Social selling is a term that most of us have come across in recent times. Sales reps are often told to optimize their social selling skills. But social selling is often confused with social media selling. Although social selling leverages social media platforms it is quite different from it.
Social selling can be understood as leveraging social networks for prospecting, building trusted relationships, and achieving sales goals. A sales rep attempts to convert leads by answering the queries of the prospects and offering them thoughtful content.
According to personal branding expert Dan Schawbel, social selling success is comprised of making new connections and sharing great content.
You need to identify your target audience and their network of influencers. Sales professionals need to become storytellers and add value to their personal connections.
Social selling is a team effort rather than the initiative of an individual. It is a slow process. The team needs to strategize and work consistently to build relationships.
Social selling entails your sales reps sharing interesting content and build relationships organically over time. They can share branded and unbranded content so that they are perceived as experts in their field.
With consistent sharing of content by your sales reps the visibility of your brand increases leading to better sales. The content shared should be relevant to the needs of the buyer and stage in the buyer’s journey.
Social Sellers create 45% more opportunities. (Source:
https://www.superoffice.com/blog/social-selling-statistics/)
Social sellers are 51% more likely to reach quota. (Source:
https://www.superoffice.com/blog/social-selling-statistics/)
In a survey by CSO Insights and Seismic, 31% of B2B professionals said that social selling allowed them to build deeper relationships with their clients.
You can measure the success of your social selling with metrics. This will give you an idea about the areas that you need to focus on for better results.
Direct traffic: These are the audience who visit your website by directly typing your URL in the browser. This metric indicates that your brand is memorable.
Referral traffic: This is the traffic on your website that comes through social media. This metric indicates that you can generate awareness through social media.
Net Promoter Score: This metric gauges the loyalty between brands and their customers. It is based on the response to the question, “How likely are you to refer our product/services to a friend?”
Exposure to a new audience: Sharing relevant content can help you connect to new audiences.
Besides these, social selling also impacts metrics such as sales revenue, appointments, social network metrics, and social influencer scores.
Every marketer knows that when a prospect is ready to buy, he turns to social media. The marketer must engage with the buyer on social media at the right time and on the right platform. However, signing up on multiple channels and pitching your product is not possible. You need to strategize by identifying prospects that are similar to your existing customers. You will need to establish yourself as an expert in your field by sharing relevant content. You will need to work towards leveraging customer relationships to earn more referrals and recommendations. This will lead to building long-term relationships. This is essentially what social selling is all about!
