Social Selling on LinkedIn

I completely agree with a statement I heard recently…

“Social Selling is not an option now it is the way of the world and you either learn and execute it or fear getting left behind”

The digital transformation of sales and marketing has been gathering pace for a number of years, and the pandemic years only accelerated it further.

Today, if you are looking to sell your products and services then you can no longer ignore social media platforms as sales channels.

Gone are the days when you could rely solely upon interpretation or broadcast strategies such as advertising, cold-calling (telemarketing) and email marketing. Now, you need to think about your social interactions on platforms like Twitter, LinkedIn, Tik Tok and many more.

Some companies, like world-renowned Merrill Lynch, have even banned cold-calling completely from their sales strategy, and report much better returns from Social Selling strategies.

So, what is Social Selling?

Well, think of it like this…?

Tomorrow morning I will meet with you in the lobby of your target company. I have a security pass that I wave at the security desk and we head to the lifts.

Now you get to choose which floor we go to… floor 1 - Finance, floor 2 - HR, 3 - Sales, 4 - IT, etc, etc… and you choose the floor where your best prospects work.

Let’s say it's the Finance Dept. on floor 1. Now, you have never met any of the people who work on floor 1, so the doors open and I begin introducing you to each person, one by one.

Now, you wouldn’t start handing out brochures, telling them they need to buy from you and walk away. You would start talking to each person and getting to know them.

You might spot a Newcastle Utd mug, or a family picture with their children, or a concert ticket stub on their desk, and you use these as ice-breakers for conversation. You begin talking with people, getting to know the department and asking about the company.

As you walk around the department you begin to get a picture of the department, learn more about the business and importantly the people get to know you.

You haven’t talked about your products or services, you are just connecting and having conversations. You are being social, finding common ground and developing trust.

Now, I take you to meet the head of the department. Again, look around his office and you see pictures, awards or maybe a pair of running shoes. So, you chat about the time you did a half-marathon and you both share your experiences.?

Then you ask about more business-related issues which you learned from your interactions with people in his department.

What did you achieve?

• You developed a rapport with the finance people at the company
• You build trust and familiarity with that team
• You understand their pain-points
• You now know how to present your offer

I could go on but I think you get the picture… this is Social Selling!

Social Selling is digitally walking around the company, building influence and trust as you visit each floor of that company.

This gives you the advantage needed to displace a competitor or ‘land & expand’, as part of an ABM strategy.

A well-designed Social Selling strategy can get you in front of decision-makers quickly and accelerate the buyer journey of a new client.

Who was I in that narrative? I was LinkedIn. LinkedIn gives you access to all employees, in all departments regardless of their position in the company. There are no security people to stop you, no receptionist to get past and no PAs playing gatekeeper.

What results can you realistically expect from Social Selling on LinkedIn?

That really depends upon the Social Selling strategy, the time you are willing to invest and the type of products/services you are looking to sell.

In the first few weeks, we typically see clients achieve…

? +200% growth of profile views - As your activity with your target clients on LinkedIn grows, then you will attract those target clients to your profile

? +200% growth in content impressions - As you develop your content strategy and begin speaking to your target audience you will increase your content views

? +150 new prospects added to their network - Adding 150 new prospects to your network presents you with 150 new opportunities for conversations that can lead to new business

Here are a few tips for successful Social Selling…

• Be authentic - talk about what you know and give evidence
• Be consistent - post regularly, at least 3x per week
• Be the expert - show off your knowledge and understanding?
• Be a listener - a willingness to listen rather than just speak all the time
• Be human - talk about things you are passionate about (not just work)
• Be relational - connect with the person before asking about the business

If your sales team are struggling to make social selling work then get in touch. MAVERRIK? - Social Selling Training are a UK leading Social Selling training and consultancy company

What are our clients saying…?

Gav Gillibrand - I've got 537 leads in six weeks, all from organic LinkedIn - with no sales pitchestches

Sarah Kingham - Since our first call with Dean, we adjusted our messaging and have had more cold inbound enquiries and conversations in the last 7 days than in the whole of the previous month.

Mike Winter - I've closed ￡25,000 of new business in 13 weeks as a result of Dean's training. The Maverrik team know their stuff. highly recommend their training.

FirstPoint Logistics Ltd - Terry gave an excellent training course that really expanded our knowledge and abilities whilst also making it easy to grasp the new directions he was explaining. We would all highly recommend Terry and the Maverrik team to anyone who might be considering one of their training courses in the future.

Need help with Social Selling? Get in touch & let’s talk…