Social From The Heart

What is Social From The Heart?

In his book, Selling From The Heart, Larry Levine taught us the importance of doing the inner work, getting in touch with who we really are in order to bring our best to our clients and prospective clients.  The sales profession has changed dramatically from the days of pushy sales people who will say whatever needs to be said to influence a situation and close a deal.

Today’s buyers are smarter with more information at their fingertips and less time on their hands.  While their needs are important (the product and services we sell and deal in), their wants are the unspoken variables that can seal the deal.  These wants are how they feel when we’re interacting with them, whether that is in person, over the phone, on a virtual call, or engaging with them on a social media platform.

The phrase ‘Social From The Heart’ is, of course, a play on Larry’s Selling From The Heart, and both are equally important for salespeople to move from the status of sales rep to sales professional.

But let me be clear- I’m not just speaking about ‘social’ from the standpoint of engagement on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or TikTok. 

All selling has an element of ‘social’ to it.  We’re being social when we greet someone, we’re being social when we call them (cold, warm, or red-hot), we’re being social when we reach out on a social media platform to engage with them for whatever reason we have for doing that.

So, what do I mean by ‘social from the heart’?  

What's In Our Hearts Comes Through Our Fingers!

Most major religions and cultures have multiple meanings for the word ‘heart’.  It refers not just to the physical muscle that is the ‘heart’ of the cardiovascular system (see what I did there?).  It has come to represent the actual core of a person, their soul, if you will.  It has come to stand for their fortitude, their strength, and ability to overcome adversity.  It has come to mean the core of their inner being.

Jesus addressed this in Scripture when he talked about how what we store in our hearts comes out of our mouths and concluded in Luke 6:45 “For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.”

Here’s the thing: when he said these things, speaking was the major form and mode of communication.  Today, we ‘speak’ in many different ways: we talk, of course, in person, on the phone, and over internet connections.  But, we also ‘speak’ with our fingers.  We type and send out digital communication each day… A LOT of digital communication. 

A quick Google search boggled my mind: we send and receive over 6 BILLION text messages per day and over 293 BILLION emails!  

The bottom line is that we’re producing a lot of communication that isn’t spoken, but yet it’s being consumed- the real question is: how much of it is coming from our heart?

When we communicate on social (and for the remainder of this blog I’m going to be referring to LinkedIn), how often are we communicating authentically about our true motives?

Linkedin is chock-full of sales reps that are trying to connect in order to pitch their product or service.  We all receive these pitches daily in our LinkedIn inbox via connection requests and InMail messages alike.  Are you one of the sales reps practicing the ‘connect and pitch’?

Remember, what we ‘speak’ (type) comes out of our heart (who we really are).  If all we see when we come across a potential client on social is an entry into our CRM or a $$ to our quota, that is going to come across in how we interact with them and they’ll be able to tell.

Social From The Heart in Practice

How are you showing your heart when communicating on social?  

Are you giving false platitudes, telling people how impressed you are by the work their doing, or by their profile when you haven’t even researched them?

Are you connecting without sending a personal note and when the unsuspecting person accepts, blasting them with a pitch of your product or service?

Are you endorsing people for skills after connecting with no idea if they are worth of that endorsement?

Are you being dishonest in any way in your messaging?

I’ve experienced all of the above within the last few months on LinkedIn.  

If you want to do “Social From The Heart”, then you have to communicate from your heart and that includes your digital messaging.  If you come from a place of genuineness and authenticity people will respect and respond to that.  

If you need help with being Social From The Heart, I want to help.  Schedule a complimentary 30-Minute Coaching session with me.

Connect with Bill on LinkedIn.