Social Selling
Social selling is and has been all the rage recently. Many people push social selling like it's the best thing since sliced bread, yet so very few people can effectively teach it and even fewer can pull it off.
Social Selling is the act of leveraging social media to find and engage new prospects. It can dramatically improve the connection your prospects feel to you and your brand, which can, and in my experience does, shorten sales cycles. Having said this, you can do more harm than good to your brand if you are a bad social seller. It's kind of like squats...if you don't have proper form, you'll hurt yourself. But, if you know what you're doing rest assured your glutes will look great and your knees will thank you.
As an active proponent and recipient of social selling I've taken the liberty to compile a list of Dos and Don'ts. It is my dream to never witness another clumsy attempt at social selling ever again. It's honestly one of the most offensive things on the internet right now and that's saying a lot given...well given the state of the internet.
DO use social media to follow, connect with and engage your prospects. DO NOT use social media to sell to your prospects through direct messages.
Pro tip: social selling is more about nurturing, less about direct selling. The point is to take notice of what your prospects are doing, learn more about THEIR business, engage with THEIR content.
DO reach out to your prospects via direct message instead of email. DO NOT automate this process. It's always obvious and it's never as effective as a personalized message.
Pro tip: Email communication is associated with work while direct messages are associated with social. Pair this with the fact that email isn't typically used for instant, two way communication and direct messaging can be a very effective form of engagement. Resist the temptation to automate this process! Instead, use data to inform your outreach. Don't feel like you need to reach out to everyone. Reach out to those that have consistently engaged with your content.
DO use social media to comment and engage with your prospect's content. DO NOT use this as an opportunity to provide unsolicited feedback accompanied by a sales pitch. This is the most egregious offence. It's a clumsy, ineffective means to engage the prospect and a public broadcast of the fact that you do not understand the rules of engagement. Put differently, it reeks of desperation.
Pro tip: if you find yourself engaging with other people's content more than your own...you're not producing enough of your own content. Period.
DO join groups where your prospects hang out and engage in the public discussions. DO NOT participate in public discussions for the sole purpose of extending an invitation to 'take it one step further'. This type of direct solicitation is not allowed in many groups. Show up and provide value. If prospects want to take it one step further they will reach out to you.
Pro tip: the most effective way to leverage groups for social selling is to consistently participate in discussions, providing value and establishing a name for yourself in a particular area. IE - choose what you want to be known for, and comment and contribute to those topics.
If you could take away one thing, and one thing only from this post, I hope it's that social selling is about nurturing your prospects, not direct selling to them. If you could take away two things, it should include that social selling, when done right, is an extremely useful tool for your salesforce. Two way engagement drives connection, means less time in actual sales conversations, increases lead flow and conversions and shortens sales cycles. If you'd like to find out more about the ins and outs of social selling please feel free to send me a message.
