Companies with formalized social selling processes are 40% more likely to hit revenue goals.
Social selling is when sales people use social media to find and engage with new prospects. Sales people use social media to provide value to prospects by answering open-ended questions, responding to comments and by sharing content throughout the buying process – from awareness to consideration, until a prospect is ready to buy.
The main reason that you should care about social selling is – it works!
78% of salespeople engaged in social selling are outperforming their peers who are not. One of the reasons that it works so well is because social selling lets your team build real relationships.
Nobody likes cold calling, but if you use social tools to listen in on conversations relevant to your product or service, it will allow your sales team to identify new leads that are already interested in your products, your competitors, or your industry. With this information, you can reach out to them when the time is right. These tools increase your number of leads and reduce the time spent researching accounts and contacts.
Quota attainment, renewal rate and forecast accuracy are all better when sales reps use social selling tools.
Social selling is the sales methodology of using your company’s social media channels to interact with potential customers and generate leads. Most brand-based social selling occurs on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook, all of which we’ll look at individually later on. But it can also occur on the company website, on Instagram, or via influencer partnerships.
This type of selling is not about closing the deal, it’s about playing the long game. By commenting, liking, and sharing customer posts, companies can build natural social credibility and generate “free” advertising to influence buyers down the line.
Each social network has its own advantages. Focus on those platforms where your customers are.
If you are a B2B company, go to LinkedIn, especially because it is the source for 80% of B2B social leads. Twitter is also popular for social selling. Identify prospects and leads based on their bio information which will include company roles, location, and personal details. You can then determine who to reach out to and how to approach them. Facebook and Instagram are better suited for connecting with current customers or those on the cusp of becoming customers due to Facebook’s algorithm changes and Instagram’s limited search functions. However, Facebook communities and groups are a great place to find customers. Youtube is also a great platform to mine for potential customers. Directly responding to comments on Quora can help nurture leads and prospects. There is no perfect network for social selling, rather a combination based on your target audience.
The two biggest wins in social selling this year ($70 million and $47 million) came directly from LinkedIn groups. Think about it. Where else can you find your customers, prospects, partners, suppliers, competitors, and thought leaders talking about key topics and trends in your industry? If you’re not using LinkedIn groups, you’re missing out.
“Sellers who’ve embraced social media are creating new opportunities that totally bypass traditional sales channels…. It’s about good selling—using all the tools that are available to you today.”
“Sellers who’ve embraced social media are creating new opportunities that totally bypass traditional sales channels…. It’s about good selling—using all the tools that are available to you today.”
Smart sellers understand that social channels are ideal outlets for building credibility in their industries. They can share articles relevant to their solution, join special interest groups, and attract followers and connections through that process. In the old days, sellers would bring their Rolodex from company to company—now they bring their LinkedIn network.
In order to be successful at social selling, you must develop a targeted social listening strategy. This will help with increasing sales, refining products and shape your messages more succinctly. Use social listening metrics to empower your social selling strategy.
The volume of conversation measures how many people are talking about your brand or how many times your product is mentioned in the social media sphere. Volume is key to understanding the impact you are making on social media and should increase when you are running campaigns.
Your rate of engagement will measure the number of replies, mentions, retweets, and shares that your business receives on social media platforms. It is important to keep track of this metric because it will allow you to determine if your post is going viral. It will also reflect if your messaging and brand is relatable. If you see a sudden and dramatic spike in numbers look out for potential social media crises.
Share of voice reflects your piece of the pie and is a measure of the market your brand owns in comparison to your competitors, of industry-related social media messages. It allows you to gauge your brand’s visibility and how prominent your brand awareness campaigns may seem to potential customers. It will also inform you about how much you dominate the conversation in your industry.
This metric determines how people are talking about your product, service or brand. Whether it is in a positive, negative or neutral way. To find out algorithms apply natural language processing (NLP) to social mentions from various social media posts. Even if your rate of engagement, the volume of conversation and share of voice are very high, it will all mean nothing if the conversations about your brand are all negative. So make sure that it doesn’t!
Did you know that every four posts on anyone’s Facebook feed is a sponsored ad? Three posts from friends or family, and then an ad based on the interest algorithm. Considering the average person spends approximately 2 hours and 24 minutes on Facebook a day, that’s a lot of ads.
The social selling index (SSI) is a metric used to measure the impact of a brand’s social selling efforts.
LinkedIn first introduced the concept of the SSI back in 2014. The LinkedIn SSI combines four components to establish a score. It looks at whether you are:
- Establishing a professional brand with a well-managed LinkedIn profile.
- Finding the right people on the platform.
- Sharing relevant, conversation-inspiring content.
- Building and strengthening relationships.
To find your LinkedIn SSI score, sign in to your account and navigate to your Social Selling Index dashboard. Treat your score as a starting point to begin improving your social selling performance.
According to LinkedIn Sales Solutions’ internal data:
- Businesses that are leaders in the social selling space create 45% more sales opportunities than brands with a low social selling index.
- Businesses that prioritize social selling are 51% more likely to reach their sales quotas.
- 78% of businesses that use social selling outsell businesses that don’t use social media.
LinkedIn might not immediately come to mind when you think of marketing, as it was created for job connections. But it’s now one of the leading sites for social selling. It naturally connects you with those who might support your company. And its formatting tends to make people respond more professionally, so their recommendations carry more weight and credibility.
It can take some time before your social selling takes off on Facebook because you have to gain a strong following. But once it does, Facebook becomes one of the best ways to engage with your customers. Facebook pages are easily editable, are user-friendly, and can be customized to comfortably suit most brands. Additionally, many of your customers are likely already on the platform.
We’ve established that social selling increases your sales. But what are the actual numbers?
To start, approximately 3.2 billion people around the globe use at least one type of social media platform. That’s 45 percent of the global population. That number increases when you consider that children under age 10 and elders over age 85 are unlikely to purchase products for themselves.
Of those customers, the average buyer reports spending 20 to 40 percent more money on brands that have interacted with them on social media.
3.2 billion people spending 20 to 40 percent more on purchases is a lot of opportunity. And your company shouldn’t miss out on it.
We take product recommendations from our friends and family because we trust them to give us reliable information. When sales reps can build that same relationship with customers, it’s far easier to create brand loyalty.
In fact, 77 percent of Twitter users report a more positive feeling towards companies that reply to their tweets. Additionally, 71 percent of customers with a positive social selling experience are more likely to recommend that brand to others.
In a world of aggressive online content, brands that create a personal connection stand out to the consumer—and make it easier to upsell.
Social media is now so ingrained in day-to-day life that most buyers expect “legitimate” businesses to have a social media presence. They’re even a little suspicious of those that don’t.
Even if you aren’t ready to interact with customers via social media, it’s worth your time to create the relevant pages. It establishes another level of trust with potential customers.
Ninety-one percent of retail brands are already using at least two social media platforms, and that number is growing daily. In recent years, social media platforms reported over $8 billion dollars in ad revenue.
The social selling market is thriving, and it’s time you joined in.
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