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What are some things that salespeople can do to leverage social media and change the way they sell?
Asked at:
Above the Funnel: Making the Connection between Social Sales & Marketing and Measurable ROI
Social selling technologies and methodologies allow sales reps to:
· Monitor what is being said about and by the customer
· Analyze the relevant conversations
· Automatically associate the findings with existing customer records
Give some real world examples of how these social media insights have been used to guide customer engagements and how it has fundamentally changed the sales process.
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5 Answers
The most important aspect of leveraging social media for sales is listening. There are a large number of conversations in every industry being held online and sales people need to be aware of them. This will do two very important things.
1. Make them better sales people by understanding the market better
2. Give them an opportunity to engage with prospects and thought leaders.
Sales people need to start becoming active in sites like Focus.com and LinkedIn. Start discussions with people in your industry, answer questions that add value to their requests. Leveraging social media as a sales person is measurable with the right tools and you can rack ROI from engagements on social networks.
Koka's absolutely right with his response. As as sales people, we've always known we have to hang out where our customers hang out. Unfortunately, that's not the golf course or the local bar. It's on social media. Any sales person that's not hanging out in social media is missing a key opportunity to engage their customer.
It starts with listening, then grows to engaging, discussing, provoking.
There's a good book on the subject called "eselling" by Sean McPheat. This is full of practical ideas and the reasons behind them. I recommend it.
Social Media gives clever salespeople massive opportunities. They can build themselves into thought leaders, build trust and demonstrate their relevance and competence. They can build powerful online relationships which make a sale inevitable.
They can also qualify prospects, see what they are thinking can be achieved and who else they are considering with just a few choice questions.
But it requires two changes of mindset.
1: Purchases don't start with a sales visit any more.
Buyers research online, check out solutions and vendors with peers on social networks and only invite you in if you have already built a rapport online. So your sales process has to be built around building online relationships, not about getting appointments.
2: Marketing is a help, not a hindrance.
You can't do all of this on your own. You need some help from someone who can write better than you. Who has time to sit there working on a computer. And you need some systems which track what you're doing, who's looking for what and which threads, comments etc. are worth picking up on.
If you have an old fashioned marketing department which thinks in terms of campaigns, forget them - go and find yourself a freelance social networking consultant and content marketing person. But if they're switched on - if they understand klout scores, Google alerts etc., then use them. But make sure that when they are putting out that blog, that it has your byline.
If you want a role model, look at IBM's "Listening for Leads".
Social media should be used to generate leads and help with customer retention through better customer relations. There is no reason why social media can't do both for your company as long as there is constant engagement with your target market.The more you put into social media, the more you get out. If your hopes for social media are high well then the time spent on social media should be a lot. Many companies now look to have professionals in this area employed into their company to deal with this area or outsource it to a company like ours. Check out this webinar and whitepaper which will help you a lot. If you have any questions feel free to ask.
http://www.siliconcloud.com/building-a-social-media-strategy/
http://www.siliconcloud.com/10-tips-on-monitoring-social-media/
http://www.siliconcloud.com/contact/
Other than social media as listed above in some great answers, it would depend on what you're selling. If it's B2B, you need ot be on LinkedIn and promoting your product there by socializing with others. Once you create an account, people will try to link to you even though they don't know you. This is an invitation to open a dialog with them. They may not be ready for your product, but the last person to talk to them may be the one they refer when they know someone looking for your product. You have to remain very active. It may only equate to 1% of your sales, but that 1% can make a huge difference at the end of the year.
If you sell retain, advertise on Craigslist.com or amswap.com. It gets the name out there. Your name should be everywhere.
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