Monday, March 9, 2015

3 Steps To Social Selling Stardom

Forrester put 1 million B2B salespeople on notice last week at their Sales Enablement Forum in Arizona. The pendulum has swung so far in favor of buyers over sellers, they claim, that by 2020, there will be 1 million less B2B salespeople-1 million! --That’s roughly a 25% reduction. Buyers want to buy and not be 'sold to'. Order takers are definitely goners. The landscape is changing fast and salespeople need to evolve or become extinct. But all is not lost for Sales. Social selling is here to stay and is going to provide the doorway to new levels of success in sales. If leveraged properly, a large portion of those 1 million sales execs will be spared. 
So what do you need to do to become a social selling superstar? First let's understand why it's important. Your prospects and clients are all over the social media playing field. They are researching solutions, delivering information about their company, providing detailed information about themselves, their careers, goals, challenges, interests, background, and education. This modern social media-craving buyer is more knowledgeable than ever before and in a high stakes game to grow their organizations--it’s winning now or go home. The long term is not in the vocabulary of most companies today. Buyers want to learn and exchange ideas with thought leaders. The socially advanced companies understand this fact and their leadership and associates are positioning themselves to be discovered. L
So how should sales execs use social media to effectively find and connect with these buyers? Here are 3 keys to social selling success.
1. Content is Critical To Success: Social media sites are tools to be used, but its up to you as to how you will be viewed-the digital personality you put forth. Establishing a credible social media presence is the first step. Be active, both to learn and research your clients, prospects and to share relevant facts about you and your company. There are countless articles about what an effective LinkedIn profile should look like. Your profile should not look like resume. Rather it should act as a personal website that tells prospective customers what you can do for them. It's not about selling but helping according to one of my favorite thought leaders, Jay Baer (@jaybaer). Educate and inform, don't interrupt and sell. You help through content--white papers, guides, how to videos, podcasts, webinars and slide shares.
Content marketing is the backbone of social selling. Positive word of mouth on social media is a powerful tool-a virtual PR machine. The strength of the content you curate, create, comment on, enrich, harmonize is key. Many of the great content experts have mastered what Jay Baer refers to  "..and therefore" content. It's taking the news and providing commentary on the implications, or how your clients and prospects for success can leverage it.
2. Thoughtfully Grow Your Social Networks: Its no coincidence that 98% of sales execs with 5000 or more LinkedIn connections achieve their quota numbers (Sales Benchmark Index). It may be a steep climb to 5000 connections but it needs to be done thoughtfully and strategically. It doesn't mean engaging in a promiscuous speed dating-like invitation spree. The end result of this will be a very low percentage of acceptances and in all likelihood a warning from LinkedIn to cease and desist and a threat of going into the penalty box. Connect with those prospects that can make a difference to your business, but send a personalized invite. So many of us receive random invites from strangers that leave it up to us to figure out what the motivation is. And 9 times out of 10 it’s a sales call waiting to happen. To personalize your message click on the drop down next to the send a message radio button and it will prompt you to personalize the invite. Send a brief note with why you are interested in connecting. Our team usually mentions a common interest around business development, technology, marketing or sales enablement, and express interest in sharing ideas and staying in touch. We usually have a few connections in common which will also help. We are not selling them anything or talking too much about my company or myself. HootSuite recently likened doing business on social media to dating. It takes time to build trust--and it’s a process before you get to that first date which might be a coffee and eventually (hopefully) more. You will be successful in winning the trust of your targeted contact with this approach and as a new 1st level connection, there is a greater chance they will be exposed to your blogs, tweets, groups, comments, favorites and the like. Again, put yourself in a position to be noticed. Build out your Twitter profile, and then Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, SnapChat and anywhere else your target clients frequent. If you have something interesting to say, people will notice and come to value your advice.
3. Make It "Real Time": David Meermam Scott, author of a number of books including The New Rules of Marketing and PR spoke last year at the Richardson Client Forum in Philadelphia, Pa and spent a good portion of his energetic presentation renaming social selling, ''real-time selling." The most successful companies are agile and can leverage their social presence to pounce on the needs that are occurring now more so than at a future point in time. It's about instant engagement, and monitoring the digital buying signals. Some personal tools I like to use to mine for digital buying signals are Google Alerts, which sends real time news via email from my target prospects and current clients in addition to Twitter feeds which I have sent directly to my phone as texts as news unfolds.
As in the early days of digital marketing, the companies and individuals that help blaze the trail in the area of social selling by engaging in real time, mining for digital buying signals and creating thought provoking content will be in a strong position to supercharge their sales.
Dan Sixsmith is a VP at Alinean, Inc. He is Founder and CMO at Trammel Marketing Group and Chief Content Officer at "The Digital Advantage by Dan Sixsmith." Twitter: @DigitalAdvantg



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