hands on socialselling social

aug 31/sep 1, 2009

Your clients are:

• Unfamiliar, for the most part, with all of the social options out there to achieve the desired impact

• Forced to justify all expenditures and prove ROI

• Looking for new ways to connect with and maintain customers

• Under pressure to perform NOW

Meanwhile, customers are:

• Shopping and engaging products via multiple channels• Inattentive, unavailable and in control of messages they

receive• Talking, texting, writing, blogging, tweeting,

prognosticating, etc. about brands

The question is not “how do you sell social”. Rather, it’s HOW DO YOU

NOT SELL SOCIAL!

You are the key to success.

You personally are most likely going to be in the sales process for new or existing clients.

– You must be on board with this.– You have to think and act differently.– You should use the medium & be able to talk

about it.

BOTTOM LINE: You need to be a true sponsor within your organization

#1Do It Yourself

Self Assessment

• Develop your own plan– Adhere to it!

• Outline your social presence

• Document an update frequency

• Know your story

• Watch your metrics

• Evaluate regularly

What would clients see?

• Search for yourself

• Check your own sentiment

• How do you compare to competitors?

• Would you hire yourself?

Qualifying the customer

Asking the right questions

Create your client criteria for social strategy services, i.e.:

– Are their customers looking for them or talking about them online?

– Does the decision-maker have an understanding of how social strategy “fits”

– Is there adequate budget to “go around”?– Is the client executing upon social campaigns

now?• How is this being done?

– What are the results? What is being measured?

What are the red flags?

• Warning signs that client is not a good fit:– Not a dedicated focus on marketing team (IT

making online marketing decisions)– No existing Web presence– Too much education required– Many in-house resources– Against social media– GUT INSTINCT

Establish a set of imperatives.

• This is the information you require of the customer before considering social strategy work.

• Follow the practice of obtaining this information and save time and money.

• Follow the money and you generally end up with big headaches.

The 2 most important thing to do.

• Understand (or help create) the client’s clear and quantified objectives centered around this effort – what are they trying to achieve.

• Don’t let the client start with the tactics or technology. If the client says they need a blog, understand why. Your value might come in selling why they don’t need one.

The wisdom of crowds.

• There are so many options and directions to take, getting a core group together is often a big help early in the sales process.

• Pull together your people who are online frequently to help, regardless of role within the agency.

• Make sure that ideas all tie back to the objective.

How to price social media engagements

Budgets.

• Set Realistic expectations– On their part AND yours– Don’t “give away” online– Know what your minimums

are to be profitable– Be prepared to say NO

Ways to price.

• Retainer

• Project

• Pay for performance

• Pay per action

• Hybrid

Retainer.

• When to use – type of client– New industry/vertical – Work that is expected to be ongoing

indefinitely

• What to expect– Growth if you perform well– Demands from client– “What about me” concerns about service and

strategy contributions

Project-based.

• When to use – type of client– May be used in conjunction with Retainer

work

• What to expect– Scope creep– Client approvals and/or requirements will

impede project timeline– Additional project/growth opportunities if you

perform well

Pay per action.

• When to use – type of client– Industry/vertical in which you have a lot of experience and

proven success– Client with conversions of online sales, forms, calls to unique

number from site– Client with analytics and end to end conversion measurement in

place– Client that will allow you the access you need to report on results– Client you are confident you can retain for more than 12 mos.

• What to expect– IT push back & challenges getting tracking mechanisms in place– Client scrutiny of actions for which you are to be paid

Pay for performance.

• When to use – type of client– Industry/vertical in which you have experience

and proven success– Client who will pay you a “kicker” for a pre-

defined success target

• What to expect– Tracking MUST be in place– Performance metrics MUST be clearly defined

and agreed to in writing

Hybrid.• When to use – type of client

– Client where social strategy calls for some tactics that can be measured all the way through conversion and some tactics that can not

– Client who can get more budget based on results; marketing isn’t expense but COS

• What to expect– Similar to Pay for performance and Pay per

action– Retainer services dropped over time

Don’t jump into the tactics

• Effective social strategy is not about putting up a facebook page, creating a twitter account and setting up a LinkedIn company profile

Pricing for social strategy vs. tactics

• Selling strategy:– Social media consulting– Social recommendations on messaging,

methods– Active social monitoring– These services are usually ongoing rather

than one-time

• When you become an expert, you can sell consulting engagements

One-time work.

• Addictive if you aren’t careful

• May cause resource constraints

• Critical to price for profitability

• Consider it “fat” and not “meat”

Social Profile Design & Management

Recurring work.

• Balance total % carefully amongst clients

• Don’t put recurring clients on “auto pilot”

• Bring new opportunities once you have delivered results

• Identify growth goals

• Apply resources by tier of client (not all recurring clients are created equal)

Recurring Services Include:

• Social Monitoring

• Brand Management

• Ongoing ideas and recommendations

• Ongoing Competitive Analysis

• Off Site Optimization / Link Building

Sentiment Management & Reporting.

Protect yourself with assumptions.

• Include specifics on:– What client must provide/deliver– Travel expenses– Billing methods– Rush fees– Cancellation fees or other penalties (if

appropriate)– Delivery expectations– Ownership of IP

Pricing.

• Understand how clients perceive the services you are offering– Value-priced– Hourly-priced– Commodity-priced

• Create a consistent method for determining pricing

• Know the competitions’ pricing

“Value” priced services.

• Specialty services, such as:– Usability, wireframes– Design– Strategy

Creative talent and smart thinkers are priceless.

Hourly priced.

• Based on a set hourly rate– Search– Ad buying/planning – Development

Complete the work in the time allotted and you win!

Commodity priced.

• Hosting • Email delivery

Tough to differentiate you from the other alternatives.

How to pitch social media engagements

Know your audience.

Fast, Actionable Items

• Begin with examples, competitive data

• Provide overview of high level strategy as well as proposed tactics

• Low hanging fruit opportunity

• Recommend to start with listening– Great 1st step if client is “afraid”

Pitching

• Only invest the time if you are certain the buyer is ready to buy (and not just gathering more intelligence, etc.)

• When you pitch, give it your all!– Designate a project manager– Back into timelines– Identify additional resources necessary to

prepare the pitch and to present– Practice, practice, practice.

Be creative.

• Think outside the Box.

• Think outside the PowerPoint.

• Think about the fact you are pitching social – it should look “social”.

Know your stuff.

• Create proposals/pitches that are unique for each client

• Paint the big picture, but be prepared to show social applications as tactical examples

• Anticipate the questions they will ask and be prepared with an answer

Q&A