What is Social Selling:

What is social selling and what part does it play in the social media influenced sales
process are fundamental questions now being asked by sales leaders
across the globe. They want to know if social selling can help to build
relationships, extend a business’s social reach and connect to a network
of contacts, influencers and customers.

What is social selling

Engagement has never mattered more to B2B buyers, but the old sales models to engage
buyers is becoming obsolete. A hard pill to swallow by many in sales
management is that today’s informed and connected buyer is usually in
control. When we talk about “buyer engagement,” using social media and
social selling it can be hard to nail down. Research shows that buyers do
want to interact with us in new ways, but on their own terms. This
means that when engaging buyers, we need to be credible, be useful, be
valuable and be relevant to get their attention in a content fuelled
sales world.

In the traditional sales and marketing model it ran along the lines of building awareness,
driving interest, try to create some desire which eventually leads to
action. This has been the traditional approach to buyer engagement
(marketing, cold calling, events, prospecting etc) for a long, long
time, since the 1920’s to be precise.

The wakeup call and the reality that we have to acknowledge is that’s not
what is going on over at the buyer’s journey. How could it be? Look at
our own buyer’s journey and how the availability of information via
social media, the web and online has changed our own purchasing
decisions. What we see today is a buying and decision-making process
that has become much more fluid plus there is a degree of complexity in
the buying journey. Modern B2B buyers don’t compartmentalize nearly as
much as their predecessors. While they are becoming aware or exploring,
they could also be evaluating and considering options. They are looking
for help, insights and support way earlier in the buying process without
the sales pitch. They will engage with influencers, peer groups and
vendors with the primary objective of learning new ways to do things
without entering a formal sales process. They see this engagement as
streams that ebb and flow throughout their buyer’s journey.

The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.”

–Socrates

What is social selling

 

Social selling revolves around three simple words: transformation, acceleration and collaboration.

It works on the
premise that a whole new generation of B2B buyers will purchase
software, technology, products and solutions in pretty much the same way
as they purchase music, clothes and gadgets.

So, social selling
is the sum of connected actions (content, information, news, articles,
research, insights) shared online (think social reach/social business).
When these connected actions are experienced by customers/potential
customers, they will influence the awareness and consideration of your
business. Social selling is also about building a bridge between social
media marketing activity, buyer connectivity and sales outreach to
maximize buyer engagement and minimize wasted resources.

Social Selling Ideas

Why Social Selling is Important in Sales 3.0

So, let’s start
with some background information on Sales 3.0 and the buyers journey.
Around 67% of the B2B buyers journey is now digitally influenced. They
read at a minimum of 5 pieces of content regarding solutions available.
Today’s buyers are self-educating, informed and hyper-connected. Social
selling unlocks the opportunity for a business or salesperson to get
involved in the purchasing journey by being useful and valuable to a
buyer as they ebb and flow throughout their buyer’s journey.

Buyers aren’t always in the market, but they are always in the market to learn.
At any time, only 5-10% of your target market is actively looking to
buy and another 20-30% open to considering a change. This means a
business must constantly work to build credibility and trust with the
potential 90% of buyers in the consideration/status quo cycle.

However, buyers
are always learning throughout these cycles, continuously
self-educating, making connections with peers and influencers, and
consuming relevant content. This has two implications for the sales
organization:

When buyers are ready to leave the status quo, the 1^st vendors they turn to are the ones who have built trust. They
can even collaborate with a trusted adviser (salesperson) on solution
prior to conducting their own research. Leaving it to inbound marketing
or a Google search is not enough anyone. Businesses need to use
connected actions and social reach to influence buyers so they can get
on their short list of potential suppliers. A buyer may ask an
influencer or thought leader to suggest a short list to them. Social
selling works to bridge these connections so they have come to
understand, trust and have a positive impression of your business
capabilities.  The use of planned “connected actions” on the social
networks and constantly reviewed social reach can positively impact the
ability to gather more interest, from more buyers, more often.

It means all salespeople (and maybe your entire organization) needs to become proficient in a different sales skill.  As part of sales transformation and to accelerate buyer        engagement on the social networks, social selling training will
be required to allow the sales team to be able to share content, to
connect, to engage and to nurture relationships. It also places an onus
on sales management to ensure they have time to do the activity and help
them become “thought leaders” who can communicate value without the
sales pitch.

What is social selling in relation to Customer Acquisition

If you acknowledge
that buyers not just use but are heavily influenced by social media on
their purchasing decisions, then you should be thinking more about how
can the sales organization engage your “buyer’s community” or “buyer’s
network” using social selling.

• How do you engage and reach buyers online? (It can’t be limited to just inbound marketing or your web site)
• How does your
  business (social reach) become part of these networks or communities,
  where your connection actions will be judged by the relevancy of what is
  shared, your insights, your ideas and your expertize and not your
  branded sales pitches?
• How will your
  business create content for your social sellers to share that is highly
  relevant to these networks, knowing that branded sales orientated
  content is ignored?
• How will you set
  goals that track buyer engagement, not just to help determine the right
  ways to reach out and connect, but also to measure leads and revenue
  from your social selling strategy.

The Value of Social Selling to your Business

To answer what is social selling, you must remember that without a clear social selling strategy
is just random acts of social marketing. To deliver results it must be
comprised of many different social activities that work in unison to
extend social reach and engage more buyers.

What is social
selling going to mean in your business?, it should focus on crossing the
chasm between the use of old sales techniques to social tactics that
implies competitive advantage for your business. In the digital era,the
shift in value has moved from the product or service you’re selling to
the value YOU provide to buyers.

Sales Transformation. Leading companies use social selling as a different way to link customers, content, conversations, products, and solutions.

Sales Acceleration.
How faster growing companies do a better job of differentiating,
showing return, and handling the customer’s perceived risks to change
using the Social Channels.

Customer collaboration.
Forward thinking companies educate buyers via Social Networks, sharing
ideas and perspectives, investing in customer success, and create a
customer perception of working as partners.

We hope this article has gone some way to answering, what is social selling and what it means for your business.