Introduction
In today’s digital world, social selling isn’t just a buzzword. It’s the way business is done—and it’s more important than ever for salespeople to master this skill if they want to succeed. If you’re new to social selling, or need a refresher on how it works, here are six strategies that can help you build relationships with your customers and prospects online:
Mass proactive social engagement is important
Proactive social engagement is a fundamental skill for all sales professionals. It’s not the same thing as reactive social engagement, like answering questions or responding to complaints. Proactive social engagement is about building relationships through ongoing conversations and sharing relevant content with your audience.
This is how you can use proactive social engagement to help build trust:
- Share valuable content in advance of your meeting with the prospect, making sure that it’s something they’ll find interesting and useful.
- Schedule time each day or week where you write posts based on trending topics in your industry, using tools like Hootsuite or Buffer. This will keep you on top of current news and trends that could be relevant for potential clients.
Great customer relationship increases the repurchase rate
A great customer relationship can increase the repurchase rate, which indicates a better likelihood of future sales. It also provides a better customer experience and allows you to understand your customers. These aspects help you create products and services that will provide the best value for them.
This is why it’s important to always be aware of your clients’ needs, wants, and expectations in order to deliver the best service possible. You should always be able to explain what makes you different from other companies as well as how your company can help solve their problems or concerns.
Create sales triggers to identify prospects within your community
To find prospects, you need to use triggers. Triggers are simply cues in your environment that alert you to the presence of a prospect. The most common triggers are a specific action or behavior indicating interest in your product or service—a prospect asking for more information about what you have to offer, for example. In some cases, the trigger is an indicator of the possibility of future business—for instance, if a customer has purchased from you previously and thanked you on social media afterward. The key point here is that these are indicators that there may be potential buyers within your community who could potentially become clients with further nurturing and education from you.
Triggers can take many forms: they can be questions asked by someone on Twitter; they can be comments made by people on Facebook; they can even be likes on Instagram photos posted by certain companies (or by employees within those companies). When someone posts one of these actions online, it’s like ringing a bell inside your head saying “I want more information!” You don’t need tons of followers before this happens because social media doesn’t create connections based purely upon numbers—it’s much more personal than that! So even if only 10 people follow me today but one really connects with my content then hey…that’s still worth celebrating because one person out there understands me enough for us both mutually benefit from our interactions together through social media platforms like LinkedIn LinkedIn Group Discussions where these conversations happen all day long every day so look around carefully now before we move onto step two which will help greatly improve your chances at finding leads!
Use automation to nurture leads naturally
Another way to nurture leads naturally is to use automation. Automation is an effective way for companies to engage with prospects on social media and drive them down the sales funnel. It’s important to make sure you are using automation in a way that won’t turn off potential buyers, but it can be done successfully if you follow these tips:
- Use automation sparingly. As much as we would like our followers and connections to see every post we publish, it isn’t always realistic. By focusing on one or two times per week at most, your updates will get seen by more people within your target audience who will be more likely to click through when they see something interesting or relevant come across their feed.
- Include links only when necessary for context or further information about what was mentioned in the post itself (i), rather than just because there was one available at hand (ii). In other words: don’t spam people just because you can!
Optimize your profile and content
Optimize your profile and content:
Your profile picture is the first thing people will see when they visit your profile. Keep it professional, and use a photo that reflects you as a person. People want to know what you look like, so don’t hide behind text or an image of a cartoon character.
Include links to all relevant websites, such as your website or blog, social media profiles (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn), YouTube channel and Instagram profile. This shows other users how they can stay connected with you online beyond LinkedIn itself.
Use content to make connections
You can use content to make connections. You can share content that is relevant to your target market, or you can share content that is relevant to your target audience, or even content that is relevant to your target customers. If you think about it, those are all types of relationships! They’re all connections between you and someone else—whether they be an industry professional or one of your customers.
Engage with influencers in your target market
In many cases, you’ll find that influencers are already engaging with your competitors and their followers. Engaging with these influencers is a great way for you to build relationships and earn trust in your target market.
For example, say an influencer posts about a specific product or service offering on Instagram. If you like that post and comment on it, this encourages other people who follow the same account to engage with your comment as well. You could also add some value by offering advice or thanking them for sharing something helpful (this helps improve the overall experience of using social media).
It’s all about building relationships.
A relationship is a two-way street. In order to build good relationships, you need to be able to give as much or more than you take.
While it’s important not to take advantage of your network, it’s also important that you don’t shy away from asking for help when necessary. If a colleague is struggling with something and you have the resources or know a solution, offer them up! It will not only make them feel better but also strengthen your professional bond.
The same goes for influencers—they’re more likely to respond favorably if they know that their advice will be put into action rather than sitting on a shelf collecting dust while they wait for someone else’s request (or worse yet, go ignored). So if there are opportunities where you can add value by sharing content or connecting people together within your network, go ahead and do so!
Conclusion
Social selling is a powerful way to connect with buyers, but it can be challenging for marketers who aren’t familiar with the process. In order to master this tactic and reach your sales goals, you’ll need to develop specific strategies that work for your business. By closely studying your target market, identifying influencers within their ranks and engaging in conversations with them regularly, you’ll find yourself building trust and authority—two key components of successful social selling!
