It can happen to you: you work for an organization for 16 years and you reach the point where you look around for a new challenge outside the company. Until you see that the challenge is right in front of you. This happened to Jorrit Drieënhuizen of Centraal Beheer (part of Achmea). Within a short period of time, he created a plan to use employees as online ambassadors and to qualify for 'social selling'. He came up with a role that did not yet exist at the insurer. He managed to get the management enthusiastic. How does Drieënhuizen successfully implement behavioral change?
He exchanged the role of senior account manager for the completely new role of 'social selling expert' fax lists The name says it all: Drieënhuizen is involved in sales. Not in the traditional way, but using social media, especially LinkedIn.
Is this new? No. LinkedIn may rank among the oldest social media platforms in existence. Many companies have discovered over the years that it is no longer about online CVs, but about visibility and networking. Drieënhuizen himself gives an example of how not to do it: “I then receive a message from someone who has not even visited my profile. Whether I am interested in purchasing videos from his company.”
No, it is not. Social selling is about building relationships, not spamming customers and prospects. Drieënhuizen has three years of experience in the role of a kind of program manager in how it should be done. But with trial and error.