Social Selling Trends
Discussing social selling trends may seem premature within the sales community as it is still quite new to many salespeople.
However, the pace of innovation and disruption in the sales process is
accelerating. As social media and the impact of digital channels become
prevalent on how business to business buyers buy (yes, getting closer to
consumer behavior all the time), it means companies and sales
management have realized the importance of social selling in the sales
process.
Increasingly, every prospect or customer a business wants to engage
is online and research shows this is also their preferred method of
engagement.
Future thinking companies and sales teams are implementing effective
social selling programs to reach prospects, influence buyers, build
credibility, generate leads, increase sales pipeline and retain
customers. If you follow sales trends, article after article on buyer
behavior is saying that the prospect is more than halfway through their
buying process before then engage with a vendor. Buyers are using search
engines, whitepapers, blog posts, news articles websites and other
digital tools to help them self-educate before they consider a shortlist
of possible solution providers. When you think about it, our own
behavior as buyers has become heavily influenced by what we read online.
So, if the evidence for social selling is so clear, why is it taking so
long for many companies to embrace it?
Here at The Digital Sales Institute,
we work with many organizations implementing social selling training,
so we want to offer up some social selling trends. In a broader sales
strategy sense, this is what’s coming down the line and how it will
affect how your business interacts with customers.
Enabling the Sales Person.
To be truly successful with social selling, the mindset as to the
meaning of selling needs to change. The reality is that no one can just
take what they did in the traditional sales process for the past how
many years and apply it online. If sales leadership still believes that
the only role for salespeople is to “sell something”, then they will
struggle in the era of social selling and content marketing.
So social selling trends prioritizes the role of salespeople to one
that creates credibility and trust: During their buying journey, modern
buyers want to believe that someone really cares and understands their
problems. They seek out people who spends time informing, explaining and
educating, without the sales pitch. So maybe the sales process needs to
evolve to a point where salespeople are not just rewarded for the deals
they close, but also for the people they engage and their potential to
be a recurring customer. In social selling trends, the depth and
strength of the work a salesperson does to build trusted relationships
online should be just as important as the deals they close. What we are
saying is that social selling starts and ends by enabling the individual
salesperson.
And as part of a wider sales strategy it will make them more
effective sellers by the business providing them with the tools and
tactics to better connect and engage with prospective buyers.
Social Selling will be Data Driven.
So, we know that social selling revolves around using the social
networks to find and engage customers. Makes sense as that’s where the
buyers are, and so as salespeople, that’s where they need to connect and
engage with them. However, our social selling trends points to data and
not profiles will be the driver for whom to engage online.
As companies gather and enrich their data on people (prospects,
influencers, partners, etc.), they will be able to merge this will
freely available social data to create detailed predictive data on
anyone they want to connect via the social networks.
Social selling as part of a sales enablement plan will mean using
rich data to guide not only who to engage, but how to engage, with what
content, what topics and with detailed conversation starters.
Social Selling Trends: Quality over Quantity Interactions.
The next on our list of social selling trends is less importance
accredited to the number of followers or connections a salesperson has.
Social selling will be measured on the quality of the social network as
building a relevant and engaged network that leads somewhere, will be
much more valuable than having a large network of loose relevancy. This
trend will rely more and more on data for social sellers to connect with
prospects and customers. This data will enable quality online
interactions with AI on personal messages, social conversation topics,
nurturing plans and social point points to maximize connection requests
and eventually sales meetings. As per Dunbar’s number, salespeople will
focus on smaller networks to ensure better results out of their social
selling activities.
These quality interaction, will over time lead to a data loop so a
business can understand, who read, engaged, shared etc., something a
sales person did on their social selling activity. This will allow sales
management to understand how much of an impact those actions have on
the entire sales efforts.
Everybody will be Social Selling.
Business leaders will slowly realize the social reach of their combined
workforce. These social selling trends show that social selling will no
longer be just an activity for salespeople, but for everyone in the
company who touches a customer or has a social media account. The phrase
here to remember is a “Social Business” and we believe this trend will
grow. Every employee will be given social selling training
to be a social seller as part of a transformation towards a social
business where social reach and social influence will be a barometer of a
company’s success.
Final Words on Social Selling Trends.
Client feedback and our own research into social selling trends tells
us that some of the items we have shared in this article are already
well on their way to becoming a reality.
Social selling is not being driven by sales organizations, it is
being driven by the new breed of buyers who use social media to stay
informed and find solutions. Smart sales organizations are responding to
this trend as they realize the buyer-supplier relationship has changed.
Plus social selling is bringing far greater scalability, efficiency and
personalization in the sales process.
To wrap up, social selling
trends will continue to evolve, maybe to the point that all sales in
the future will be social. But maybe they always were, and now we are
returning to a buying and selling environment that we all can embrace.
Social Selling Trends
However, the pace of innovation and disruption in the sales process is
accelerating. As social media and the impact of digital channels become
prevalent on how business to business buyers buy (yes, getting closer to
consumer behavior all the time), it means companies and sales
management have realized the importance of social selling in the sales
process.
Increasingly, every prospect or customer a business wants to engage
is online and research shows this is also their preferred method of
engagement.
Social Selling Trends
social selling programs to reach prospects, influence buyers, build
credibility, generate leads, increase sales pipeline and retain
customers. If you follow sales trends, article after article on buyer
behavior is saying that the prospect is more than halfway through their
buying process before then engage with a vendor. Buyers are using search
engines, whitepapers, blog posts, news articles websites and other
digital tools to help them self-educate before they consider a shortlist
of possible solution providers. When you think about it, our own
behavior as buyers has become heavily influenced by what we read online.
So, if the evidence for social selling is so clear, why is it taking so
long for many companies to embrace it?
Here at The Digital Sales Institute,
we work with many organizations implementing social selling training,
so we want to offer up some social selling trends. In a broader sales
strategy sense, this is what’s coming down the line and how it will
affect how your business interacts with customers.
Enabling the Sales Person.
To be truly successful with social selling, the mindset as to the
meaning of selling needs to change. The reality is that no one can just
take what they did in the traditional sales process for the past how
many years and apply it online. If sales leadership still believes that
the only role for salespeople is to “sell something”, then they will
struggle in the era of social selling and content marketing.
So social selling trends prioritizes the role of salespeople to one
that creates credibility and trust: During their buying journey, modern
buyers want to believe that someone really cares and understands their
problems. They seek out people who spends time informing, explaining and
educating, without the sales pitch. So maybe the sales process needs to
evolve to a point where salespeople are not just rewarded for the deals
they close, but also for the people they engage and their potential to
be a recurring customer. In social selling trends, the depth and
strength of the work a salesperson does to build trusted relationships
online should be just as important as the deals they close. What we are
saying is that social selling starts and ends by enabling the individual
salesperson.
And as part of a wider sales strategy it will make them more
effective sellers by the business providing them with the tools and
tactics to better connect and engage with prospective buyers.
Social Selling will be Data Driven.
So, we know that social selling revolves around using the social
networks to find and engage customers. Makes sense as that’s where the
buyers are, and so as salespeople, that’s where they need to connect and
engage with them. However, our social selling trends points to data and
not profiles will be the driver for whom to engage online.
As companies gather and enrich their data on people (prospects,
influencers, partners, etc.), they will be able to merge this will
freely available social data to create detailed predictive data on
anyone they want to connect via the social networks.
Social selling as part of a sales enablement plan will mean using
rich data to guide not only who to engage, but how to engage, with what
content, what topics and with detailed conversation starters.
Social Selling Future
The next on our list of social selling trends is less importance
accredited to the number of followers or connections a salesperson has.
Social selling will be measured on the quality of the social network as
building a relevant and engaged network that leads somewhere, will be
much more valuable than having a large network of loose relevancy. This
trend will rely more and more on data for social sellers to connect with
prospects and customers. This data will enable quality online
interactions with AI on personal messages, social conversation topics,
nurturing plans and social point points to maximize connection requests
and eventually sales meetings. As per Dunbar’s number, salespeople will
focus on smaller networks to ensure better results out of their social
selling activities.
These quality interaction, will over time lead to a data loop so a
business can understand, who read, engaged, shared etc., something a
sales person did on their social selling activity. This will allow sales
management to understand how much of an impact those actions have on
the entire sales efforts.
Everybody will be Social Selling.
Business leaders will slowly realize the social reach of their combined
workforce. These social selling trends show that social selling will no
longer be just an activity for salespeople, but for everyone in the
company who touches a customer or has a social media account. The phrase
here to remember is a “Social Business” and we believe this trend will
grow. Every employee will be given social selling training
to be a social seller as part of a transformation towards a social
business where social reach and social influence will be a barometer of a
company’s success.
Final Words on Social Selling Trends.
Client feedback and our own research into social selling trends tells
us that some of the items we have shared in this article are already
well on their way to becoming a reality.
Social selling is not being driven by sales organizations, it is
being driven by the new breed of buyers who use social media to stay
informed and find solutions. Smart sales organizations are responding to
this trend as they realize the buyer-supplier relationship has changed.
Plus social selling is bringing far greater scalability, efficiency and
personalization in the sales process.
To wrap up, social selling
trends will continue to evolve, maybe to the point that all sales in
the future will be social. But maybe they always were, and now we are
returning to a buying and selling environment that we all can embrace.
Social Selling Trends
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