Diary of a Dialler

another sales blog - 3

Hiya {First Name},

I dont get out much. Well, not enough to write about, unless you want to hear how my commute has cost me two tyre changes in the space of 6 weeks? or how i am outraged that they moved the aisles around in my local Morrisons. Now I cant run in and grab what I need. Instead it has become a cyptic labrinthe where I cruise up and down the same asile exclaiming –

“Where the heck are they hiding the Mint Jelly?”

You dont want to hear about that? Nah .. didn’t think so. Instead, I have continued with my mad ramblings about trying to learn a new job role.

I have made a promise to myself. I will take more walks, even might attempt to jog at some point, but lets start with small steps, literally. My reasoning is that now I spend my weeks sat at a laptop, I have to go beyond in my personal time to effectivley stay fit. My previous job kept me moving for 8-14 hours a day.

Sales is hard. But not as hard as dealing with 6 drunken middle aged hens that are blaming you for ruining their weekend. All because you dont stock an obscure Gin that their “Mum & One” podcast told them to drink.

Years of running bars and creating brands has given me a sprinkle of resiliance. But there is nothing like cold calling to kick your confidence in the nuts. I’d apreicate some propects telling me to eff off. Instead I was getting “Im super intrested, please send me more information“. I was coming from these calls with a smile thinking there was more for the pipe line. My colleage translated this into laymans terms for me. It means –

“Leave me alone, I dont care about what your selling”

I’m enjoying being with Pipelyft and a lot of this is because of the realtionship we have with the dev team. Being in early access has allowed me to be a part of the dev process, even if that is breaking the system. What it has allowed me to do is understand exactly what is happening behind the scenes. Well not “exactly” but there is something encouraging about knowing the roadmap, and having a direct hand in affecting it for the future.

This means the feedback that I am getting from demos and cold calls is going straight into the backlog to help shape our system for the better. I cannot code, but Its like im basically a developer now.

I have been trying to get my LinkedIn connections to the magic 500+. This has lead to me following and connecting with some amazing LinkedIn influencers. My LinkedIn feed is now peppered with “sales tips and tricks” and there is some vaulable stuff there. There also is a side to LinkedIn that is hubristic, but to be fair I dont pay too much attention to it.

Another thing I have noticed is LinkedIn seems to be divided, in one corner is old school. – “This is a business platform, this is no place for fun or satire”

There is the new school. – “Its social media, let us be socail and bring our own personality to this platform – I promise the selfie is work related.”

Then the never schooled – “Let me tell you my political view, its everyone elses fault that the world is burning.”

But mainly LinkedIn is a bunch of sales people shouting at eachother to buy their stuff.

If you are feeling attacked, its just business, baby!

I still haven’t figured out what to post on LinkedIn. Although I am being told I should post something daily, and to write what I know. The issue is, what I know about isn’t related to my work.

So whose advice do I follow? Is it the people that tell me to write about what I know. or the folks that are adamant that LinkedIn should be only for business?

Well, let’s just say this is my attempt at keeping things about business but writing about what I know. Which if you got his far we can agree, its not a lot.

LinkedIn is quite powerful for outreach. But I read more and more about sales people using WhatsApp to contact prospects. Are you folks targeting work numbers? are you dropping into peoples personal WhatsApp? I’m a bit lost with it all.

To be honest I’m not sure how I feel about recieving cold calls or outreach messaging on my personal WhatsApp. Again, its my personal number and even then, it sometimes takes me days to open a message, even if its from Mum. On the contrary it can make me seem popular and I might even finally have a meaningful chat with someone on my personal number.

“Social selling is the new cold calling”

A narrative I have been finding more and more when googling “How Do I Do My Job?”

Not sure how accurate this is, and I suppose its down to personal prefferance. One thing that should be noted is that social selling requires a following. Cold calling you need a limb you could use for dialling. One seems a lot less effort than its counter part.

I have found succsess in outreach on LinkedIn am yet to start recieving anything inbound. Now I have been led to believe this is because i dont post enough on LinkedIn, but my concern is – “who cares what i have to say?”

So it seems until I have figured out what the heck I can talk about on LinkedIn I will remain the weird kid. That nobody knows, trying to extend a clammy hand to introduce myself.

If you’d like to support me and this blog then send Mint Jelly to me. I’m easy to find, I’ll be the guy screaming in the condiment aisle of your local Morrisons.

Best Wishes,

The New Kid

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