Social Selling Mastery

Chapter 4The Three Key Leadership RolesSales, Marketing, and Sales Operations/Enablement

Get the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats.

—Jim Collins

Outline Roles and Responsibilities

We call your core social selling committee “the three amigos.” The three amigos are made up of three senior leadership types:

1. Sales Leader(s)
2. Marketing Leader(s)
3. Operations/Enablement Leader(s)

The organization must mandate that all three divisional leaders are equally part of social selling planning and execution. Each role will be a vital dance partner. Don't discount any role's involvement in success or you'll risk everything falling apart. If you're part of a small or medium-size business (SMB) in which one of these roles doesn't exist, that's completely fine. The important part is understanding what these three job functions require for overall social selling success. Using this information, you can plot a course to share these responsibilities with others in your organization.

1. Sales Leader(s)

You are the voice of accountability. We've seen marketers, sales operations, and/or sales enablement leaders champion a social selling program by themselves. The result has nearly been a 100-percent failure rate because the sales professional ultimately does not report to those roles. With proper sales leadership accountability, a sales professional will learn a new skill and the sales leader will be responsible for helping to ensure that ...