An SDR met a potential customer on LinkedIn.
They exchanged a few eBooks and quality podcast links.
The rep maintained a solid rapport without expecting business from the prospect.
After three months of exchanging knowledge and best practices, the prospect showed interest in the rep’s product.
Tapping the right opportunity, the rep took the conversation to the email channel and provided personalized details.
And within a month, the prospect turned into a promising client who would soon start endorsing the product themself.
The time spent on social selling can be greater, but the prospect journey from inquiry to purchase gets shorter. Why?
Because of the trust factor.
The prospect is aware of the SDR and can vouch for the company and the product.
So without further ado, let’s get deeper into the What, Why, and How of social selling?
Table of Contents
- What is social selling?
- Why does social selling work in today’s world?
- Are you already engaged in social selling?
- What platforms do you leverage for social selling?
- Social selling best practice
What is social selling?
You heard Carson and his idea of social selling. Can you relate?
Well, social selling is exactly what Carson just narrated.
Social selling is the art of using different channels to build relationships with people(including prospects and customers)and nurture them to receive future opportunities.
Relationship-building is the very essence of social selling.
According to the LinkedIn State of Sales Report 2020, relationship building is a key element of top-performing sales reps' approaches, techniques, and tools. It’s been observed– more than 25% of reps exceeded their sales targets and trust between buyers and sellers was the most critical element in the closing of the deals.
Relationships-building can be conducted on various levels and platforms.
Considering the current scenario, we can heavily focus on digital channels and utilize social media platforms.
Why does social selling work in today’s world?
The unprecedented crisis has made it nearly impossible to meet and greet prospects in person. Even though we want to physically appear and charm our customers, situations discourage us from traveling and meeting people.
And yet we need to make our presence felt by hook or crook.
There, you have your answer.
Selling to modern buyers requires a buyer-centric approach- finding prospects and customers where they are spending maximum time.
Social selling techniques allow you to complement your cold-calling strategies and prospecting activities with social media.
Are you already engaged in social selling?
Social selling is no rocket science.
The art of social selling is quite simple, and you may be doing it already. How would you know?
- Do you have a Facebook, Linkedin, Reddit, and Twitter page?
- Have your customers, and potential clients started following you on social media?
- Are you investing in building relationships?
- Are you building a community?
- Are you nurturing your clients?
- Are you using relationships to sell products or services online?
- Are you sharing timely and relevant content with your prospects online?
- Are you using online messaging portals to interact directly with potential buyers and customers?
If you are doing a couple of things stated here(or all), then you are likely on the right track.
You may need to push a little more and create more valuable content.
Need some more ideas to complement social selling? Download- Best Selling Tips for 2022
What platforms do you leverage for social selling?
Carson mentions how LinkedIn and Linkedin Sales Navigator are your best bet to reach out to your audience. But the real question is how to make Linkedin and similar tools work for you to attract your audience?
Carson advises on using the leads that are flowing in from CRM tools and marketing tools.
- The chances of closing a warm lead are 15- 20 percent in comparison to the usual 5 percent.
- Locate the warm leads, look them up on LinkedIn and nurture the leads.
Similarly, platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Discord, Pinterest, Instagram, etc., offer more opportunities to be socially available, but the key point is to locate your target audience where they spend the maximum time.
If you spend any time on Instagram, you have likely come across the acronym NFS. You might be wondering what does NFS mean on Instagram. NFS stands for “Not for Sale” and is commonly used by photographers to indicate that their work is not available for commercial use. It’s important to understand this term when using Instagram for business purposes, as you don’t want to infringe on someone else’s intellectual property.
How to ace your social selling technique on Linkedin?- Social Selling Index
Linkedin created a fantastic way to measure your efforts on the platform.
SSI is social selling index is a score that helps individuals and brands measure their performance on Linkedin.
The concept was launched way back in 2014 for users to improve their Linkedin activities to not only helps users gain from the platform but also increase users’ stickiness to the platform.
How does Linkedin compile the SSI score?
An SSI score is determined by combining four components. The following factors are considered:
- 1. Create a professional brand- Build a customer-centric profile and become a thought-leader by adding valuable and relevant posts. Creating videos for your brand boosts your social engagement and attracts more audience.
- 2. Find the right contacts- Search people who can help you identify better prospects in less time.
- 3. Share insightful posts with others- Discover, share, and grow your relationships with data-driven updates.
- 4. Establish new relations-Connect with decision-makers and gain their trust.
How to check your LinkedIn SSI score?
- Sign in to your LinkedIn account.
- Get Your SSI score here- https://business.linkedin.com/sales-solutions/social-selling/the-social-selling-index-ssi
- Start by improving your social selling performance based on your score.
Why is social selling an effective sales tip?
Social selling may not be a traditional sales method for reaching prospects. Yet it has gained a lot of momentum in recent years.
And access to the internet as well as social media platforms have been added to the game.
The biggest advantage of using social selling is that- You may be the first company that crosses their mind when they are browsing social media and when they are ready to make a purchase.
To a large extent, cold calling can be replaced by social media!
Here are a few more benefits of leveraging social selling in today’s time-
- Positive Impact on Revenue Growth
- Higher Retention Rates
- Educate customers throughout the buyer journey
- Quota attainment is higher and faster
- Build better and long-term relationships
- Chances of getting sales referrals
Would you like to start after listening to the social selling best practices?
- You must integrate social selling into your sales process.
- Learn to understand ICP first and then start working with them.
- Content is everything. What they read is the response you get.
- Encourage social selling within the company to bring more eyeballs.
- Always measure your social selling efforts.
- Audit your reps and colleagues once in a while to ensure governance and ethics.
- Don’t be pushy or annoying.
- Never overdo any social media effort.
- Use social media tools for scheduling posts.
- Before sending a personal message, engage in their posts and activities.
Friendly advice: Never settle for any idea or content; keep experimenting like a challenger sales guy.
If you find the social selling tips useful, then we’re pretty sure you’d like to learn similar tricks on selling- Sell faster and smarter in 2022.
And you can also,
Listen to a very talented and experienced social seller who bestowed knowledge on our team- Carson Heady, Director of health solutions at Microsoft, an 8-time CEO award winner, the best-selling author of the “Birth of a salesman” series, and a podcast host himself.
Let’s Watch!
Happy Social Selling, Folks!
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