I’ve always liked to believe that my social media adventuring would eventually pay off for myself and my employer, but, until recently, it was a matter of faith. Indeed, I felt not unlike a cult member might feel while waiting for their prophet, or Haley’s Comet, or the Mayan apocalypse to arrive. Just you wait, I told my self (and my boss), all this tweeting and blogging and commenting will pay off.
Like any believer from time to time, my faith began to wane, my patience grew thin. I had terrible nightmares about cold calling every REALTOR® with a published phone number (I’m sure you all would just love that), about my job being outsourced to India, about my girlfriend leaving me for a sleazier salesman that could pay the bills. The first two weeks of August were not among my finest, in terms of revenue generation—and I’m including here every sales job I’ve ever had. I wondered if the agents I spoke with would tell their colleagues about the sales hack that sounded like a depressed Vincent Price with the articulation of a drunk toddler. Then came along an innocent, unassuming little tweet from the incomparable Jessica Horton:
Reading: Social Media’s Dirty Secret: It’s Not About You, It’s Not About Marketing http://bit.ly/bMoA3
And so I clicked. I was led to Chris Johnson’s post on Blood Hound Blog, and it was excellent. What resonated with me was Chris’ assertion, that:
“Your social media is not selling. It’s broadcasting, spamming, looking cool, but NOT SELLING.”
I began to think that, subconsciously, many of us use social media as an excuse not to engage in the nitty-gritty of sales, a way to avoid the sting of rejection, of the phone work that is truly needed in every sales job I can think of, including real state. As Chris points out, it can start the conversation, but to close, you need to call. In my experience, most people don’t mind getting the right type of call from the right type of salesperson, especially when they’ve already expressed interest in whatever you’re selling in some way. Well, this made me feel good. I left the following comment:
They “don’t wanna be sold to” by a moron.
You pretty much sum it up there, Chris. I’ve been the moron and I’ve also been on the other end. But more often, I am the guy that provides answers about a product I know they’re interested in. They thank me for it. Salespeople aren’t used to getting thanked, but when someone is reminded of a product or service that they had looked at seriously at one point, or when they are educated as to the value of this product/service, they see the sales call (if done correctly) as having value in of itself. It’s all about the approach, being consultative, being honest, treating them as an individual. It’s never easy, but making money and doing anything well never is.
I didn’t need to leave this comment. With my level of ADD, a bird could have flown by my window and I would have forgotten all about it. Thank you, bird, for not flying by! That comment, however, left by a momentarily uplifted salesman (salesboy, really), prompted by a single tweet and an excellent post, led to some amazing things for me. Here’s what happened next:
On the same day, I received an email from Greg Swann. Greg is the creator of Blood Hound Blog, and he personally approves comments from first time comment-leavers like me. He had been curious as to what exactly I was selling, and he had this to say:
Oh, wonderful! This was next for us. Do you sell the product? Feel free to phone me if you do. We believe SMS will kill IVR, hence we want it now.
As you might expect, it’s not often that someone emails me saying “we want it now” and already sees the value of SMS over call-capture systems. I would be the worst salesboy in the history of the universe if I didn’t drop everything and call this man immediately. I nearly forgot to swallow the last bite of my lunch before I picked up the phone. The call went the way it might if it were in an unrealistic training film where the prospective customer asks all the right questions, says he’s excited to get started and tells you he’s going to let the real estate blogosphere know about it. Turns out he wasn’t exaggerating.
After I made a branded demo for him that captured the look and feel of bloodhoundrealty.com (something I'll do for any interested agent or firm), he let the world know in a series of posts, starting with the following unbelievable personal shout-out (mind you, this is just the title of the post):
Ian Greenleigh of DriveBuy Technologies used the Bawldguy technique to promote SMS marketing by social media — and sold his product to the biggest-nosed sneezer in the RE.net
He emailed me right away to let me know what he had written. Already, his public praise of me and the platform I sell was generating interest all over America. I was almost embarrassed that I didn’t know who Greg Swann is, or how influential he is in the RE.net. But, I was too busy to be embarrassed—I was inundated. Greg had told everyone to try the demo out—his demo—and, naturally they did. More leads came in that day than any other I can remember.
Meanwhile, back on Twitter, people were re-tweeting his post, and a search for my name showed just how much of an echo chamber the twitterverse can be. I searched Blood Hound Blog to see if Greg had written anything similar about anyone else, or any other product, and the answer was no. He even had to put a disclaimer at the bottom of his post:
(As a matter of disclosure, I have no financial stake in promoting DriveBuy. But they’re doing a job I want done, so I want to help them and Ian make more money. If you bristle at the term “vendorslut,” you might reflect on what BloodhoundBlog can do for you, should you focus your attention on delivering value to respected clients instead of quarrying for more boobs to hustle out of their money — and more stooges to bribe for phony endorsements.)
I have other great products that I’ve been meaning to write about, but DriveBuy is going to be an important tool for us, so I’m delighted to talk about it today.
A broker that had followed Greg’s writing since the beginning sent me the following text while I was still following up on inquiries at 10:30 PM:
An endorsement from G Swann is priceless. He does not gush easily.
And so it was that my faith in the power of social media finally came to fruition. I was happy. My employer was happy. Greg was happy. So were all the agents that signed up after reading his blog. Our presence on Google increased significantly. Greg wrote several other posts that mentioned our platform (here and here), and this generated yet more interest. Inquiries are still coming in.
It’s tempting to rest on my laurels, but I know better. If this experience truly demonstrated anything, it was that social media starts the conversation, but phone calls close sales. I’m commenting and tweeting more, yes, but my phone work has picked up just as much. I’m not sure if I’ve found the right balance yet. I’ve seen what can be done, however, and I’ll never forget it.
I hope that someday, after years of hard work, I’ll be able to help out a young salesboy just by telling others he’s doing a good job and selling a great product. I know I will remember Jessica, Chris, and Greg for the rest of my life.
It all began with a tweet—but it hasn’t ended yet.
