Digital Selling and Sales Training Journal

Digital selling is the process of leveraging digital assets (white papers, research, articles, news, offers etc) and communicating to attract customers through digital channels to build trust and credibility. Digital selling is an Omni-channel method that may include social media as well as other digital channels such as video, email, text, online forums etc to ultimately generate leads and referrals. So, any digital communication to engage buyers is digital selling. Social selling is an essential component of digital selling and refers to when salespeople use social networks to find, engage and connect with prospects to start conversations and build relationships. Both terms include the word “selling,” but in reality, we do not sell on digital. People respond negatively to sales pitches through digital channels. Both terms refer to a process of connecting and engaging to start more sales conversations with qualified buyers.   According to an EY study, companies

Today digital sales as the main route to customer engagement is growing rapidly. Remote working, data, technology, and buyer preferences are some of the things driving this change. While digital in the sales process is exciting, it can also prove to be a hurdle in how sales leadership map out a sales growth strategy to encompass this new reality. The carrot is that digital is a game changer for sales organizations that embrace it. Research shows that organizations who champion digital channels in their sales programs are growing by a factor of 5 over their competitors and have almost a third better customer acquisition results. To win in digital sales, leadership will have to rethink the use of traditional selling channels alongside reviewing the customer experience across every touch point for the buyer and the salesperson. These digital implications are now critical in how any sales organization goes to market. Add into the mix that analytics, AI, and machine learn

How to sell in the digital era has become somewhat more complicated. So, salespeople and businesses need a different approach if they are to flourish in the new world or way of sales. Selling is all around us and buyers are being bombarded with emails, phone calls, social media messages, connection requests etc. How does a salesperson or business differentiate themselves in a noisy market? With more access to information, the B2B buying process has become longer (an average of 4 months to close a new customer) and involves more decision makers (an average of 6.8 buyers). To effectively navigate the new buyer’s journey, sellers need to leverage digital platforms to find, engage and connect with the modern buyer. Are you doomed to fail? While many companies are figuring out how to sell in the digital era, many salespeople and organizations are struggling where to go next. Outdated sales techniques, internal politics, unclear sales strategies, lack of relevant sales t

Social Selling on LinkedIn : social selling on LinkedIn has become a go to sales tactic to connect, share, influence and engage with both prospects and customers. Social selling has overtaken many of the older methods of interacting with business audiences because while they can still deliver results, activities such cold calling and unsolicited emails are not as powerful as they once were. However, as smart salespeople are learning, if you combine the more traditional methods of selling in in conjunction with social selling on LinkedIn, your success rate improves. The main activity involves the use of the LinkedIn platform as part of the B2B sales process to create awareness and influence while gradually cultivating new connections. Social selling on LinkedIn is great for building business relationships before a prospect even starts a buyer’s journey, to use content and articles to close the conversion gap and eventually move social conversations into an offline sa

Companies are developing digital selling strategies to align themselves to the rapidly changing face of “the buyers journey”. A digital selling strategy goes way beyond the use of tools or technology. The realization facing many leaders is that implementing digital selling strategies involves implementing a transformation or change management process.  This is because digital selling is really a behavioral or mindset change not just with the sales teams but across all customer touch points. The main question to be answered is how companies embed digital selling capabilities into the very DNA of the business. This question is important as B2B buyers are acting just like consumers more and more. Driving the change in the “buyers journey” is a combination of access to content and digital native comfort. These are having a transformational  effect on every aspect of the B2B sales cycle. To meet the needs this new reality, both sales and marketing must retool every aspect of their

Social Selling Meaning : If a business can outline their social selling meaning in relation to the overall sales process, they are ahead of the curve in becoming a social business. In other words, they see social selling and digital selling as an integral part of their sales strategy. Many sales leaders still struggle to put into words their social selling meaning or may just not understand the role social selling now plays in everyday sales interactions. Well, social selling is social by nature and remember that buyers are human, and humans are social by nature. All of us as consumers like to get opinions and advice from those we trust when it comes to making purchases. The same now goes for the way we buy and sell in the B2B world. The reality is that social media has given us the resources (buyer or seller) to expand out how we get opinions and advice, making us all more savvy and educated in our buying decisions. Social selling meaning Social selling meaning The first

7 Social Selling Tips : 7 social selling tips to engage the modern buyer online. Tips on how to make social selling part of your sales strategy and tactics. In this post, we want to share 7 social selling tips that can be used as part of a digital selling or social selling campaign. Used in a proper manner these 7 social selling tips can help salespeople to engage with more prospects or customers than ever before and help uncover sales opportunities better than the more traditional approaches. Today’s buyers are far more empowered with information and insights to help them assess purchasing decisions. So rather than a salesperson who just provides details they can freely access online, they look for trusted advisers who can help them achieve their goals. The days of smile and dial for a quick sale are long passed. So here is our list of our 7 Social Selling Tips. Cold pitches are not social selling. Social selling is not about employing the social channels to rep

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. Social Selling Trends 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 hal

Digital Selling or Is It Social Selling? At times, there can be confusion over the terms “Digital Selling” and “Social Selling”. The sales training and enablement industry interchange these terms without proper explanation.  Digital Selling is the act of using digital assets to engage buyers, while Social Selling is the specific act of using the social networks to engage buyers. So, what’s the difference?  Well firstly, think of all the digital assets you could use to target buyers, you have email templates, video, articles, images, infographics and online presentations. Digital Selling is the strategy of having marketing and sales work together to share and distribute these assets in a programmatic way. So Digital Selling is a big picture overview of how a business can use assets, data, sales people plus other people who touch customers to promote their brand using the digital channels. Social Selling is a tactic, an additive approach to the sales process which involves 1

To prosper in today’s digitally influenced market, social sellingtraining and the use of the social channels to sell should be part ofeveryone’s digital sales strategy. Across the entire global sales community, social selling is being blended into the sales process, tapping into the vast amount of insights that the social networks provide to both buyer and seller. Probably the first time since John H Patterson created his sales training methodology for NCR, sales people have to adjust their skill sets as the now traditional forms of selling such as cold calling have an ever-decreasing success rate. Preparing and learning the skills so that sales people can harness the power of social selling to engage buyers is now critical, not a nice to have. The buyers journey has changed along with the profile of a typical business buyer, their wants, needs, values and how they conduct business has altered completely from 10, even 5 years ago. So social selling should be a genuine communic

Sales to Social Selling Transformation Strategy for Business Leadership Course Highlights This course is for sales and marketing leadership considering how to implement a formal social selling program for their business. Focus is on strategy. Defining and making the case for social selling as a key element of your marketing and sales process. Why it can be used as a vehicle for social transformation and integration into the sales strategy. The modules cover how a successful prescriptive social selling and digital sales program would look inside your organization. To some business leaders “Social Selling” can at times seem like an overused buzzword. The proof is here that it can provide an enterprise with tremendous value but, without the right perspective, enterprises can find themselves adopting it prematurely or not sufficiently preparing themselves for the demands of a social selling program. This course helps identify your company’s readiness. What the Course Covers