Companies are accelerating around the social business model. But we are fast approaching a tipping point where this critical advantage will disappear. Where do you want to be on the curve when the curve tips?

The fact is, selling is social. Sales has evolved, and sales people must evolve with it.

82% of ppl who join your social community will recommend your company.

And 76% of have more positive experience with your company just by being in your community. – IBM

But what is the definition of a social business? And how can we quantify that in terms of top and bottom line value?

At PGi, it means increasing our close rate by 40% just by turning on a webcam in iMeet.

Last week, an audience member at the Sales & Marketing 2.0 Conference asked the panelists how many prospects their reps need to connect with every day in order to close enough business and meet company forecasts. The average answer ranged from 3 to 6 prospects.

The question was a good one, but the focus was wrong.

As online conversations increasingly resemble many-on-many yelling matches, quantity no longer carries any currency. Quality trumps quantity. Like Gerhard said in his conference keynote, you can’t hear individual voices in a flea market bazaar.

This is why the personal touch wins.

Decades ago, my dad listened to his customers and prospects when they played golf or went to coffee. Today sales people listen to buyers by researching the landscape of social conversations. But this approach alone frames the selling relationships in the paradigm of the hunter and the hunted.

No one wants to be hunted.

Sales is about people doing business with people. Buyers trust sales people when they see the white of your eyes.

Sales is not a hunt. Sales should be a harvest.

That’s why, at its root, the effective social business is a 1:1 conversation. These conversations happen at any moment between two people on any media channel—within an organization, between buyer and seller, or just between buyers.

When a business socially interacts with prospects online, it surpasses traditional b2b sales borders and taps into existing markets. A social business increases sales by creating new markets online.

Right now, sales people have no greater potential to powerfully connect with customers than face-to-face conversations. Face-to-face conversations create better content. Better content fosters quality collaboration. Collaboration is the next evolution of social media for business.

In a sales 2.0 world, the eyes are the window to the sell. Where are your prospects looking?

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Thanks to Barbara Giamanco, Gerhard20, Greg Tavalsky, John Cousineau, and Sales20Conf for information found in this post.