Tim Hughes is a world leading pioneer in Social Selling. He is currently ranked Number 1 by Onalytica as the most influential social selling person in the world. He is also Co-Founder and CEO of Digital Leadership Associates and co-author of the bestselling books Social Selling - Techniques to Influence Buyers and Changemakers and Smarketing - How To Achieve Competitive Advantage Through Blended Sales and Marketing (both published by Kogan Page). Shownotes:

• Social has changed society and the way we do business
• A social selling approach is not just layering social on top of tradition sales and marketing
• There is a difference between social selling and spamming, which many people get wrong
• The right social presence build relationships, draws people to you and makes them want to meet you
• How social scales better than a 1-1 phone conversation in enabling your content to reach more people
• People aren't interested in your company your firm and your products - they're interested in theirs
• The power of a personal brand to build trust and relationships online
• Why it's important to get the people at the top on board with social, no matter their age or generation
• In the old days, there was prime selling time where you could reach prospects - this no longer exists in an 'always on' world
• Accountants - ever considered your firm's alumni as a great source of new clients and introducers?
• The rules of sales have changed - buyers now expect sellers to be different
• Why pitch slide decks talking all about your accounting firm are no longer relevant
• Most sales meetings are a waste of your time - there is a better way
• Good news for accountants - why it's actually easier to sell now that it ever has been
• Shout out to the BANT approach to selling - budget, authority, needs, timescale
• How social selling and inbound marketing cuts down selling cycles for professional firms
• Research from Gartner says that buyers are up to 57% of the way through their buying process using online means before they contact potential suppliers or advisors
• Social and HR - smart accounting firms are using the networks of their employees to find new talent
• Social is changing sales but also other functions such as HR, procurement and finance
• It's prudent for accounting professionals to have a wide, deep and diverse business network
• You should have at least 2000 relationships on LinkedIn before you can say you have a good network
• LinkedIn is the most trusted network for professionals like accountants because it's most often where their clients are
• Traditional networking is dying as the online and social means of connecting become more dominant
• What's coming up in the world of social over the next 3-5 years, particularly using augmented and virtual reality
• Artificial intelligence will become omnipresent like the website has become
• The importance of ground rules to decide who you connect with on LinkedIn
• Tips for looking and sounding different on LinkedIn (hint - there a million 'thought leaders' on there!)

Tim's background in sales has been in selling accounting systems so he knows the accounting world very well.When not working, he likes opera, theatre and music concerts. He's into cycling also did the 'couch to 5K' app 12 months ago and is now running.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/timothyhughessocialselling/