#180 Using Social Selling to Empower Customers

Notes:

This day and age, plus the pandemic, has got almost everyone gravitated towards social media and the Internet. Despite the distraction that it is, it is undeniable that social media has really helped us in all ways possible. For our guest today, he has found that the Internet is actually a great tool and platform for more people to be educated about what he does as a solutions engineer. Discovering the world of ‘social selling’, he maximizes his platforms in YouTube and LinkedIn by doing live streams to interview guests who are also experienced specialists in the sales world. Sit back, relax, and enjoy today’s episode with Buu Lam, formerly a Solutions Engineer, now a Social Seller.

For ten years, Buu Lam has worked as a Solutions Engineer at an automation company named F5. F5, Inc. is an American company that specializes in making applications run faster, smarter, and safer. At present, he has moved into a new role with their community team. Though he is currently based in Vancouver, he manages to cover customers from all over Vancouver, British Columbia, Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut. He talks to them about F5 solutions and how it can greatly benefit them. To add, previous to his work as a Solutions Engineer, Buu was also working at a reseller as a Pre-Sales and Post-Sales consultant.

Eight Ignored Skills That Sales Engineers Should Have:

The story of how and why Buu Lam started putting himself out in the Twitter, YouTube, and the LinkedIn world as a sales engineer
How he dealt with people’s opinions when he was starting his social media influence
Why it is extremely important to give context for every feedback
Some of the guests that Buu has featured in his YouTube videos and the topics they discuss
How Buu’s live streams and video content positively affected his interaction with other people sans the virtual world
Being able to cope up and adapt with live stream distractions such as dogs barking
The effect of doing live streams in YouTube and LinkedIn on Buu’s sales
The biggest milestone he has experienced being an SEO for over 10 years
Why he decided to move away from sales engineering
How his family’s entrepreneurial background affected his decision-making concerning money and transferring jobs
Important things to remember about managing finances as sales engineers
The factors that Buu considered before leaving his job of ten years

Quotes:

13:12 “I would hope that as people give feedback, they can give context.” – Buu Lam

36:23 “Take time to make sure you plan your finances, and manage things appropriately so that you can, 10 years down the road or even maybe less years, make decisions based on what you want to do with your life as opposed to having to always chase that dollar.” – Buu Lam

40:50 “I found more joy in my work when I started owning my customers instead of having the account manager telling me what to do.” – Ramzi Marjaba