Social Selling - an upward trend

With a large(-r) number of suppliers running around after more or less the same big names which we hope to turn into our clients, the service providers especially, tend to turn to a so called Social Selling method.

Being in the HR Consultancy business I strongly believe that social selling is something that everyone in this industry should become more and more aware of.

Simply put, “Social selling is about engaging with people in a disarming way.” (Monica Zent)

As we look around on all social media platforms we can see various people engaging with, well,...various other people - for business purposes. Often sales people tend to use the online social medium as a starting point for further developing business. Looking at me for example, I am defining a target market (or two, three, in time - sky is the limit) and reach out. Firstly, there is thorough research, pick my market and stick to it, understand it and learn about it in detail. Then discover its decision makers and engage. Or do my research all over again, on a more personal level this time…and then engage. In fairness, everything is done online.

And this is where this Social Selling comes into play. I guess it exceeds the Internet boundaries, however, most of it will be done online to begin with.

“Social selling has the power to help establish a positive reputation, unearth hard-to-find information, and make important contacts in a scalable way,” LinkedIn vice president of sales Mike Derezin told Entrepreneur. “In today’s digital and data driven age, online is how perceptions are shaped, so for anyone working in sales today, it’s a real miss to not make it core to their strategy.”

When done right, social selling is also a highly effective lead generation, relationship building and conversion tool.

I spoke before about Recruitment and the use of LinkedIn – how it helps me both in Sales and helped me when Recruiting. Again, Social Selling is as powerful as you can get for making sure that an entire recruitment process is done well, end-to-end.

I sell – I get to know my future clientele, both the business and the individual – I know what I’m getting my company into – I’ve done my research. Recruitment comes in – we have a job to fill – but we already know the individual who’s hiring (cause the good old sales person did their job right J ) and their preference at a personal level – then we further engage with our candidates on the same note and create that perfect match between the client (on a personal level) and the candidate (again, on a personal level). Apart from the business(-y) bits and bobs, where personalities and interests match, there will be a connection and our recruitment process shall be fulfilled. Trust my word or ask anyone who’s done more than “Throwing CVs at the wall…” kind of recruitment.

Basically, it is about giving and receiving. Developing and nurturing relationships in both selling to a client or candidate. They are both your clients no matter what. They get your service and you should make it appealing to them.

LinkedIn came forward (again…) and helped us with the following stats:

So, what’s this? And how do you do it?
It is simpler than baking an Apple Tart. Look:

Advice: Salespeople have to be willing to put in the time and effort to engage with their target buyers on an ongoing basis, and even then, there’s no guarantee that their efforts will pay off. 
Stats: 72.6% of salespeople who incorporated social media into their process outperformed their colleagues. In addition, socially savvy reps beat their quotas 23% more often.
More stats: This strategy generates 40 percent more qualified leads than cold calling and allows you to build genuine connections. Companies that excel at lead nurturing generate 50 percent more sales-ready leads at 33 percent lower cost
What is this? Research, connect and interact on Social Media (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter – careful, some argue Facebook is a bit too personal).
How? Like, comment, engage, share, post, develop a topic – ENGAGE!
Still how:

• Create a clean and clear online profile – optimized across the web (post a professional photo across all accounts – not necessarily the same photo, just make sure it is professional; include links to your other websites/social media presence, etc.)
• Join relevant Groups and Discussion Topics
• Set up RSSFeed or Google Alert to get notified when something relevant happens in your network – you can keep on top of your game
• Follow blogs
• Blog yourself
• Share relevant material (often)
• Use it daily! – just like any other sales tool, social selling needs to be used daily. So schedule a time to be active every single day

Like any other Social Media mean – Social Selling can act like a double edged sword in the wrong hands.

It is not stalking someone but engaging online in order to facilitate an offline business relationship.

Use it wisely.
Andreea Lungulescu
MSc International Marketing and Management