The reason that selling is dying is because the basic concept of how to sell is obsolete. Selling, as the Art of Persuasion, is dead. It was killed by Information Overload. The markets for every product and service are far more sophisticated than ten years ago.

Cold-calling doesn’t work anymore.
Lead acquisition methods are costly and inefficient.
Finding needs has become counter-productive.
Establishing Rapport has become counter-productive.
Educating prospects has become counter-productive.
Selling benefits turns off most prospects.
Persuasion causes resistance.
Selling points have become resistance points.
Consultative selling has been show to be fraudulent.
Closing techniques do not work.
Overcoming objections kills sales.

Top sales producers do not do any of the above. Their sales processes are simple, yet highly effective.
They know how to find prospects that are ready, willing, and able to buy.
They know how to develop immediate relationships of mutual trust and respect.
They know how to determine prospects’ exact buying intentions.
They know the importance of assessing prospects’ conditions of satisfaction.
They know how to quickly arrive at mutual agreements and mutual commitments.
They know how to have prospects’ enthusiastically close the sale.

We just introduced a research report today (The Mindshare Report) where we dissected over 1 Million customers of 6 global enterprises including Dow Chemical, John Deere, NetApp, New York Life, Toyota, and Vodafone. It is most shocking to see what a small group of analysts can do and that this can be dome by any trained consultant. Businesses are extremely vulnerable if they don’t understand the implications of social media. The “control” over their customer list is evaporating and more so the sentiment of their customer base. But as with every threat there is an equally huge opportunity. The report is available at http://socialmedia-academy.com

At the end I agree that social media is no tool for “selling” at least not the way we understand selling. But it is a weapon that is still underestimated by most executives.

@AxelS