Meet Ian Moyse
Ian has been a sales leader for over 25 years and focused on the cloud computing industry for the past 13 years. Now serving as EMEA sales director for cloud telephony vender Natterbox. He sits as a non exempt on a number of industry bodies and firms and is a social influencer for a growing number of global brands such as Oracle, SAP and Sage. He’s a recognized keynote speaker and blogger on cloud, social selling, and personal branding.
As a sales leader, what’s the landscape of sales looking like right now? How is it changing?
So I think it’s already changed and it will continue to change. And I think the reason for that is we’ve all changed ourselves. We now live in a world that’s different. And it’s different because of mobile smart devices, the internet, the World Wide Web, rather than the internet, the true definition social media. Our behavior as a buyer has inherently changed. So from a sales perspective, the game’s changed. And it’s changed years ago. And it continues to change both because of the environment we live in. Because of millennials and Zeds having grown up in that environment.
You’re an advocate of social selling, what is it and how do you use it as a sales leader?
I think the name itself is a misnomer because when I speak to a lot of people they get well, that wouldn’t fit our product or service. We couldn’t sell that over the internet. You couldn’t sell it over social certainly. Social selling isn’t about selling over social. Social selling should be called something like how to use social media to get a first engagement conversation open that you turn into a real world conversation, then move on to use all your normal selling skills. But how do you package that? Social selling is about finding a way to engage authentically, with a potential customer or buyer that turns that into a real world conversation. It is not a quick fix. It’s a sales nurturing methodology to try and get engagement.
What can you share with our listeners about what exactly personal branding is and why is it important?
Personal brand isn’t some illustrious thing about you need to be a celebrity. It isn’t something your company is responsible for in terms of branding of a Pepsi Cola or some big logo out there. It’s pretty simplistic. It’s about how you represent yourself. How are you viewed online? If someone searches your name, what will they find? And what will the impression give? Today’s world, often the first impression is digital. Because if you’re going to meet someone, it takes them five seconds to put your name in LinkedIn and just have a look. To put your name in and see what comes up in Google. And to take an impression of what they see. And you need to be cognizant of that. So think about your social profile your brand is how you look online. You have control of that to the majority. And it’s not complex, isn’t it? You can do it for free most times.
Can you share with our listeners, your most successful or favorite networking story that you have?
The traditional one is going along to an event and there’s loads of strangers there. And I don’t feel comfortable just walking up to introduce myself. What I always go back to is where I went to an event. And I sat down to listen to a speaker and I sat next to someone so I just started chatting to them. Which bit are you interested in today? Where were you from? And did basic fundamental question because I sat randomly next to this person. And it turned out they were the European CIO of a major brand organization. And we chatted, and I wasn’t trying to sell to him. The conversation naturally just accidentally ended up in the right place. To the point that we said, well, we should talk after this. That progressed into meetings that progressed into me selling them across the whole of Europe and then traveling out to the states to meet the global CIO, etc.
How do you stay in front of our best nurture the relationships that you’re creating?
I sat in with my team on the training. I’ve been doing this a long, long time. Sales leadership a long time. I didn’t know this. And one of those things was around relationship. And it was what the difference between how many times we assume we have a relationship and what we have is rapport. And it was an eye opener to see how many times we think we have a relationship where what we have is a rapport because people have been friendly to us. And people aren’t gonna be rude in a business or unless you’re rude in the outset. They are going to be friendly; they are going to smile, they are going to have a conversation. It doesn’t mean you’ve got a relationship. We assume relationship too quick.
If you could go back to your 20-year-old self, what would you tell yourself to do more of less of or differently with regards to your professional career?
Always learn and be open. I think I’m more now because of the environment I work in, in cloud technology. You have to be open to change and agility because tech is changing so fast. We get programmed. And the longer we do something we get programmed into. This is the way to do it. We’ve become habitual. Because we’ve done it for so long. We will behave so in front of a prospective client, if they see 10 people, how many of us just behave very similar. We ask the same questions we go the same approach. How boring must that be for them as opposed to Is there a better way?
Any final word or advice for our listeners with regards to growing and supporting your network?
I think that the tip key today is about engagement. It’s about providing value, what everyone’s looking for is insight. You know, and customers are looking for insight. What can you add value to that business? What’s a personal value that I can give to that individual that can help them in their day to day job and build. And that’s where I think you can help build, go from rapport, and step towards relationship, because you’re giving them something.
How to connect with Ian:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ianmoyse/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/imoyse