This week I spent some time with a Market Agency and to be honest, I was embarrassed for them.There is this world view that because marketing is computerised its “digital”. Come on, advertising was developed in the 1930s and email marketing was developed in the 1990s, neither are new and they certainly are not relevant to the modern buyer.I presented at this marketing agency and I got everybody to stand up. Then I asked them to sit down if anybody could remember an advertisement they had seen in the last 24 hours. Of course, nobody sat down, nobody can remember any advertising. It just washes past us.This Marketing agency spent an hour with me telling me that I needed to invest more in my website (I don’t), I needed to invest more in SEO (I don’t) and I need to start an email database (I don’t).As the sales pitch washed over me, I looked out of the internal office window at all the people in the office, it looked like a lot of “mouths to feed” and I thought “are they really saying this to clients?”At every moment this agency mentioned “email marketing” and its benefits. Really?Anyway at my presentation I drew up a table on a white board like this: 
If you look at any form of interrupt marketing, advertising, email marketing or cold calling there are 5 outcomes from your marketing.
The person has already blocked you The person tells you to go away The person says you should have called 3 months ago, this is a lost sale to your competitor They say call back in three months, in most cases there is no process for you to do this Or the fifth, which is where the person says “Wow this is just what I need, where do I sign”The problem with all types of interrupt marketing is that getting too the 5th gets less and less and of course your competition get stronger and stronger by mopping up all the “you should have called me 3 months ago” leads.Where as compare that with social selling.I’ve assumed with social selling that a person could have blocked you, just the much as somebody using interrupt marketing. I’m probably being hard on myself as social selling is about relationships, so the likely hood of being blocked is small.Even if you are told to go away with social selling, you will still be connected to them. They will see your insight and educational content. We find that many prospects who say “no” come back 6 or 9 months later saying that the time wasn’t right, but it’s right now.As a social seller you will hover up the “should have called me 3 months ago” deals that your cold calling competition have missed out on. Why? because buyers use social to make decisions, you are present, your cold calling competition are not. Game over for cold calling and knock it out the park social selling.Similar to “call me in 3 months” while it is unlikely that cold callers will call back, there is also the problem that it will just be a cold call in 3 months. With social selling, those people will be connected to you on social. They will have seen your insightful and educational content. We find that social actually reduces the sales cycle. So what was 3 months, will probably be them contacting you in 2. Social selling wins again!Finally, I want to buy, both sides win.You can see, what ever type of interrupt marketing you are using, advertising, email, cold calling, you are restricting your chances to win. And the more people that social sell, it has become the defecto selling mechanism in 2018, the more you cold call, the less you win and the more money you leave on the table for your social selling competition.Note: Social selling is not sending inmails. That is just another form of cold calling, interrupt marketing but on a social network.Related:
8 Ways The Old Ways of Sales No Longer Work
