Lately, on Linkedin, people are debating (constantly) whether social selling or old school selling is better. There’s no doubt that if you were trying to sell Elon Musk, your best bet would be to do so from a tweet and not a a cold call.
We live in a time where we can watch a multi-billionaire do business LIVE in 140 characters or less.
Case in point: About 60 days ago someone sent Elon a tweet about the charging station and people leaving their cars parked there for too long. Within a matter of minutes, Elon took to Twitter and announced they would be towing any cars left there unattended.
One tweet resulted in Elon personally doing what it takes to solve a problem facing the community of car owners he’s created. You can’t tweet the CEO of Exxon and tell them to clear up gas pumps. I mean you can, but he damn sure isn’t going to tweet you back. He’s probably not even on Twitter, it’s his intern doing it.
The entire world is literally watching this Elon Musk close billion dollar deals on the most ADHD social network there is
Last month Musk sent a tweet announcing Tesla’s launch into the UAE. Most CEOs would set up a press conference, make a big grandstanding spectacle out of it and all that. Yet Elon simply sent one tweet and all the news stations picked the story up from there.
As far as I know, there’s only one other billionaire on twitter conducting business like this; Donald Trump.
Now, as for Musk’s latest close on twitter he’s using the power of the network to tweet leaders and influencers in South Australia to get them on board and help him solve their energy problem. How cool is that? You can follow Musk and watch him tweet high level people and get a response. Then close then to get them on board. It’s a beautiful thing to watch.
Think about this; One of the smartest people on the planet, who also happens to be a billionaire, is solving world problems and creating new markets by sending messages with less than 140 characters.
Maybe. Just maybe, your sales pitch is just a bit too long.
There’s a lot of lessons to be learned from Elon’s tweeting process.
First off, let’s talk about why Twitter. There’s something to be said about keeping things short and sweet. Especially when you are an important person and limited on time. Twitter also forces you to simplify your message so that even a 5th grader could understand what you mean.
Simplicity is key. Even for smart people. Simplicity doesn’t equal stupidity, simplicity equals understanding. When the scientists mapped the human genome it took them less than 5 minutes to explain it to the Nobel Prize committee. Yet, some of you can’t even pitch a house in less than 30 minutes. Over complication is your worst enemy.
Second of all, Elon is leveraging the old “the world is watching you” close. He’s called out leaders in a way that’s impossible for him to be ignored. It’s brilliant, he’s using his tech savvy and his influence to help the people, instead of just helping himself.
The coolest thing to watch Elon do is round up other influencers who’ll retweet and direct tweet the person he wants to get to. He’s created a Twitter syndicate of sorts and it’s working brilliantly. It’s modern day version of “who do you know?”
Many of us have been using these techniques online for years now. It’s nothing new, yet it’s new to see a billionaire mastermind buying into the idea and using it for ALL it’s worth. It certainly validates the legitimacy of social selling. As well as takes things to a whole new level. I don’t think people do billion dollar deals from cold calls.
Take Elon’s lead, start using social media to connect with your prospects and close them on your stuff. If it works for a billionaire closing world leaders, it will work for you, Mike the Realtor, closing houses 😃 If you’d like to know more about how to use social media to make more sales, join our mastermind at www.breakfreeacademy.com/entourage
