Having leads is wonderful, but if you can’t convert these leads into sales, you’re wasting your time, money and energy. The problem begins when business owners are missing the skill that will effectively convert those customers from a sales lead to a closed business transaction. The missing piece is sales skills. When the critical skill of sales is left out of the social media equation businesses fail miserably.

If you can’t convert, it’s a waste of time. Don’t kill your business!

Smart and savvy business owners use social media to attract new customers and increase traffic to their business. It can be one of the best tools to use to connect with and qualify new leads. It allows business owners and sales people to connect with customers in innovative ways and they’re doing it ever increasing precision.

Unfortunately they’re running head-first into a roadblock. There’s no way to navigate around and it’s too big to ignore. They’re having difficulty converting interested customers into paying customers. Customers are showing up but they can’t close the sale.

Social media does not close sales. It’s not a magic bullet for increasing sales. Having leads is wonderful, but if you can’t convert these leads into sales, you’re wasting your time, money and energy. The problem begins when business owners are missing the skill that will effectively convert those customers from a sales lead to a closed business transaction. The missing piece is sales skills. When the critical skill of sales is left out of the social media equation businesses fail miserably.

Social media is essential and it can help to increase potential sales, but all the social media in the world won’t work if you can’t get people to say yes to your offer through a closed sale.

Sales are what keep a business in business.

Business owners who are successfully managing their social media campaign and effectively converting leads into sales come out ahead. They realize the need to understand the engine of social media and the power of possessing great sales skills. Both efforts are what lead to bottom line enhancing results.

The business owners who call me finally see the gaping hole in their marketing and social media efforts. Website traffic is up, phone is ringing and people are raising their hand to buy. But sales are not increasing. Unfortunately their new ways of reaching customers is working but their old ways of selling to those customers are yielding dreadful results.

They believe that increasing their presence and casting a wide net will be the magic bullet to close sales. They quickly realize that without the skills to effectively get someone to say yes, they will keep hearing “I need to think about it” or “I have no money.”

I’m not surprised when business owners tell me they’ve spent their budget on social media and marketing and have no money left to invest sales training. It’s not uncommon for business owners to waste a lot of money on social media and not one penny on what the bottom line needs. Sales! They put the cart before the horse. They fool themselves into believing their employees or they don’t need to know how to sell.

Social media and marketing gets them interested in you. Sales skills get them to buy from you.

Enlightened business owners are stepping up to the sales training plate. They’re eager to learn the skill that generates the results and produces dramatic effects to the bottom line. Learn it once and use it over and over to attract new business and convert potential customers into happy paying customers.

Now that is what I call a magic bullet.