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What exactly does the term 'Social Selling' mean?
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Above the Funnel: Making the Connection between Social Sales & Marketing and Measurable ROI
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4 Answers
Social Selling means leveraging social networks and tools in the sales process to become more productive and efficient.
Social selling is about interacting with 1) the right people at 2)the right time with 3) the right message.
Ad 1. Right person: Social media/tools can provide sales reps with who they should contact at the prospect company, what the social profile of this person is and who in their own network or colleagues' network could help them with introductions or more background information on the person.
Ad 2. Right time: Social media can help sales in finding the right time (sales triggers) to contact a prospect. They might have found out through social media that a company opened a new office, or that there is a new CEO who might consider new services etc.
Ad 3. Right Message: Social Media and Information online can help the rep. to address the real needs of the prospect and adjusting their value proposition and message to what is relevant for the prospect based on their social profile and social story. A customized and personalized message is far more effective and knowing your customer will add value to the sales conversation.
Finally social selling needs to be integrated with other social marketing activities now that marketeers and inside sales are becoming more and more involved in the different steps of the sales funnel.
First social selling is about using social media to listen to your market - and by market I mean listening to prospective customers AND the competition so that your message stays relevant.
Second, social selling is about using the tools available (LinkedIn, as an example) to prepare for each and every prospect/customer interaction.
Last, give of yourself; share your expertise, help others. In the end every minute you invest helping others will come back to you tenfold in revenue.
I am starting to beat this dead horse a bit but will do it one more time.
Social Selling as a term really does not make sense because social doesn't sell, people do. Now, convert that to social prospecting or social networking and you have a term that connects to the realities of how people use the medium.
Great discussion! My view is that social selling is the use of social media to find new prospects and get a higher level of engagement with them and your current customers. This does not mean becoming a robot and spamming your online network with ad after ad.
Social selling is about getting actively involved in sites like Focus.com, LinkedIn, Twitter and others so that you can grow professionally, build better relationships and most of all grow your pipeline with engaged prospects that get real value from your presence online.
First it starts with listening to your industry and understanding what their pain points are, what questions they have and then adding value to their requests with information that can help them. Sometimes that means your product, sometimes that will mean that you lead them in the right direction just because you are an expert in the field.
Phones and email are not going away but social media has a definitive and measurable place in a sales environment. If you don't start engaging in social selling, your competitors will, they probably already are, and you will lose deals to more active and engaged sales people that have learned the value of leveraging social media.
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