A guide to SOCIALSELLING

THE CONTENTS

QUICK STATS

1 WHAT IS SOCIAL SELLING?

2

SOCIAL SELLING ANATOMY

3

FIVE PILLARS OF SOCIAL SELLING

4 - 9

SOCIAL HACKS & TIPS

10-12

REFERENCE

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QUICKSTATS

REF

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It’s a fact.

Buyers have changed the way they buy.Whether you’re a B2C or B2B company,your audience has become more tech savvy, educated and connected.

They hold the researching power,getting to know sometimes even morethan the salesperson.

79%of sales people who useSocial Media as a sellingtool outperform those

who don’t.

(SalesForce)

Not only they perform the completeresearch, but they are also making final decisions without consulting a sales rep.

Salespeople need to adapt and changethe way they sell. Cold calls don’t work anymore, in fact, they are ineffective 97%of the time (IBM). It’s time to go warm.

77%of B2B buyers said they did

not talk with a salesperson untilafter they had performed

independent research.

(DemandGen)

QUICKSTATS

1

In other words, engage with the right audience, at the right time,through the right platforms. Social selling is not about pushingthe customer into the sales process, it’s about using the most suitable social platforms to build relationships with prospects and customers.

When before you just had a name, a phone number and a title,social media opens the prospect’s world into their connections,wants, opinions and needs.

According to Jill Rowley, “By 2020, 50% of the workforcewill be Millennials. They were born digital, born mobile, born social. They are used to having untethered access to information, to people. Those are our employees, our customers and our partners.Business must evolve”

But before sales executives start on their social selling strategy,they need to know how to reach them and position themselvesas a trusted source of information to get the prospects into theselling process.

“Social selling is leveraging your professionalbrand to fill your pipeline with the right people,insights and relationships”

- Koka Sexton, LinkedIn’s global senior managerof social marketing.

WHAT ISSOCIAL SELLING?

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LET’S TAKE A LOOKAT SOME FACTS OF B2BDECISION MAKERSFORESTER 2013

SOCIAL SELLING ANATOMY

81%use communities and blogs.They publish and consume visual information such as videos, and infographics, and interact by comments, ratings and reviews.

74%use LinkedIn for networking with peers and use LinkedIn groups to connect to vendorsand consume relevant content.

42%use Twitter, to consume retweet and post content. Also, Twitter is a source of supportand direct channel of communication withthe companies.

Still wondering why you should try social selling?Now, the question is, where do I start?

Easy, understanding the basic pillars of social selling.

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THE FIVE PILLARSOF SOCIAL SELLING

1PERSONALCREDIBILITY

2PRACTICEABC-ING

3CONTENTAS CURRENCY

4SOCIALLISTENING

5ALWAYSMEASURE

According to the sales queen Ji l l Rowley,social sel l ing stands by 5 pil lars :

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1PERSONALCREDIBILITY

Be authentic.

People buy from those they know,like and trust, and social selling speeds it up.

Prospects don’t need to pick up the phone or answer your emails.Just a quick Google search and they will learn all they need to know about you through your blog, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

This is why building your personal brand is fundamental, as social networks can establish your expertise and trust with your prospects by showing your human side.

It’s important to speak your customer’s language to make mutual connections easier and faster. Start by identifying groups ofcustomers and look for trends and needs related to your business.

Determine your touchpoints to connect with them.Researching is as important as the content you produce.

Pro Tip

Reshape your online profile from a resume to your digital reputation starting with LinkedIn. Your customers don’t want to know how much you sold at your last company or when you got your last promotion, frankly who cares! They want to know how you can help them solve their problems. Have you done it with other customers, if so, what was the outcome? Are you writing about the problems they are facing? Keep the customer and their needs at the centre of your social profile.

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2PRACTICEABC-ING

ABC doesn’t stand for Always Be Closing,but for Always Be Connecting.

Be findable. In life, visibility creates opportunities, and socialmedia platforms have the power to reach millions of peoplein a short amount of time.

Set aside some time to build solid social connections withprospects and customers on multiple social networks.Check your content engagements - likes, shares and commentsand connect with potential buyers.

Tom Martin, in his book The Invisibles Sales, talks about theinvisible buyer. Your prospects are researching onlineand engaging with your brand, but they remain invisibleuntil subscribed.

“When they raise their electronic handsis when the sellingprocess begin”.

Your customers already know how to buy, and a sales executiveyou need to be where they are. Almost two billion people on Face-book, LinkedIn and Twitter can’t be wrong.

Pro Tip

Connect with everyone who looks at your LinkedIn profile, they were checking your out for a reason right? Don’t use the LinkedIn pre-defined language provide context for connecting and be genuine.

“Hi Tom, thanks for checking out my profile. Congratulations on your recent round of funding. I love to continue to get updates on you and your business and would and would be honoured to have you in my network, let’s connect!”

To be even more efficient save the bulk of the text as a text shortcut using ‘PhraseExpress’ or another short cut tool to save you typing every time.

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Be a trusted educator by making the buyer better.People don’t like to be sold, they want knowledge and feelthey are smart (Tom Martin).

Read, share and create content is not a job just for themarketing team. Sales people can establish a solid personalbrand and industry expertise that will build relationshipsthrough valuable content for the prospects and clients.

Educating will build trust, and trust will build customers.Present yourself as an educator that helps your prospectsmaking the right decision.

Participate in LinkedIn discussions, provide advice in industry forums, personalise your tweets. Relevant content leads tomeaningful conversations with possible buyers.

Pro Tip

Ok, so you know you need to share your own content but not sure where to start? Who in your business speaks to customers everyday to under-stand the challenges and opportunities they face everyday? You do! Take note of common challenges you hear from your prospects and customers then summarise that into a blog and post it via social channels. It doesn’t need to win literary awards to strike a chord with your customers!

3 CONTENTAS CURRENCY

7

LISTEN

Social media provides first-hand thoughts, concerns and opinions directly from your audience. All the information you need is there,all you need to do is listen.

While developing a relationship with your prospects, you can’t be always the one talking. Listening and engaging to what others are saying will give you great insights about your industry, companyand competitors. Social listening tools like SalesForce allows youto create social dashboards and filtering social results in trending topics and relevant industry developments.

Tracking and identifying prospects is important, but so is yourcompetition. To stay on top by monitoring their social presencefor competitive deals. A small move can make a big differencetowards success. Looking for negative comments or posts fromusers will open new opportunities for you to solve their problems.

ENGAGE

Social media is not the suitable place to close a deal, but is greatto start one by connecting directly with your prospects. Focus on creating relevant content that provides real value, not on sales.

According to SiriusDecisions, up to 70% of content createdby B2B marketing teams is never used by sales. Subscribe to your company’s blog, follow them on social media and use the content to start conversations with your prospects, e.g. “Hey [name], this blog post has some advice that might be helpful! [link].”

Pro Tip

Just like all of your other sales efforts you can’t treat social selling as a part time activity, chiming in only when it suits you. Your customers need to see your name in the digital world consistently to build credibility.

Build social into your daily schedule, don’t let it hijack your day. • Plan to spend 30 minutes a day identifying relevant content. Use aggregators like Feedly. Then promote that content out to your network using Hootsuite, Hubspot or Buffer• Create alerts for when your customers are engaging in conversations in social channels via LinkedIn, Google alerts or tools like SproutSocia

4SOCIALLISTENING

8

Keep track on your results, they are product of time and effort.

Rowley established two types of essential metricsfor your social selling strategy:

Indicators of Social Success, such as Klout score or Social Media Index.

Indicators of Social Selling in the business, such as pipeline and revenue.

Measuring the metrics on the impact of social selling in thebottom line and social capital takes time to analyse and report.

Don’t give up, use success to reinforce your reps and rewardsocial selling practices.

5ALWAYSMEASURE

9

SOCIAL HACKS& TIPS

Creating social media profiles is essential when it comes to business,as they rank highly in search engine results when people searchfor a company.

Think of your social profiles as the landing page for your company.It will be the first contact your prospect have with your business,and as a first impression, you want it too be good.

Let’s take a look at some tips to start creating successful social media profiles using the Sales Queen Jill Rowley profiles as example.

FACEBOOKFacebook is one of the most personal and visual social platforms.Create a Facebook business page as it provide tools such as Facebookads and analytics. Developing appropriate visual content is essential, especially in the Timeline Cover that should be intuitive and representative for the prospect.

When sharing content, images and text has to be consistent, as they complement each other. Your Facebook fan needs to know what it is about with just one look, as they will decide if it is relevant for themor not in seconds.

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REFLOVE TO REFERENCES

http://blog.hubspot.com/sales/social-selling-jill-rowley

http://marketingthink.com/social-selling-tweet-better-sell-more/

http://www.slideshare.net/Salesforce/connecting-with-con-tent-a-salespersons-guide-to-content-marketing

http://www.slideshare.net/afvh/linkedins-howto-guide-to-social-selling

http://blog.hubspot.com/sales/sales-managers-guide-to-social-selling

http://marketingthink.com/social-selling-anatomy-of-a-b2b-decision-maker/

http://marketingthink.com/4-reasons-why-retweet-ing-needs-to-be-a-part-of-your-content-marketing-strategy/

The Smart Guide to Successful Social Selling - SalesForce (Ebook)

Achieving Social Selling Success - LinkedIn Sales Solutions (Ebook)

Achieving Social Selling Success - LinkedIn Sales Solutions (Infographic)

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SOCIAL HACKS& TIPS

TWITTERCreate a handle easy to remember for your prospects to find you. Your timeline cover should be the same or similar to your Facebook profile, same applies to your profile picture - never, ever, a selfie.

Tweeting your own content from time to time is ok, but don’t forget twitter is a social interaction tool, not a broadcast platform. Retweeting thought leaders or industry influences must be partof your editorial calendar. Tweets with links and images provide more engagement. Twitter’s inline images can drive up to 150% more retweets according to Buffer.

Here’s some example of best-practice tweets to engage basedon Gerry Moran twitter experiences:

Be grateful- use the Twitter handle to say hello with a reply when retweeting or following you.

Ask questions- ask open-ended questions about off-topic talking point to get your prospect’s attention.

Write content about your prospects- tweet to inform them and ask for feedback.

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SOCIAL HACKS& TIPS

LINKEDIN“LinkedIn is the goldmine of the B2B sales world” - Jill Konrath

The number one rule on LinkedIn is complete 100% of your profile.Optimising your LinkedIn profile is essential to manage your social brand. In terms of profile and cover picture, the consistency rules applies again.

Build your profile from a customer-centric view, providing valuableinformation and diverse content such as videos and presentationsto get the prospect engaged. Use keywords in your URLs and Summary to give your readers a better idea of what your site is about and optimise Google Search.

Any doubt, go Google yourself.

Join industry-relevant LinkedIn groups. It will open a world of newindustry connections and prospects, and will improve your LinkedInand Google Search.

Ready to join the social selling adventure? Your audience is already social, talking about you and waiting for listen and be listened. Social sellingis a powerful tool for sales rep and salespeople should take advantageto create leads, connexions and, ultimately, increasing revenue.

Welcome on board!

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