by Veronika Vaghina
Let’s see the definition of social selling, to begin with. Social selling is when entrepreneurs use social media to contact their potential customers directly (and to finally stop those evil cold callings). It’s also a way to actually find your prospects and customers and to build long term relationships with them via social networks.
An integral part of social selling is social listening. It means you should monitor how and what your prospects are saying. This way you’ll be able to influence the sale process and to benefit from it.
So why care about social selling?
- Teach your sales and marketing teams to use the information people give. Let’s be honest: today people share a lot on their social media (sometimes they even overshare). From a sales perspective, it’s a good thing as your prospects are giving you all the information about their needs — you just shouldn’t ignore it.
- No more cold calling. One more point: social selling can replace cold calling. And in terms of building relationships, cold calling doesn’t do any good. Some statistics to prove it: 9/10 of decision-makers don’t answer to cold calls.
- The funnel becomes more effective. If social selling is a part of your marketing funnel, it’ll make lead generation easier and more productive for you.
- Your potential customers always remember about you. Well, they do in case you remind them about yourself on a regular basis: they can be following your updates, participating in some of your social media activities, they can see your sponsored content or a friend’s mention of your company. Either way, if you are online you can be found.
- It’s your opportunity to build a reputation. You decide who you want to be: your tone of voice, your offers, your style. And please, no bots: it’ll influence your professional and personal brand. You should show your sales prospects that there are real people behind your brand.
- Your competitors are already there. What are you waiting for? For most salespeople, social selling tools are critical for sales performance. No wonder: I can hardly imagine a company not present on social media.
There are some basic steps to get started with social selling. Let’s check them out:
- Create content & make people trust you
- Widen your network
- Communicate with existing customers
- Find new customers in social media groups
- Check out what your competitors are doing; change your strategy if needed
- Engage with other companies
Your social selling success depends on the relationships you build with your audience. And one of the best ways to do it is to follow the tips below. This way you can be there for your prospects with relevant offers.
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Veronika is a Marketing Manager at X-Cart. The company provides X-Cart, an open-source eCommerce platform, along with the full range of services for online business. In her spare time, she enjoys hiking and reading.
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