Social Selling: Everything You Need to Know

What is social selling?

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You’ve probably heard of social selling, but you’re not sure what it entails. Consider it akin to social media marketing. Or perhaps you believe it’s all about social media marketing? In a nutshell, social selling allows your company to target business prospects on social media and establish connections with a pool of potential leads. When done correctly, social selling can take the place of the dreaded cold call.

If you haven’t integrated social selling into your funnel yet, you’re likely losing revenue to competitors who are more social media aware. However, once you’ve finished reading this article, you’ll have all the information you need to make the necessary changes.

What social selling is not?

It’s not about sending unsolicited Tweets and DMs to strangers when it comes to social selling.  This is spam. Do not attempt it.

It’s not just about adding new contacts to your database when it comes to social selling. It’s all about making those encounters relevant and positioning your company as a problem-solver. You’ll be more likely to gain trust and loyalty if you do so.

In this Facebook post, for example, natural skin-care business So Kind employs basic social marketing techniques. They explain how their product helps moms solve an issue. The brand can automatically attract the proper target audience and drive sales by emphasizing the products’ value.

What is the Social Selling index?

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The social selling index (SSI) is a metric for determining the effectiveness of a company’s social selling operations.

LinkedIn was the first to propose the SSI concept in 2014. The LinkedIn SSI uses four elements while calculating a score. It establishes whether or not you are:

• Using a well-managed LinkedIn profile to establish a professional brand.
• On the platform, finding the proper folks.
• Sharing conversation-starting, relevant stuff.
• Relationships are being built and strengthened.

Best practices for social selling

Make sure you’re following social selling best practices no matter which platform you choose to reach your target audience. Here are four things to remember.

Provide value to establish your brand

• It’s crucial not to be overly sales while communicating with prospects and consumers on social media.
• If your company is new to a social media platform, don’t jump right into social selling.
• Establish your status as an industry authority before jumping into sales presentations.
• It could also mean creating and distributing helpful information for others to develop your business (or personal brand) as an industry thought leader.

Build strategic relationships with the appropriate people by listening strategically

• Paying attention is essential for effective social marketing. To put it another way, make sure you’re socially aware.
• Monitor what others are saying about you, your company, your industry, and your competitors using social lists and Hootsuite streams. Keep an eye out for requests and pain points, since both give natural opportunity for you to provide solutions.
• When possible, you should also use your existing network. Check their following and follower lists before reaching out to any of the prospects you’ve identified to see if you have any mutual connections. If you do, request an introduction from your mutual acquaintance.

Consistency is key

• Finally, don’t expect results right away. Don’t give up if your relationship-building efforts don’t deliver quick benefits.
• Keep in touch with any contacts who aren’t ready to buy what you’re selling just yet.

Keep it genuine

Take the effort to personalize your social selling messages rather than sending out a generic message to a large number of potential buyers. As a result, you could:

• Recognize your shared professional contacts.
• Refer to something you both shared and reacted to.
• Bring up a shared interest or another item you have in common.
  To put it another way, be yourself. Start a real, honest discussion to establish a connection!

You could utilize automated like and commenting technologies, but they won’t help you create relationships. They can actually harm your personal and professional reputation. Nothing beats dealing with a real person when it comes to selling.

Quick Guide to Social Selling on LinkedIn Increase your credibility

 Ask your connections for endorsements or recommendations if you have a solid relationship with them. These are displayed on your profile and can assist establish your reputation with new connections right away.

As a brand, make sure your profile emphasizes knowledge relevant to a potential customer or client by demonstrating how you’ve assisted past customers in achieving their objectives.

You should also only share information and content from reputable sources, and keep your tone professional throughout your LinkedIn activities.

Expand your LinkedIn connections

Make use of LinkedIn’s search feature to expand your network by looking for mutual connections with people you already know.

You may also network with peers and prospects by joining LinkedIn Groups relevant to your industry.

Make use of the LinkedIn Sales Navigator

With targeted messages and in-depth statistics, Sales Navigator, LinkedIn’s professional social selling tool, can help you target the ideal prospects and better analyze your success.

Building relationships, creating credibility, and giving the right answers to the right prospects at the right time have always been central to sales. Social selling is the same way. Simply said, it uses social media to help you establish relationships, increase your network, expedite lead production, and achieve your sales objectives!