Introduction
The digital age has made it easier than ever to connect with potential customers, but that doesn’t mean salespeople can afford to ignore traditional approaches. Social selling is a way of bringing both sides of the sales process together, leveraging modern technology and old-fashioned relationships to generate more leads and close more deals.
In this article, we’ll cover everything you need to know about social selling: how it works, why it works, and who’s doing it. By the time we’re done here, you’ll be ready to implement these techniques into your own sales process so that you can start seeing results for yourself!
Social selling is the process of developing relationships as part of the sales process.
Social selling is the process of developing relationships as part of the sales process. The goal of social selling is to identify, nurture, and close customer relationships by using social media platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram and others.
Social selling relies on three core factors:
- Social media platforms that allow you to create a professional presence online so people can find you when they need your product or service.
- Processes and tools that help you manage these relationships with prospects and customers. These may include a CRM system like Salesforce or Microsoft Dynamics 365 for example.
- A solid understanding of how technology works in tandem with sales models like B2B (business-to-business) or B2C (business-to-consumer).
Prospecting today is being personal.
Social media is a great place to start. It’s a place where you can connect with people, learn about them and what they’re interested in, and build relationships. Social media makes it easy for you to see who is interacting with your company or brand on social platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Salespeople have a responsibility to contribute.
There’s no denying that it’s hard to build trust in a sales relationship, but if you play your cards right you can quickly become the most trusted source of information in your prospect’s life. Salespeople have an important responsibility to contribute to their prospects’ lives by providing them with relevant, useful information that helps them solve their problems and achieve their goals.
Salespeople are in a unique position to build relationships because they listen more than talk (a quality many people lack), are usually early adopters of new technologies like social media and email automation platforms, and care about helping others succeed. If you’re willing to put yourself out there as someone who cares about the success of other people (rather than just yourself), then people will naturally gravitate towards you for advice on how they can do better at work or home.
Integrating social selling techniques into your sales process can improve your results.
Social selling is a method of building relationships and trust with prospects through social media. It helps you understand your prospects’ needs, identify pain points in the buying process, learn about their buying process, and build rapport with them.
If you’re not familiar with social selling yet but are interested in learning more, this blog post will give you everything you need to get started. We’ll cover:
- What social selling is
- How using social channels can benefit your business (especially when it comes to sales)
- The different kinds of content that work well on social media
Social media platforms are more than content channels.
Social media platforms are more than just a way to distribute content. They are also a way for you to connect with prospects, customers, and other stakeholders in your business. You can gather information about what your audience wants or needs through social listening and monitoring of brand mentions across the web. This information can be used to improve sales activities like lead generation and customer service.
Social selling helps make connections between buyers and sellers using online tools like email marketing as well as social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram. Social selling is often defined by its purpose: using these tools to build relationships that lead directly back into revenue-generating activities like sales calls or direct mail campaigns (or even just referrals).
Modern prospects have different habits than they did in the past.
- Social media is the new way to reach people.
- Social media is a way to find out about your customers and prospects.
- Social media is a way to listen to what people are saying about you, your brand, or even competitors in your industry.
- Social media can help you determine what people are interested in, so that you can better serve them with relevant content and offers on platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and more!
If social selling seems foreign or intimidating at first glance — don’t worry! We’ll get into the basics of social selling below:
The benefits of social selling are clear.
The benefits of social selling are clear. You’ll get more sales, build a better brand, and find new customers. You can also use social media to build customer loyalty.
Let’s quickly break down what we mean by “social selling.” It’s the process of using social platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn to reach customers directly—and it’s not just for B2C sales reps anymore!
Sales and marketing alignment is essential to success.
To begin, sales and marketing needs to have a shared understanding of the problem. Sales teams need to understand what problems exist in the market, and marketers need to know what’s causing those problems.
The second step is to have a shared understanding of the solution. This can take many forms; perhaps it’s as simple as having an agreed upon definition of success, or maybe it involves more complex measures like revenue per market segment or client retention over time. Regardless, both departments need to be aligned on how they measure success in order for them achieve it together.
The third step is establishing common goals for achieving that alignment — that is, creating a common goal around which both teams can rally together toward success without undermining each other’s efforts or competing against one another (i.e., “Marketing will increase awareness among C-level executives by 10% by December 2020”). This goal must align with individual department goals while serving the company’s overall strategic goals at large (i.e., “Sales team will sell $15 million worth of product X per quarter”).
Earned media takes time, but it pays off.
Earned media is powerful. It’s a slow-burn approach, but it pays off in the long run.
You can’t expect your influencer outreach to work overnight. You have to be willing to invest time into building relationships with bloggers and journalists, thought leaders in your industry, or even just influential people with large followings on social media. You might end up making great connections that lead nowhere—but they could also result in amazing opportunities or partnerships down the road!
Social media provides a modern way to listen to customers and prospects.
Listening to customers is critical to your success. The most common way of listening is through surveys and customer feedback forms, but social media provides a modern way to listen to customers and prospects.
Social media platforms provide a great way for you to stay connected with your audience, so that you can identify their concerns, interests and needs. Social media also gives you the opportunity to engage with them directly by participating in conversations or answering questions publicly or privately.
Sales teams that embrace social selling generate 45% more leads and enjoy higher win rates than those that don’t.
Social selling is a process of developing relationships as part of the sales process. It doesn’t just involve using social media, but rather it’s about being personal while also listening, engaging and sharing relevant content. Social media platforms are more than just content channels; they’re places where you can interact with your customers in real time.
Social selling isn’t a new concept, but it is one that sales teams are adopting at an accelerating pace thanks to the ubiquity of technology in all aspects of our lives. Companies that embrace this approach generate 45% more leads and enjoy higher win rates than those that don’t (HubSpot).
Conclusion
We hope this post has given you a better understanding of the importance of social selling. Social media is no longer an option for sales teams, but rather a requirement for success in today’s marketplace.
