Transcript
Intro
Hi, everyone. I'm Ben Wright, successful entrepreneur, corporate leader and expert sales coach to some of the most talented people our amazing planet has to offer. You're listening to the Stronger Sales Teams podcast, where we bring together and simplify the complex world of B2B sales management to help the millions of sales managers worldwide build, motivate, and keep together highly effective sales teams…teams who grow revenue and make their businesses actual profits.
Along the journey, we also provide great insights and actionable steps to managing your personal health. A happy and productive you is not only better for your teams, but everyone around you. So if you're an ambitious Sales Leader who wants to build the highest performing and engaged teams, Stronger Sales Teams is right where you need to be.
Ben Wright:
Welcome back to Stronger Sales Teams, the place where we provide real world and practical advice to help you develop superpowered B2B sales teams. Today we have back with us Tom Slocum. So he was part of our podcast a few weeks ago. We had a terrific chat, and I enjoyed it so much that I actually said, “Hey, Tom, can we try and coordinate time zones again and get us linked in together for another podcast recording? He said, “yeah, cool, I'm in”. So for those of you who didn't listen to the last episode or who don't remember, Tom is a seasoned sales strategist, and he's also the founder of The SD Lab, which is a top of funnel sales consulting agency. So Tom has over a decade of experience in the sales and revenue acceleration space, but he's also honed his expertise in crafting personalized sales playbooks, in particular, optimizing sales processes and training teams for success. So Tom's passion absolutely lies in helping sales leaders and teams achieve their goals. Basically does this by blending strategic insights with a human touch, which I really like because business is much more than just system and process. You also need to have that human element in there. So he's also a sought after speaker. So we're very lucky to have him on board. And for those of you who don't know, he loves a good selfie. So check out his LinkedIn page. So, Tom, thank you very much and welcome back to the podcast.
Tom Slocum:
Thanks for having me again, man. Always fun to chop it up with you and talk with the audience a little bit, know sales and whatnot. So, yeah, when you asked to do another one, of course I said yes.
Ben Wright:
Awesome. Well, let's talk about The SD lab again briefly. Please tell me, what does The SD lab do and why are you so successful?
Tom Slocum:
Yeah, so The SD Lab is a top-of-funnel agency consulting agency, where we help founders and co-founders build out their first ever sales motion with an outbound sales team, helping them get that first hire and get a repeatable process built for them. And then we're working with Series A and Series B companies in optimizing what they're doing right. Outbound is tough. It's always a challenge. I've got 16 years of experience doing it from the old ways to the new ways, super tapped in with the network. And so I help these companies find success that is repeatable and find ways to hit their numbers so they can all work on their business, not in their business.
Ben Wright:
Great. And it's funny you mentioned there immediately, you said, I help build the outbound process, but something that I think as a Sales Leader, I've been guilty of doing, and no doubt I'm not the only one that's ever done this, is that you build a process and let's say it's your outbound top-of-funnel. You build that process and you go, great. Process is in… set and forget. But I think what's really easy to forget is that you actually need to be constantly reviewing these processes because the world of selling changes so rapidly. And at the moment it's changing faster than I've ever seen it change, particularly because of the, I guess the rise and rise and rise of AI, but also the change in how we work. So being able to take that program but review it, and I generally will review my programs quarterly. Right. It's that frequent. It's almost like dog years. But to be able to do that through the SD lab, I think is fantastic. Before we get into what we're talking about today, though, can you just briefly describe what does top of funnel activity mean to you?
Tom Slocum:
Top of funnel activity is again, going out proactively to your market versus waiting for it to come inbound or those folks when they need you to come to you. And so the activity that you're trying to focus on is your outreach. How many net new accounts are you going after? What type of outbound call volume are you doing your email outreach? Are you multithreading? Are you doing things that you can control to where you're taking your brand market kind of solution to those that have a pain that you can identify. So you're looking at those type of activities that are going out and reaching out to the right people, putting in the right efforts to where you can find those people that are prospects that actually want to solve the problem that you want to solve for. And so that's kind of what you're focusing on when you look at top of funnel activity.
Ben Wright:
Okay, so we're talking about that old terminology of hunters, people that can get out there and win their own business, and for Sales Leaders and even individual contributors listening, I have a really clear theory. If you can win your own business, you will never, ever be out of a job. So we're going to talk a little bit today, quite specifically about one type of top of funnel activity or one type of hunting activity, and that's social branding.
So, Tom, are you okay to talk to us about what social branding means to you? And I guess what all the fuss is about social branding at the moment.
Tom Slocum:
So this is a fun one because I live and breathe this, and I saw it in real time, the effects, right? You see all these other people talk about it, you see the content. Everybody's like, oh, it's so great, go build a brand. And back in 2020, I was an oddity on LinkedIn. I was just a lurker, had like 2000 followers. I looked up to all the greats, Morgan Ingram, Scott Lee, some of the OG’s that were on there, and I started posting myself, engaging first. So when I first got in, I started commenting, jumping into the streets of LinkedIn, and then I started creating my own pieces. And I was a Director of Sales at the time at a company with an SDR team. And immediately I saw the impact when I started making calls to those prospects that I was reaching out to. So I was in digital marketing space talking about SEO, website design and hospitality and the enterprise space, and I wasn't posting anything about that, but I was just posting other things around sales. And all of a sudden, when I started calling people alongside my team and picking up the phone and doing emails, they were remembering me or recognizing me. So right away on the call they'd be like, oh yeah, I've seen you, Tom, on my feed. Because what a lot of people don't realize, and I've got the double edged sword because now I'm up to 24,000 followers. Three years later, I'm connected to all these creators, that my feed is all of that. There's creators all the time. So I never have a lack of content or seeing things. But when you think about your prospects, in most of the non SaaS world, they only follow maybe 500 people. So if you're posting often, you're kind of in their feed all the time because they're not on the platform all the time, they're not growing there, they're not out in the streets. So you have a very cool opportunity to get in front of them on a consistent basis. If you're posting a couple of times a week, highlighting their pains that they resonate with, or just getting to know you to where, then when you pick up the phone, they're like, oh yeah, Tom, I've seen your post, man. I love what you're putting out there. Like, what's going on? What do you want? How can you help me? And that changed the game for me. And my calls weren't no more about trying to explain or bring in the awareness phase. It was, they knew and then we could get right into it. So there was a trust and credibility there. And that's where a personal brand makes so much sense when it comes to social media because outbound has changed the way that we go about it. Now in a digital age, we've got new buyers, new decision makers that they live with their thumbs. They're on text, they're on social media all day, they're dm-ing, they're looking at content all day long that an email or a phone call isn't really their preference anymore. One email has just been so doubled down on in the last three years that it's exhausting. Everybody wakes up with an inbox of 70 emails just to start the day that you got to go through, delete, clean, figure it out. And phone calls aren't happening because the new sellers weren't brought up that way. You and I, we had to call our friends back in the day and ask their mom if they were home, walk the streets and go find them out in the middle of nowhere because they weren't home. And so we had different behaviors where these people, they don't have to be on the phone.
And so personal branding does a couple of things. It immediately builds trust and credibility at scale, lets people get to see a different side of you. You can actually go to the masses versus a one to one because sure, you can automate your emails, you can cold call, you can do all this, but it's still one to one where you can really do a solid piece of content that talks about the pains or opens up people to your story. And that could have the chance of seeing 1500 people to 40,000 people if you have a viral post or 100,000 people in one post that can bring inbound or just warm up conversations three to six months down the road when those people are needing you, right? And they do think of that problem, they're like, oh, I need to go talk to Tom. Right? Tom's the guy. I love his content. He's always giving me tips, he's always helping me. I know he'd be the expert in the space. And so you get this chance to go one to masses and then you end up in rooms that you normally wouldn't be in. A lot of times I get to be in rooms because people are sharing my content in a team meeting or another sales leader is asking another sales leader who to go to. I am the first one that comes to mind because I'm everywhere, I'm being seen and I'm sharing things about myself that you can't do on a cold call or in an email. And so that's what the big difference is and why everybody should be building a brand of some sort or being on social media in some way, because that's where buyers are getting their information now. And if you're not in that matrix and in that circle, you're getting overlooked by somebody who is the loudest. And out there you could be the best at what you do, but if they don't know of you, there's nothing you can really do. You're fighting an uphill battle amongst those that are out there being loud.
Ben Wright:
So what we're talking about is creating value. If we synthesize all that into a couple of words, creating value. We're creating value for the now, for those customers that know us and perhaps are ready to buy. But the other piece that's really important is we're creating value for down the track. And every good top of funnel activity that I've ever worked with has both a short-term prospecting strategy. So they're the people that you'd like to be working with now, and you know that they're in that position to work with you now. And it also has a longer term prospecting strategy. And that's that strategy where you're really looking to build that value over time so that when the moment arises, you're there and you're present. So building that value, super important. And by the way, you're right. When I was 16, I had my first mobile phone that only just come out and I had a blue Ericsson phone. It was two cents per text message. And wow, I thought the world was amazing, right? But we grew up having to communicate with people in different ways to now. So for salespeople today, social branding is yet another tool for you to have in your playbook, or a play in your playbook that will allow you to supplement with face to face video, phone call… yes, email has its role every now and then. Text messaging, all the different ways that we can be meeting with people. So I really like that. So from a social branding point of view, Tom, what are the best brands that you're seeing doing to build their social brand? And when I mean brands, I mean individuals or businesses, what are they doing to build that great social brand?
Tom Slocum:
The ones that are winning at it right now are, number one, first and foremost, they're being authentic and real and they're writing and then their content, they're not using AI, they're not using Chat GPT, they're not trying to do anything but show up authentically as themselves. And two, they're bringing in humor in various forms of content. So you see a lot of people doing video. They're making funny pieces around the pains that they potentially help solve, but make it in this fun, light, emotional pool to where people connect with it. So you're not really selling, but you're kind of making a funny skit about how bad sales managers are nowadays, and that gets people to laugh and comment, and then there's conversations being had to where those inbound leads start happening. Right? So you're seeing humor, you're seeing video, you're seeing just a new coin term is “edumotainment”, right? It's the space of how do you educate through entertainment.That's what Mr. Beast, what all these companies that are doing so well, and even the companies you asked which companies are doing great. One of my favorites is Wendy's. Wendy's on Instagram is one of the funniest fast food chains that you can imagine, and their social person kills it. And it's because they bring humor into everything. They're willing to take jokes and banter with their competitors or say things in other people's posts around food that, that brings a connection. Right. And so when you bring in humor, you be a real person, but you educate people through that entertainment space. That's how you win. And so if you have a company page, don't be boring, don't share posts about your company, don't be all about that stuff, but be fun. Take jabs, co-collaborate with some people. Bring in their content with your content. Make some emotional pools at things, then educate your audience through that funness and that friendliness. And that's where people connect with you on a much higher level than you building around, pitching every five minutes, selling every five minutes, asking for their money all the time. Just be fun. I guess the reality is, build a community around what you solve for, right. For me, I'm building a community of founders. That's who I want to connect with. So a lot of my content is funny stuff at the founders life, because then I get founders in there laughing with me or making conversation. And then we're moving into the dms, and they're like, oh, man, the highs and lows of a founder. I get it. And then I'm asking them, what's going on, what are their challenges? And next thing you know, we're closing a deal together, right? But it all started because we just connected on something that was education for them, but also relevant and kind of made them laugh because they were like, oh, that's exactly what I deal with every day and it's like, oh, well, what are you doing to fix that? And now we're just kind of conversating.
So I think that's where if you are building a brand personally or a company, build a community, try to find a way to get people to want to circulate around your page, your social content, and they feel this community element that hey, you're here to help me and we're all on the same mission. That's what's going to help you win inbound leads, referrals, and the growth that you're wanting to see in your social.
Ben Wright:
Yeah, well, the first thing I'm doing is I'm going to mark in my diary for twelve months time and I'm going to look if the Oxford Dictionary has recognized edumentainment as a word. And if I have, we're going to find out who we coin it back to. But over and above that, I think the piece that for me that jumped out at me there was that people buy from people, people work with people, people engage with people. So if you're bringing your authentic self and letting that sense of humour shine, and a sense of humour is different to everyone, right? But if you're bringing that into whatever engagement you have in life, so authenticity and humor into anything you're doing, I think that's actually a piece of advice that goes well beyond just building a social brand. And it's something that many of us are struggling with because social media is a different form of collecting that authenticity and sense of humor because you're in front of the camera, you're in front of big audiences. If I can add to that, if you're able to actually bring in a level of calmness into how you're building that social brand so that you're behaving like you would day to day as you are on social media, then I think that really does allow your authenticity to shine through. Okay, so we're building our social brand, we're being authentic, we're being humorous, we're being really consistent to create value for customers. How does that then flow into a prospecting strategy for a business?
Tom Slocum:
Well, a lot of it is. You can use that content, right? I use a lot of my content in my 4th, 5th or 6th touch of my email sequence. Right. Because again, you can, one, show them the validation because you have the likes, the comments, the conversation, some insights from others, like them. Two, you can give them free tips without breaking a bank. I always believe in depositing more than you do withdrawal. So if I can help you, Ben, over two weeks with little tips or hey, I've seen your post. Here's something that worked for another founder that we deployed. Why don't you give that a try and let me know how that goes. Two, three weeks go by and those tips actually are helping you. Then you're going to come to me for the bigger problem, right? Because you're like, man, everything you've done already has kind of shown me a small increase. And you're just doing that out of the kindness of your heart. I could imagine working together and what that could help us to do. So you give through your content and then you use that in your outreach. Or you run a poll on your social media and talk about a common need or a common problem in your prospect base. Bring that up on a phone call. Hey, did you happen to see my post? I ran a poll last week around the number one cold call opener. Did you see that? No, I didn't. Oh, let me shoot that over to you real quick. What's your team using as an opener? Is it one of these? And now we're conversating around that piece or you're using other content you're seeing in the feed to back up your points? So you can use all of that via cold calling, via email or even in dms, right? Sending your post over those poll results or that article that you wrote on LinkedIn or any of that to again, get them to see the piece and then maybe do some digging of their own. They go to your profile now, they're on kind of your virtual resume. They see you, they learn about you a little bit more, they feel safe with you, or they see your testimonials up there. So then you just sprinkle that content that you've already created and repurpose it into those channels to validate what you're selling or what you're trying to come across with. And that's how you can do that, through that.
Ben Wright:
There's something really smart in there that you said, and that's actually repurposing that content you have. And I think you said sprinkling as well, which I really like. So those that have really regular content creation through social media or through their social branding, you can actually take that content when you're engaging with your customers or conversating, I think you called it. And I'm learning all these new words today, right? I don't know if that means I'm getting old or if that just means I need to scrub up on my modern age English… “Aussie speak”. So what I'm hearing then is that if you can take that content that you're already putting out there and use it in your prospecting strategy at a personalized level, then you're able to, on scale, actually meet people where they're at. And when we're meeting people where they're at, we're getting much better engagement. And then if you're doing so at a level that's authentic and with humor, then we're actually able to be really relevant, likable and there at the right time. So speaking of being there at the right time, I love anyone in our industry who practices what they preach. And I saw you in a cold calling tournament. Was it last week or a couple of weeks ago? Yeah, you look like you're going pretty well. How did you go? Tell me about that. Quickly.
Tom Slocum:
Yeah, we had a live competition for 1 hour, me versus Team Maren. So we each did a draft. We picked our callers. I had my three Mark Mack, Wade Davis and Shelby from Rattle, and then she had her three. And in an hour we booked nine meetings within the hour. They were calling their prospects their list, but me and Maren were coaching them throughout the competition. And so I was coaching my team on their calls. They were slinging meetings and we ended up pulling out the wind. So we won, my team pulled it off and we are the Big W and now we are facing team Kevin Hopp who beat team Amelia Taylor the week prior. We're facing off on the coming. We faced off for our championship round upcoming to now see who is the ultimate team across the board. But yeah, we live cold called on LinkedIn for an hour. They had their own data lists know calling their prospects and Team Slocum pulled out the win. It was good.
Ben Wright:
Awesome. I love it. Well, good luck for what's next. I don't know what you do in training for that if it's how fast you can pick up the phone or working the biceps to get that ready to go, but I have no doubt you do really well. So we're almost out of time today. But before we do go, I love it when we can get really practical, real world advice out of our podcast. So if you had to give your top three tips or so for those that are out there building a community on let's pick LinkedIn, very relevant to our audience. What would those top three tips be from you, Tom?
Tom Slocum:
Number one. First and foremost, get active in the streets of social media and LinkedIn, your best content ideas. The best way for you to build your brand is digesting those around you. You'll hear it from a lot of folks that get stuck on content creation. Just get in the streets, get into other people's content, leave comments, and it'll kind of spur up something of your own thought, right? Or a conversation you're seeing happening. So don't worry so much about posting as just getting active. You'll actually grow more followers by just being in the comments than you would even by posting, to be dead honest with you. So jump in there. Don't be afraid to voice your opinions. Ask questions around posts, don't do the “Hey, great post. Thanks.” But like three, five sentences to engage with that person and have others engage with you. So that's number one, get into the comments.
Number two, don't overthink it. Don't stress about it. Don't try to be structurally sound. Just write authentically. The best way to look at it is your sales diary. I know it's cliche, it's silly, but look at it like a diary. What are you going through? There's always somebody either behind you or right next to you that can learn from you. So what would you like to tell yourself two years ago, and share that? Are you jamming out to a podcast you really enjoyed? Share that and some key takeaways you've learned from that podcast, right? You sharing your story and journey will open up the doors to those behind you, even in front of you or even beside you. They're all going to learn something from that. So that's number two.
And number three, I would say try to cross collaborate with folks. Try to get in other people's content. Try to figure out how you can support them. Maybe do a piece together, similar to what Ben and I are doing here, right? Get on podcasts, get on blogs, webinars with folks. My favorite quote is “a closed mouth don't get fed”. So don't be afraid to ask. See how you can support people again. Put in more deposits than you do withdrawals. Just find a way to help your community in whatever kind of community you're trying to build. What do they want to know? What can you drop little nuggets for them? And then how can you cross collaborate to where you're kind of getting that lift from a more established creator or brand that would be able to lift you up on their pedestal but still gain value from your perspective? Those are kind of the three things I would do if I started again three years ago and building myself. Those are some of the things I would have done again to get me here now.
Ben Wright:
Okay, cool. So we're talking about get active, get started, make it happen. Second one is, don't worry if it's not perfect, right? Progress over perfection. And the last piece there is collaborate with others, because together as a team, you can do great things, certainly greater than as an individual. Fantastic. All right, well, we're out of time today. And Tom, by the time being this goes live, we will have spent some time face to face in Phoenix talking a whole lot of things. I'm looking forward to it. No doubt there'll be some authentically humorous updates coming from us between now and when this podcast goes live. But thank you very much for today. So, Tom is from The SD lab. I would definitely check him out. He's got plenty to offer. And so, Tom, where can people find you? Where's the best place they can start conversating with you?
Tom Slocum:
LinkedIn. LinkedIn is where I live and breathe. Best place to try to get a hold of me, engage in my content, drop a voice note on LinkedIn. But I'm always there and happy to engage with folks if they have questions or just are looking for a homie in law.
Ben Wright:
Awesome. I love it. Well, thank you very much, Tom. Grateful for today. Everyone else out there, please keep living in a world of possibility and you'll be amazed by what you can achieve.
E43 Social Branding, What's All the Fuss, with Tom Slocum
