HubSpot’s Inbound 2015 Conference: Social Selling
Social Selling with Inbound marketing was a hot topic at Inbound 15, and one of the more talked about concepts trending on social media during the conference. The main takeaway that we were able to interpret was as follows: If you want your team to embrace social selling then you need to show them the benefits in very clear and precise terms. This process can make or break your team's success with social selling.
According to HubSpot (who are experts in the matter) just 25 percent of salespeople know how to use social media to sell. That's potentially a problem for your organization. If you want your business to reap the benefits of social selling, your employees need to understand why it's useful, and how to execute it effectively. Wouldn't it all be easier if you knew what to say and whom to approach in advance?
That pain point is what social selling alleviates, and in turn, allows for a greater degree of service, communications and personalization. Most businesses now consider social media to be a tool primarily for brand awareness. This thinking is does not fully recognize the real power of social media as a driver of leads and revenue.
Businesses today need a strategy for social selling if they want to build lasting relationships with buyers online. Here's how to get started: (marketingprofs.com)
- Make an effort to listen twice as much as you speak
It should go without saying that buyers don't much care for brands or salespeople that speak over them. With this in mind, try as much as possible to reach out to customers personally if they ask questions, make complaints, or raise issues. In addition, tag them in your posts, keep an eye out for the hashtags they use, and be vigilant about the topics and solutions that trend.
- Make personas a priority
As a general rule, it's well worth your time to tailor your communications to buyers to ensure the right pieces of content make it to the right people. It's important, then, that you study up your followers. Look up individual users who reach out to your company or put your competitors on blast, and come to them armed with information about their companies, pain points, and their buyer journey.
- Put relationships before product
When contributing to your brand's presence on social media, you're equal parts educator and brand ambassador. . Be smart about whom you follow and whom you reach on social media. Follow key influencers, place them on lists you keep, share and favorite their content, and be willing to pass along pieces of third-party content you believe they'd find valuable.
- Harness your own social network for your buyers' benefit
Finally, it's imperative that you not discount your own connections on social too soon. Try to put a program in place for warm referrals, to encourage one-to-one connections among past, present, and future customers. Also, make an effort to call on customers to resolve potential support issues.