Social Media's Impact On Your Sales Management

By Ken Thoreson, president, Acumen Management Group LTD

While in the process of writing a future magazine column on the future of sales and social media I interviewed three people and posed several questions in order to get their view points. I thought for this week's blog I would also introduce you to my current thinking and I would really enjoy hearing your thoughts on the direction of sales and the use of social media.

In the traditional sense of a new product introduction, social media is moving through various stages. It is my opinion we have obviously crossed the chasm from Stage 1 into full blown Stage 2 product acceptance and in most cases salespeople and sales leadership have accepted and become comfortable in using forms of social media for their personal lives as well as in a limited business environments. It is also my belief that if you aren't actively using a variety of social media applications in your sales process/organization it is critical you begin to learn to use them and become comfortable with the current social media tools. Lauren Carlson describes the top 5 uses of Social Media in sales very clearly in her recent blog: http://tinyurl.com/8648dah.

Social media communication acceptance by individuals for their personal use (e.g. Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, texting) and corporations using it in marketing and even building their internal social networks, is a good indication your current clients and prospects will begin to accept social media more easily in their sales relationships.