Sales 2.0's CEO, Nigel Edelshain, was quoted extensively in this month's cover story in Selling Power magazine. The story talks about the importance of social media in sales strategy today. Here's an exert. The full magazine can be purchased from Selling Power's website either in print or as a digital magazine.

THE END OF SMILE AND DIAL
The most basic aspect of a social network is what is known as the "social graph," a representation of our collective and interconnected online relationships. A site like Facebook allows you to see that you and prospect A have friend B in common, for example, or that friend C knows friend D, who knows prospect E. Suddenly you have a name you can drop or a potential way to gain an introduction.

"We're now using relationships and referrals to get in the door", says Nigel Edelshain, CEO of Sales 2.0 LLC. "A lot of times the first conversation a salesperson gets is, 'Sorry, I'm in a meeting! Bye!' An actual conversation is one in which you get information about the client's needs and where they are. most of the time salespeople are shut out of that completely."

Sales methodologies - Solution Selling, SPIN selling, etc. - are all well and good, but they take for granted the tricky business of gaining an audience. Social networks have changed the paradigm.

"It's easier to get in the door because of the trust factor," Edelshain says. "The moment I know who knows whom, I'm not cold calling anymore. Joe in the middle will say, 'I know Nigel. He's a decent guy. Can you speak with him?' Before LinkedIn and Facebook, you couldn't easily tell what the social graph looked like. You couldn't shine a light on it and easily see that Harry knows Joe and Joe knows Jane and Joe works over there."

It's an approach that works. Edelshain has found that the sales succes rate for leads generated via social networks is around 10 times higher than for those generated by conventional cold callling.

See Selling Power's website for a digital copy of the complete issue and this article.