality, very little meaning. It's a BUZZ Word really but that's ok. With that being said, Sales 2.0 to me is using online resources to get necessary information on prospects... especially for pre-call planning purposes and uncover true identities of who you should be contacting (instead of calling and saying "whose in charge of ___?") and why you should be contacting them and most important, what's important to them so you know how to position yourself so that they will want to talk to you.

However... if that's Sales 2.0 - using online tools to research and get information that would improve your outbound calling success - it's no way "new".

Outbound phone sales professionals have been using the internet to get information about prospects since the day it was born. Going to a company's website and hitting the about us, reviewing their products / services pages etc to see what they offer and analyzing what their hot points are and figuring out who their competitors are to bring up during conversation is nothing "new". It may be new to the masses, but it isn't "new".

Further more, Sales 2.0 doesn't "replace" cold calling, it helps make it more successful.

A cold call is contacting any prospect that isn't "raising" their hand. So just because you use the web to uncover who you should call and get info on what to say that can help you hit their hot points, doesn't make it a warm call. The temperature of a lead is based on the prospects interest in me, not what I know about them.

Those who sell Sales 2.0 services have really mislead a lot of sales reps and caused them to take a BIG hit in the wallet as a result. Lost commissions because they were lead to believe that picking up the phone was no longer necessary.  That somehow the orders would come to them with little grunt work.

If we are going to call using the web to research clients in order to get a competitive edge prior to the call "Sales 2.0" so be it. Just be sure you don't forget that it is only the beginning of the sales process. So in short, sales 2.0 to me is using the web for pre-call planning / research.

Social Selling: This is a different animal and in reality, I think Social Marketing, Social Prospecting or Social Branding may be a more accurate term because as I see it right now, "Social Selling" is using online tools / communities etc to "attract" leads (where Sales 2.0 we are using as a research before we contact them).

Offering free advice on LinkedIn groups where your targeted audience can read often leads them to want to know more about you. Have a Twitter account and post solid info they want to know? Watch them start to follow you now. Have a newsletter or a blog with information that helps them solve their challenges? Sending it out on a regular basis will help stay in front of your audience while branding yourself as the "expert". Have a WebEx account? Webinars - if done right - and when broadcasted on fans following you on Twitter / Facebook / LinkedIn or on blogs and via email can help prospect with a "net" (pun intended) and have them coming to you.

So to me, the difference between Sales 2.0 and Social Selling is this… One is for "research" and the other is used to "attract".

Either way, you still need to have a strategic sales process once you are on the prospects radar in order to reach your end goal, which is to close as many qualified prospects as fast as possible.

Sincerely,

Michael Pedone
President/CEO
SalesBuzz.com
(888) 264-0562 Ext. 1
http://www.salesbuzz.com/blog/