We’ve written a lot on Social Selling, at this point most business owners and Sales Managers recognise it’s value. Despite being recognised as a valuable technique by most B2B sales professionals Social Selling is still only practiced by around 25% of them. The reasons for this vary. For many Sales Professionals devoting time to something like a Twitter or Facebook profile rather than cracking on with calls and traditional prospecting feels like a waste of time. For people highly focused on targets changing their tried and tested methods is seen as an unnecessary risk to their commission.

If that’s the case with your Sales Team, show them this article.

We don’t talk Social Selling for the sake of it. Those of us that talk about Social Selling all follow the advice we give. Many Sales Professionals think that initiatives like Social Selling are the reserve of the Marketing department, or the Digital Strategy department. The divide between Marketing and Sales is becoming less well defined in the Digital Age. Social Selling works across traditional departments and everyone should be following the best practice.

Salespeople who are used to building relationships in other ways can be reluctant to start getting themselves on Facebook and Twitter. Maybe you’re more used to elevator pitches at networking events or relationships cultivated over after-work drinks. Social Selling isn’t trying to replace these, but supplement them. The way all business people interact is changing. Social Media allows for personal interaction all the time. You can showcase your personality, your brand and your value all the time. Why wait for a scheduled phone call to show a potential client how much you care about their business. Or how much you know their industry?

The key takeaway from this article is that Social Selling helps you hit your quotas. This initiative wouldn’t be pushed if it didn’t. There are plenty of stories and evidence showing that Social Selling helps increase revenue for Sales Professionals. This is a benefit, don’t see it as a distraction, it will pay dividends. A Social Media presence is your permanent spot at world-wide networking events. A digital business card available everywhere, all the time.

Social_Selling_Index

Getting your Social Media presence together can be a little daunting to start with. Tools like the LinkedIn Social Selling Index let you know when you’re doing things right and where you can improve.

But once it’s set up it’s only a matter of a few minutes a day to maintain. Connect with existing customers or hot leads on LinkedIn. Focus on deepening and nurturing relationships. Use both Twitter and LinkedIn to prospect in a far more streamlined way. Location based searches, Job Title searches, Trigger Event monitoring, all of these measures are more effective with Social Selling. The first time you connect to someone they’re likely to view your profile and first impressions count. What does your Social Media say about you?

Everyone in Sales knows how difficult it can be to land a conversation with your target via a cold call. Gatekeepers to pass, schedules to satisfy and 5 minute limits.

Make your Cold Leads into Warm Leads with Social Selling. Present your profile as a valuable and trustworthy source of information. Find your prospects and leads, interact with them and research them. Make sure they see your name in relation to content they find interesting or valuable. Contact them at the optimum time. Talk to them just after a job change or around the launch of a new product. Use your Social Media presence to seek out their needs and cater to them.

Social selling decision makers

Don’t take our word for it though. We’ve got a whole series of free resources making the case for Social Selling. We’ve also got a series of free eBooks detailing how to optimise your Social Media profiles for Social Selling. Invest the time to get your Social Selling campaign running and in a few months you’ll be reaping the rewards. If not, what have you lost? Nothing! An hour to set up your profiles and an increased professional network? Hardly a downside to see!

15-ways

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