It’s great that engagement in a conversation and spending time increases the likelihood of purchase, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg.[1]



What’s more the happier they are, the more likely they are to tell their friends. Now that expression of satisfaction used to be connected to actual usage and be post purchase. While this is still the case I’d argue this is not big news.



Today you can make brave decisions to be more transparent and to share more of your prospect conversations, which in turn begins more conversations with more new prospects.



Happy prospects in social sales cycles express themselves and their proud discoveries [2] One lead can turn into many. So being social and being open and making it easy for others to see these interactions is somewhat self fulfilling. Now this doesn’t work for bad products. Poor product can backfire. The only solution to that problem is fix your product.



Now it does not come without risk. You competition can see this stuff too, well they can if they are smart and if they listen, but how many times do you compete, really? And if you are having real conversations built on trust and not pure sales effort, then do you think you’ll be so quickly displaced. Inserting yourself in someone else’s sales process is not easy. Socially, publicly that could backfire on your badly.



Once the ball is rolling, your existing customers and your emerging fans will give confidence to new prospects to listen to you and enage with you in conversation. All you have to do it get the ball rolling to build inertia. Keeping a ball rolling is much easier.



And their friends have ears, lots more ears.



Like a snowball, short conversations with a few people can blossom into a larger, longer conversation with more and more people. That’s how things tip, as Malcolm Gladwell might say!



Listening and allowing others to listen helps you bring lurkers into the conversation. In case you didnt know “Lurker” is the seemingly self appointed term in social media referrring to people who are listening. You don’t know they are there, but they are. Lots of them. They could well have been watching you for a long time. Remember, this is their sales cycle and they are in control

• Thousands of people can listen.
• Listening can let you begin a conversation.
• Listening sews the seed.
• Listening builds trust.
• Listening grows attention spans.
• Listening expands the crowd.
• Listening fans the conversations
• Listening drives revenue.

It a cyclical. You can build a customer tornado all from a single conversation.

So where now?

This post is connected to four other short hyper-linked posts. It’s more like a conversation. You are in control. It kinds of emulates conversational video, but via a blog post using text. You choose how and what you consume. So let’s explore, but on your terms. Where next? What do you want to know next? You choose?

1. Intro – Tribes Share, Conversations Engage. Listening’s Social Dimensions – Channels x Attention x Reach
   
2. Channels – Listening across all Media (opening your mind to listening everywhere)
3. Attention – Listening to grow the time your audience spend watching/reading
4. Reach/Sharing – Listening inside social sales cycles. Creating customer tornados via open sharing
5. Dummies Guide to Creating Interactive Conversational Video from Linear Video Clips