How Top-Performing Salespeople Leverage Social Selling
Let’s face it, how we sell today differs from how we sold even five years ago.
Salespeople are finding it harder and harder to engage with decision-makers.
Why?
What are some reasons, and what can sales and marketing people do about it?
Five years ago, we saw 2-5 decision-makers involved in a buying decision.
Today, when we conduct voice of customer research, we find as many as 6-10+ people involved in the buying decision.
Decision makers are busy.
Most teams have been run very lean since the pandemic, with fewer people being asked to do more.
We also see the impact of technology.
Companies once could make a high net income serving customers in their region of the country.
However, the IoT has changed the game.
When you might have had 2-3 local competitors in your region, today, you are competing with thousands just two clicks away.
Finally, a big reason salespeople are having a more challenging time connecting with decision makers is what I refer to as …
Salespeople Behaving Badly.
Just over 50% of salespeople have never received sales skills training. They have the product, applications, and company systems training, but they lack sales skills like having conversations that lead to revenue.
Salespeople who have never been trained in sales skills call decision-makers and give them a terrible experience.
Florida State did a study with buyers, and they asked buyers in a 60-minute meeting with a salesperson how many minutes were valuable to them.
Are you ready for it? They said 6!
Only 6 minutes.
A new study relaced last month shared that 33% of buyers chose not to engage with a salesperson.
How do we market and sell in this new digital world?
That’s what this post is about.
Social media marketing is one of the most effective ways to grow your business. If you are a new business and haven’t been utilizing social media, you may not know how to navigate this sometimes complicated road.
The good news is that your social media marketing will be on autopilot once you get the hang of it. Here are some things you need to remember to ensure that your social media marketing is effective.
Reduce Your Sales Pitch
Since your ultimate goal is you are trying to sell more, you should not sell on social media. It may seem strange not to include a sales pitch in every post. However, selling every time is the last thing you should do. You need to make sure that you balance your content.
Your content should educate, entertain, and sell to your audience. Make sure you do more educating and entertaining than selling.
This is the best way to ensure that your content is well-balanced. When you give people a lot of free valuable information, they are more likely to purchase from you when it is time to sell them something.
People are on social media because they want to connect with their friends and family and be relaxed. Bear this in mind when you try to sell.
Focus on Brand Awareness
Another thing you should focus on is brand awareness. People must get to recognize your brand through frequent postings.
They will also share your most popular posts with your friends and family, which will help increase your brand awareness. Make sure that you brand your content on social media with your logo and website URL so that when your posts are shared, people can go to your website if they want to find out more about your products and services.
You can run ads to sell your products on social media, but you can also run ads solely for brand awareness. While you may not make a sale immediately from brand awareness campaigns, when you run these ads, you are putting your business in front of a receptive audience interested in what you provide.
In the future, if they ever need a service, your business may be the first one that pops into their head.
Choose Platforms Wisely
When it comes to social media, your business must be everywhere. However, with this being said, you need to ensure that the people you want to buy your products and services are on these platforms.
When you’re a new business or even a more seasoned business just getting into social media, you will need to look at what your competitors are doing.
Chances are if your competitors are active on social media, they already know what it takes to drive engagement. Look at their platforms and the type of posts they use to generate interest.
You can incorporate this into your style in a unique way that matches your brand.
Be Consistent
What’s Omnichannel marketing, and what do you need to know?
Omnichannel marketing is about having your message in many places, both inbound and outbound.
The key to Omnichannel marketing success is that each message says the same and feels the same to the decision maker.
One thing that you must do on social media is to be consistent. Even if you only post once a week, you must ensure you get it done. Although, if you want to grow faster, it is always best to post more often, especially when dealing with a platform such as Instagram.
Your posts on Instagram do not last as long as they would on platforms such as Pinterest or YouTube. You always need to keep your content fresh to satisfy your fans.
Remember that short-form video content is viral right now. Instagram promotes reels more than any other post type, so if you want to grow your social media following, it is always best to consistently do reels on Instagram.
When I post a short video on LinkedIn, for example, I receive 5-10 times the views, comments, likes, and shares of an article. YouTube now has shorts, and Pinterest has idea pins. This means you can make one short-form video and cross-promote it on all these platforms.
Conquer Social Selling
Over 70% of the top-performing salespeople leverage social selling in their sales process.
Conquering social selling is a must if you want to be of the top-performing salespeople today. You need to engage with your audience as most of them will be on social media.
Try several things on social media to see which strategy works for you. Once you find a strategy that works, the best thing you can do is rinse and repeat. This will give you the most success.
If you sell B2B products, you will find Linkedin a great way to identify and connect with new prospects.
We developed some short training and coaching courses to help salespeople adapt and sell in a digital world.
To be one of the top producing salespeople on your team, you will need to develop your skills in social selling.
If your team needs help adapting to the digital world, give us a call.
