Social Selling for Sales Success

The social media revolution is transforming three important disciplines – marketing, sales, and customer service - and in Indonesia it is no exception.

Over the last five years social marketing has been the market focus enabling brands to create new ways to engage with potential customers, but only recently has social selling become a buzzword.

There are many definitions for social selling. I like to define it as a method for gathering intelligence for potential targets and, as a result, turn an Internet user into a customer, using social media.

While social marketing sitting at the top of a sales funnel is important, social selling is the last step in the ultimate process of closing the deal on products or services offered to buyers. Yet, without realizing tangible revenue from social marketing, it can become a waste of time and effort.

As social circles move from the real world to the online world, social selling takes on an entirely new form. While social selling is not actually new, some parts certainly are. Before the Web and Facebook and LinkedIn, people were still buying from people in social ways – all selling is always social and always will be.

The challenge is how sales translate in the evolution of technology to close the deals and increase sales.

Although most are not complex and do not require special skills, they represent a different way of working. Even more, they demand a new way of thinking about the entire sales opportunity process. Unsurprisingly many sales people do not feel ready yet.

As part of a sales team 10 years ago, in order to get in front of customers I had to find out who they were, where they were, and how to contact them – anything but easy.

Sales started with leads through social circles, business clubs, and country clubs. But now, with relatively little effort, I can discover key individuals within the organization, what is happening in near real time, and what customers are looking for from the business.

Social media has now made this simpler than ever before.

The ABC of Social Selling

Now how can sales departments leverage social media to make sales calls easier and more efficiently close deals? Sales is as much about insight as it is about having a strong product set.

That’s why every salesperson researches their prospects before meeting them for the first time. The key is to identify some relatively simple, easy to implement first steps. One of the great things about social media is that buyers are far more open about their intentions than in the old days – not having to rely on phone and email to stay connected.

Here are five ways to monitor customers during a selling cycle on social media:

  1. Set up tools to listen to your prospects: Google alerts or Tweetdeck
  2. Monitor your prospect profiles and status on LinkedIn or join key customer groups on LinkedIn and begin monitoring what they are saying
  3. Monitor Slideshare and Scribd for any presentations or documents created by them and by events they may be attending
  4. Follow customers and influencers on Twitter; retweet and/or favorite a tweet to see what they are saying
  5. Figure out who your prospects trust and learn from, and who surrounds them socially as well

One good example of a brand doing good social selling in Indonesia is travel site Agoda. From my status on Facebook it was easy to see that I was planning a holiday to Tokyo – I was then offered a discount on my hotel in Tokyo on my Facebook page and then via email.

Engage people through social media to cover them from all sides. Once you understand their needs and who they trust, engage them with useful information.

Stay engaged with your customers and prospects as they are your best source of leads, referrals and advocacy.

As explained above, getting started in social selling should not be a complex and time-consuming exercise but will give more chances to win and close the deal. The use of social media in sales will allow them to delight their prospects rather than starting with cold calls and hard sales when meeting prospective clients, eventually converting them into loyal customers and also giving a head start over competitors.

Social selling is not just a buzzword; it is now a crucial way for a successful sales team to communicate with future clients. By starting to embrace these tools to craft pitches that meet the specific needs and change conversations from “me, me, me” to “you, you, you,” you too can reach social success.

Subscribe to get your daily business insights

Whitepapers

US Mobile Streaming Behavior

Whitepaper | Mobile US Mobile Streaming Behavior

5y

US Mobile Streaming Behavior

Streaming has become a staple of US media-viewing habits. Streaming video, however, still comes with a variety of pesky frustrations that viewers are ...

View resource
Winning the Data Game: Digital Analytics Tactics for Media Groups

Whitepaper | Analyzing Customer Data Winning the Data Game: Digital Analytics Tactics for Media Groups

5y

Winning the Data Game: Digital Analytics Tactics f...

Data is the lifeblood of so many companies today. You need more of it, all of which at higher quality, and all the meanwhile being compliant with data...

View resource
Learning to win the talent war: how digital marketing can develop its people

Whitepaper | Digital Marketing Learning to win the talent war: how digital marketing can develop its people

2y

Learning to win the talent war: how digital market...

This report documents the findings of a Fireside chat held by ClickZ in the first quarter of 2022. It provides expert insight on how companies can ret...

View resource
Engagement To Empowerment - Winning in Today's Experience Economy

Report | Digital Transformation Engagement To Empowerment - Winning in Today's Experience Economy

4w

Engagement To Empowerment - Winning in Today's Exp...

Customers decide fast, influenced by only 2.5 touchpoints – globally! Make sure your brand shines in those critical moments. Read More...

View resource