Social Selling : A sales strategy on social networks

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Deploying a Social Selling program within your company means enabling your sales force to detect new opportunities through social networks. Find out more about Social Selling and its best practices.

What is Social Selling?

Social Selling is a practice that consists of using social networks as part of a commercial approach (i.e. contacting, promoting and engaging) and that tends to replace so-called traditional sales techniques, whose effectiveness has only deteriorated in recent years to the point of appearing obsolete.

Indeed, the so-called “cold call” sales techniques (phone calls based on directories) are no longer capable of bringing results worthy of the efforts made: according to Iko-system, it takes about 8.4 calls to reach a prospect, 22 calls for a qualified exchange and 90% of decision-makers never reply to an e-mail or a call from a stranger.

As cold calling does not create a relationship between the salesperson and the prospect, it was therefore necessary to make sales techniques evolve with the times so as not to end up with an entire market in obsolescence.

What exactly does social selling consist of?

Social Selling is in a way the BtoB equivalent of what marketers do for consumers on social networks: it involves creating links with Internet users likely to be interested in your products or services by posting interesting and useful content in order to be in the mind of the prospect when he needs you.

75% of B2B buyers are influenced by social networks.
Accenture’s State of Public Procurement Study

It is not enough to say “I want to do social selling” to implement best practices. It is imperative to train your sales teams, reallocate your company’s resources towards a policy of regular and quality content creation and then optimise your social channels to get the most out of them.

And the investment will pay off! Indeed, according to Forbes, connected salespeople perform more than 20% better than their unconnected colleagues.

💡 The quality of your content is key! Without quality content, your audience will notice and you will lose credibility, even in the long run.

Statistically, what does it look like?

Today, according to a Forrester study, 70% to 80% of the buying process in B2B is done independently, even before contacting a salesperson.

75% cheaper than the average cost of customer acquisition through social selling.
70% of salespeople use social selling tools to generate leads (source CSO Insights).
78% of salespeople on networks make more sales than those who do not use networks (source LinkedIn).
84% of B2B CEOs use social networks in their purchasing decisions (source B2B marketers).
78% of companies using these tools outperform their competitors (Forbes).

5 Steps for a successful Social Selling strategy

Convinced of the importance of a Social Selling strategy in your company? Here are the steps to follow to become a real Social Selling pro!

1. Enhance your profile

This personal branding approach is essential for you to be recognised as an expert in your field and to be seen as a valuable contact when your clients and prospects are looking for expertise in your field.

Among LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and other social networks, choose the social network(s) where your target audience is to develop your strategy.

As LinkedIn is the most promising social network, here are some examples to help you work on your profile so that you stand out from the crowd and are easily found by your prospects:

A portrait photo (for a more professional look).
A title that highlights your expertise.
A short and attractive summary of your skills and business expertise with relevant keywords.
Content and links related to your field (infographics, blog articles, videos, carousel, …).

2. Express yourself

One of the core elements of social selling is sharing accurate information that can place you as an expert in your field and connect with your targets.

55% of B2B buyers say they have been influenced by content read on social networks.

A few tips to keep in mind when setting up your strategy:

Give priority to quality over quantity.
Do not use too much commercial language.
Share your corporate content but also relay content from other pages and/or people.
Comment and like the publications of your contacts or prospects.
Share content in groups and not just on your personal account.

3. Identify your standard prospects

Social networks offer the possibility of easily identifying new prospects via a search by profile, company or area of interest.

Thus, nothing could be easier than using Linkedin or Viadeo to identify the IT Director of a large company or the HR manager of an SME. Similarly, Twitter makes it possible to identify profiles relatively precisely by using hashtags. For example, by searching for “#CM”, you can identify the Community Managers of many companies!

4. Request a connection

Once you have identified interesting profiles, you can follow them directly and request contact (Linkedin, Viadeo, Facebook, etc.) or simply “follow” your prospect on Twitter or Instagram. However, you will have to wait for them to accept or follow you before you can start a conversation.

5. Start a conversation

For a relevant connection, don’t talk about yourself, talk about your contact. Leaving a comment or retweeting a publication is an important first step before getting to the heart of the matter!

Make social networks the real allies of your business strategy!

With Sellsy we have created a white paper dedicated to Social Selling to gain new customers, retain them and make your presence on social networks profitable.
👉 Download it for free right here: Social Selling white paper.