Social Selling Blog Series- Part 2

“The reality is that sellers and buyers alike live in a rapidly developing digital age over which they have no control, and having a strategy for the digital era has become an essential part of driving sales growth. Technology is changing how customers buy and inevitably that means how we sell needs to adapt to the new business landscape.” – David Towey, Author of Principled Selling

As discussed in my Part 1 of my mini-blog series on social selling, cold calling is an outdated method for those of you hoping to successfully migrate your C leads to B leads to A leads. As such, social selling is a necessity. There are an abundance of recent studies out there that include statistics, which emphasize the importance of social selling. Some of my favorites were cited in an infographic, posted in an article by SalesForLife:

• 74% of B2B buyers conduct more than half their research before making a purchase.
• Buyers who leverage social media tend to have 84% larger budgets than buyers who do not.

These statistics are only the tip of the iceberg on the data out there- trust me. Still skeptical? Here are two more pieces of data discussed in a blog post from SocialBarrel (from another SalesForLife infographic) at the end of December in 2015.

• 63.4% of social sellers report an increase in their company’s sales revenue versus only 41.2% of non-social sellers.
• 91% of social sellers reported an expected increase of revenue over the next 12 months.

The bottom line is that social selling has become a requirement in the modern sales world and is vital in order to keep up with your competition and boost your lead generation / sales going forward.

Assuming that you are starting to buy what I am selling (get it?), the real question becomes: How do I implement an effective social selling strategy that is utilized across my entire sales team?

NewzSocial has identified these key steps to follow:

• Identifying influencers / prospects
• Fostering continuous interaction and engagement through social media
• Leveraging an effective content marketing strategy

Identifying influencers is essential because it is not enough anymore to simply promote your message. You need to ensure that your message is seen by the right people. On the marketing side, this might include industry bloggers, media personnel at events, etc. However, as a salesperson, the influencers will mainly be the people within your prospect companies who possess the power to make the important buying decisions.

Once you have identified your target influencers, the key question becomes: How do you facilitate continuous interaction and engagement with them?

Find out in Part 3 of my mini-blog series on social selling. Until next time!

Summary

Article Name

Social Selling Blog Series- Part 2

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"The reality is that sellers and buyers alike live in a rapidly developing digital age over which they have no control, and having a strategy for the digital era has become an essential part of driving sales growth. Technology is changing how customers buy and inevitably that means how we sell needs to adapt to the new business landscape." - David Towey, Author of Principled Selling

Author

Niyanth Anand

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newzsocial.com

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