Social Selling 101 for Coaches, Consultants, and Small Business?Owners

Find out how to take advantage of this amazing lead generation tool

Thank you for taking the time to read this article. It is part of my newsletter series, Take Back Mondays, where I help people love Mondays again. It has been twenty years since I entered the workforce, over which time I have worked both in larger SaaS companies and run a digital boutique agency. I have managed hundreds of people, both in-house and remotely, from multiple nationalities, ages, cultures, and languages. Today I work as a business coach to help people turn their skills and passions into online businesses. If you like this article, please consider subscribing!

How many leads contact you every month? How many inquiries, signups, sales calls, and purchases do you generate in 30 days? If you have more business than you can handle, congratulations! But if you aren’t there yet, and you want to increase those numbers, read on.

What is Social?Selling?

Have you heard the term “social selling?”

The entire Linkedin platform is based around it. In fact, Linkedin created a metrics system to measure how well each individual is doing. You can find out your Social Selling Index here. Social selling is not for the weak of heart. But if you play the game right, you can win big. I personally have generated over 7 figures on Linkedin.?

Of course, social selling is not limited to Linkedin. It extends to everywhere you sell yourself online. While different platforms have different rules, the general 4 principles of social selling are universal.

What Are the Main Components?

1. Establish a Brand
2. Connect with the Right People
3. Share Relevant, Conversation-Inspiring Content
4. Build and Strengthen Relationships

Fact 1: Small Business Owners Struggle the?Most

While large or mid-sized businesses have in-house teams and agencies to manage the marketing and sales efforts, the small business owner is stuck wearing many hats, often alone, or, at best, with minimal support and knowledge on how to grow.

So what can a small business owner do? To be frank, one only has two options: hire a business coach to help you set everything up correctly and watch the sales flow in. Or try to cut corners, hire a bunch of inexpensive yet less-than-great service providers who overpromise, underdeliver, and ultimately waste your money and time.?

Why a business coach before another service provider? I often work with clients who have already paid for various services yet aren’t anywhere closer to where they want to be. You want to do exactly the opposite: A service provider (lead generation expert, funnel expert, copywriter, business development expert, or digital agency) will help you with one specific task but will never design an overarching business strategy that combines marketing, sales, and business, as a business coach will. Your best investment is in coaching first and the other elements later, under the umbrella of a robust business plan.

Be careful whom you hire. I have some valuable tips on how to get your money’s worth out of a coach here.?

Fact 2: Establishing a Brand Is Far From Easy to?Do

As a marketer and business coach, I spend a lot of time working on the business brand of my clients. While they naturally want to skip right to sales, I explain we must start at point 1. After all, if your brand is inferior, the clients won’t come and you definitely won’t convert any leads into paying customers.?

Your brand is your entire foundation. Imagine building a house with walls and a roof yet no floor. What a recipe for disaster! Yet many lack the understanding of the value of a brand to take the time to build one the correct way. There is a mad rush to sell and brand building is often neglected.?

A good brand consists of the following elements:

1. A very clear and detailed customer avatar. Most new clients I work with generally know whom they want to serve, but often I help them decide to focus on one sub-group who is the true ideal client. I call this ‘the niche of the niche’. If you want to be sure you are correctly defining your ideal customer, use this worksheet here.?
2. One specific high-demand skill, not three, four, or twenty. Decide where you can use your expertise to help people most and remove mention of everything else from your profiles to avoid brand confusion. Note: Some people are successful running two different services’ businesses but it requires double everything — double marketing, double expenses, and double time, so I don’t recommend it unless you have a team or a partner.
3. A clear scope of services you will offer, mapped out from A to Z, with no detail left out, obviously with a bulletproof pricing strategy, including cross-sells and up-sells, and both passive and active revenue streams. Develop all your marketing and sales materials around these services. Need help pricing your services? Watch this.?
4. Great marketing and sales assets that deliver value, are optimized for SEO, look professional and appealing, and convince a customer to buy. I work a lot with my clients on this point.
5. Consistent and complete social profiles. I have never worked with a single client who had these. If they did, they would have more sales than they could handle so it makes sense who I only work with business owners who struggle here.?

Fact 3: People Often Fail to Connect With the Right?People

Not all followers are created equally. When I first became active on social media, I mistakenly connected with too many people. I thought the more followers, the better. I am ashamed of this behavior, particularly given my marketing background. Marketers know to find a niche and never generalize.?

Luckily, I corrected my mistake by removing many connections and establishing a connection policy. I quickly saw my views go up and knew I had many the right decision.

By taking the time to identify whom you need in your network, you can design a much higher quality outreach strategy. Social media is meant to be social so connecting is very important. Pick a time weekly to research and send personalized invitation requests.?

Fact 4: Good Content is Hard to Find and Even Harder to?Produce

People who are anti-social media often criticize the quality of online content. Rightfully so, in my opinion. After all, it is free and anyone can post without much thought. One must carefully curate their feed to avoid junk and seek out valuable content. Producing good content does not come easily to many. I teach clients how to develop great content. I also run a monthly club for creators and entrepreneurs designed to focus on teaching content strategy. I highly recommend that small business owners seek out help, at least in the beginning, to set up a strong content strategy.

A good rule of thumb is that, every time you post, to ask yourself the following questions:

• How is this post providing value?
• Have I given a new or unique perspective on the topic?
• Is this appropriate for my audience?
• Does this contribute in a positive way to my brand reputation?

Fact 5: Not Enough People Take the Time to Build Relationships

Unfortunately, there seem to be more people trying to make a quick sale than those investing in nurturing a relationship. People are tired of cold pitches. What converts much better are genuine conversations.?We shouldn't see our audience as "followers" but as human beings.

Take the time to thank each person who comments on your posts. Follow up on questions in a timely manner. Interact with people both in the feed and in the direct messages. If you are just posting but never supporting others' content, you are missing the point. Most of all, be a giver, not a taker.

Conclusion

?I feel so passionately about business ownership that I would challenge anyone to find a compelling reason NOT to start a services business. If you want to learn more, check out my?video?on how to start a business in 30 days. Get the free bonus?checklist?to walk you through all the steps you can take to set yourself up in no time. Whatever you decide to do, do it with purpose and passion!

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