Empire Selling's Dan Swift on leveraging social media for sales

Summary

Dan Swift, CEO of Empire Selling, explains that cold calling is nearly obsolete and that successful sales prospecting now relies on social media and live chat to build relationships. He launched LinkedIn’s social selling business and later led sales at Sprinklr before founding Empire Selling, which trains B2B companies in digital and social selling techniques. Swift advises being transparent with employers about side businesses and using that time to test content and market viability before going full-time. He recommends using The Challenger Sale methodology to challenge traditional industries like financial services, and stresses the need for a common sales language and strong culture when scaling. Swift emphasizes optimizing LinkedIn profiles to appear as trusted advisors, connecting with everyone in the organization, using Twitter as a research tool, and exploring video as an emerging channel with rich analytics.

Takeaways

1. 1

   Social selling requires positioning oneself as a trusted advisor on LinkedIn rather than self-promoting, and connecting with everyone in the organization to leverage warm introductions.

2. 2

   Using The Challenger Sale methodology helps challenge the status quo in traditional industries like financial services, getting prospects to realize they have a problem.

3. 3

   Video is an emerging sales channel that provides valuable analytics on viewer engagement, allowing sellers to tweak messaging based on how long videos are watched and shared.

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