You may have heard about social selling, but are you aware of it fully? Are you confusing social selling with social media marketing? Actually, they're not the same! It's not social media advertising as, well. In simple words, social selling enables your business to connect to your business prospects on social media platforms and build a strong relationship with a network of prospective leads. If done in the right way, social selling can be the one to replace the dreaded activity of cold calling.
If you are someone who has not yet implemented social selling into your business strategy, you will probably lose business to other social media-savvy opponents. But, once you are done reading this informative article about social selling, you will have all the knowledge to change the game.
What Is Meant By Social Selling?
Social selling is utilizing a company's social media platforms to connect with potential leads, build solid relationships, and engage with your prospects. This special tactic will definitely help businesses to achieve their weekly or monthly sales targets.
Imagine social selling as a modern tool for building relationships online. Connecting with your potential buyers actively on social media platforms can help your brand be the first option for the prospects when they are all set to make a purchase.
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Why Is Social Selling An Essential Element For Every Business?
When social media platforms emerged, marketers and business people took no time to understand their value. Most companies were already using social media by broadcasting their brand on these different channels aiming to fill the sales funnel with potential leads.
Nonetheless, successful organizations are actively & increasingly utilizing social tools throughout their sales procedures. In point of fact, about 78% of social sellers tend to outsell counterparts who do not utilize social media channels. Plus, when it comes to B2B professionals, 39% of them stated that they could lessen the time spent on account researching with the help of social selling tools.
It does not matter if you leverage your professional network on platforms like LinkedIn for the purpose of sales prospecting or build a Twitter following to facilitate relationships in your specific industry; social selling is genuinely a strong & powerful tool to possess in your sales treasure trove.
Social Selling Index For Being Successful
As you begin your social selling journey, you must remember what differentiates social selling from conventional advertising. It is about having trust in your connection!
1) Keep A Check On Your Social Selling Index
LinkedIn introduced a tool named as Social Selling Index (SSI), which assists in measuring social selling success and building relationships on the basis of four different criteria. Utilizing this specific tool can easily check the escort of your social selling index. This way, it can be helpful for you to develop a unique, precise, and successful social selling campaign. Here are the four factors mentioned below:
a) Develop A Professional Brand
Become fully certified in your industry, and maintain and keep your website up-to-date. Also, you can offer immediate communication to your consumers.
b) Concentrate On The Ideal Prospects
A major advantage of social selling is connecting with clients who truly care and are genuinely interested in your products & services. The extensively self-aware & efficient social sellers go for those genuinely interested and engaged. They do not waste their time & effort with uninterested individuals who will never be convinced to be converted into paying consumers.
c) Build Relationships Out Of Trust
Getting engaged in real & honest conversations and listening to the prospects about their requirements, expectations & pain points will lead you to build trusting relationships.
d) Make Use Of Analytics
Most social media channels, such as LinkedIn, Youtube, or Facebook, provide sellers with vigorous analytical insight into the individuals engaging with their accounts. The best social sellers utilize all these insights and then, consequently, refine their way of messaging and outreach. You should invest your time in engaging with your customers, listening to them, showing that you respect them, and feeling confident enough that you will take a yield of sufficient rewards as time enacts.
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5 Proven Social Selling Strategy Tips
Here are a few effective social selling strategy tips to help you take your sales game to the next level!
1) Identify Relevant Social Media Channels
The first thing to do is to recognize which social network is utilized the most by your target audience. However, for B2B customers, LinkedIn & Twitter might be the social network. And regarding the B2C segment, you can take Instagram or Facebook. This will ensure you do not spread yourself narrowly on different social media platforms. It can help you concentrate and direct your efforts to social channels that benefit your business.
2) Engaging With Social Channels
Now that your profile has been set up properly, you can begin understanding where your potential customers spend most of their time on social media. Additionally, you need to try to join several groups where other individuals in your industry hang out. Ensure to follow all the key players in your field, including influencers. This way, you can boost your engagement rate.
3) Create Valuable Content On A Regular Basis
This particular step functions hand in hand with your content marketing strategy. You must ensure posting content regularly with some value to offer to your potential customers. Remember that unlike a website or a blog, most of the social media content is viewed for a couple of hours only after uploading it. Therefore, you can schedule social media posts ahead of time to maintain consistency.
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4) Develop A Prospect's List
If you have pursued the above-mentioned steps in a dedicated way, then now it's time for you to have a good social media presence and share regular & quality content. Also, put in some extra effort in making a list of prospects. You can curate a list of prospects who have been engaging with your content in recent times.
5) Don't Forget To Follow-Up With Prospects
Once you are done reaching out to the prospects, you have to make sure that you are following up well. It's perfect for waiting for a few days at least before sending your follow-up message. Keep your messages short and understandable. It should not be pushy or forceful.
How To Measure The Impact Of Social Selling?
When it comes to sellers properly utilizing social networks, they must ensure that all the activities are recorded. Therefore, a robust "Customer Relationship Management" (CRM) system that encompasses a social network field will help demonstrate from where the leads are coming and the impact of social media on leads.
Hence, a CRM can track how a sales team contacts its consumers or clients and help schedule follow-up actions. Implementing a CRM helps keep a good track of leads and measures where the leads that convert into paying customers come from. In addition, it also provides detailed insights into where & how consumers expect to be contacted.
In the matter of leaders looking to gauge the success of social selling, a monthly or quarterly statement/report from a CRM can assist in identifying what networks are proving to be successful, what activities can be utilized to capitalize on the actions that truly work and modify or completely stop those that do not function well.
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Conclusion
There’s no doubt; social selling will help you sell more. All these social selling tips will help you discover and connect with your prospects on different social media platforms. But, the best outcome from social selling can be obtained when you prioritize it as your primary objective to deliver value to your prospects and build solid relationships. Social selling cannot be considered a one-time activity and can be utilized alongside existing sales prospecting methods. However, it might get a little difficult to begin, specifically if you are new to social media. But remember that the advantages outweigh all the difficulties.
