Are you a small business owner? A sales person? Have a cause to persuade others to rally behind? Social media for business (and anything you’re trying to build awareness for) is not an option these days. Social media is something you need to get behind to further your business, your cause, and yourself!
“Social selling is about leveraging your social network to find the right prospects, build trusted relationships, and ultimately, achieve your sales goals. This sales technique enables better sales lead generation and sales prospecting process and eliminates the need for cold calling. Building and maintaining relationships is easier within the network that you and your customer trust.” (Source: LinkedIn Sales Solutions)
Picture this: you just got home from the office and are sitting down to dinner. Your phone rings and on the other end is a person trying to sell you something. They may be a great person but does that matter? No! You’re annoyed.
Or perhaps your in sales and you’re calling on a prospect. You don’t have an appointment set up so you cold call and they don’t respond. You try again in a few days and still no answer. A few days later you try again and again, there is no answer. you leave a voicemail this time and never get a call back.
“Around 9 out of 10 of top-level B2B decision makers simply do not respond to cold outreach anymore (hubspot).”
Let’s face it, cold calling is dead or at the very least, close to it. If you do work in a B2B business, how often do you hear “just email me” and then never get a response.
Social Selling isn’t just a fad and it’s not going anywhere.
Why do we love social selling? There are many reasons.
- You’re not the only one using social media, your prospects and clients are using social media too! “75% of B2B buyers and 84% of C-level/vice president (VP) executives surveyed use social media to make purchasing decisions (IDC).” Much of the information and contacts you need are right at your finger tips. In turn, this shortens the prospecting and sales time.
- You’re competition is also using social media. You can audit their social presence to see what they’re doing and what may be working for them, developing further insights into the industry.
- You are able to use social listening to more quickly identify potential leads, industry trends, what people are saying about your company and your competition, and more.
- Social Selling isn’t about selling! If you’re always pitching a product or service, you’re only going to annoy your audience and potential clients. Be a thought leader and industry expert that others look to for guidance. “Over 62% of B2B buyers respond to salespersons that connect with relevant insights and opportunities. Salespersons can enhance their thought leadership by staying up-to-date with prospect news, and by identifying new contacts or decision makers when accounts make key hires (LinkedIn).”
- Utilizing social selling lets you build valued, and trusted relationships. Clients and your competition alike may look to you for industry news and updates. Through your interactions with decision makers, you can build rapport. If they share something you enjoy or is valuable to you, like it and thank them for it. Share your comments on other related industry posts. Join an industry group and participate in the discussions. Use direct messages to generate conversation. Be the one who others look to for guidance.
- Your ability to create brand awareness is unparalleled when it comes to social media. If you have a tangible product, share updates on it, new developments, different uses. Ask your audience to share a photo of their favorite way to use your product and create a hashtag for them to tag the photo with. Share company updates, new hires and promotions, birthday celebrations, community involvement; let everyone see who you really are! This may even create loyal brand ambassadors just by being you (are you good enough?).
There is a lot to social selling and it is growing every day.
Do you utilize social selling at your business? What insights may you share? What do you like or not like?
If you like this article, please let me know by commenting on, liking, and sharing it.
Keep Smiling,
Kelvin J. Mack
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