Social Selling is modern selling | Social Media Advocacy

Did you know that 90% of top sales executives and 71% of all sales professionals leverage social media in their sales strategy?

B2B buyers are no longer receptive to traditional sales techniques such as cold calls, which have in fact emerged as the least effective technique to attract the attention of B2B buyers.

It’s come as no surprise that sales processes are migrating to social networks. And with the way social networks have triggered disruptions across industries, sitting it out has never been an option. Having realized the unmatched reach of social media, sales teams the world over are trying to find new ways to leverage it for better results.

But then, why did we call it “Social Telling”?

Because we see social media as a catalyst of change. Change that impacts the role of the sales team from being “product pushers” to insight providers. It also sets the new ground rules of sales. That of giving before asking.

Tell don’t sell. Now we’ve seen this mantra being said many times, in many ways, in many places. But the first instance of this appeared in Beyond Maximarketing by Rapp and Collins. Published in the pre-digital era this mantra was groundbreaking… well only if you understood what it could mean.

Among other things, the ground rules always meant the same. People don’t like to be sold to, they like to hear stories. And storytelling always was the best way to grab attention and interest. Another matter now that this word is being used and misused randomly for anything or everything that marketing or sales needs to do.

Social selling is not a magic wand. It requires focus, consistency and hard work. It could take 3-4 months to get leads coming in. And it requires a programmatic approach and strategy to drive networking, engagement and traction through the sales funnel.

You should start to get your buyer into your network by keeping the hard sales stuff out of your first few social contacts.

“The lines between sales and marketing are blurring, and the roles are blending,”
Jill Rowley, Social Selling Evangelist

What’s more, social selling is not a hard-sell. Its a soft sell to help you find and nurture the right people to draw to your brand and business. And how do you get them to pay attention what you are saying?

We leave you with three bird’s eye view tips on why Social Selling:

It makes sense to present where your customers and prospects are: When you know that about 67% of the average buyer’s journey is digital, with many of them reading at least five articles online before making a purchase. Today’s customers are hyper-connected and super-informed – so if you’re part of your customers’ digital world, you’ve already won half your marketing battle.
You can’t beat personalised contact and engagement: Social selling helps you foster meaningful relationships with your target audience via specific interactions. And when these interactions happen on a regular basis, it’s the beginning of sustained, solid relationships grounded in trust.
Top of mind recall does not get better than this: Social selling provides you with the opportunity to get your foot in the door at every stage of the sales funnel by participating in – and maneuvering – the buyer’s conversation as it happens.

Our advocacy marketing platform has helped clients structure and create social selling programs by:

Fetching the right content for the right purpose:

Rich branded content for easy sharing and network conversations,
Industry/ category/ competition-related contentfor evaluation and targeted conversations, or
Focused training contentfor the learning and personal development of sales personnel

Defining and setting up teams – for instance, by product/solution, geography, category, vertical, or scale, to name a few

Empowering personal branding – of sales personnel via great content that they can share on their networks, facilitating relevant conversations with rich content.

Encouraging healthy competition – by setting up goals and points for specific actions, and rewarding achievements (this works like a loyalty program, for example, you can set up points for content sharing, traffic generated, engagement nurtured, etc.)