This post was co-authored by Senior Enablement Manager Laken Lenox and Enablement Associate Melanie Ministerio.
In today’s ever-evolving and challenging sales landscape, sellers know that being a trusted advisor is key to closing deals faster and creating more opportunities for upselling. But that’s not enough anymore. As the buyer experience is constantly changing, selling requires more than personalized interactions and being a trusted advisor. It’s also about meeting buyers where they are.
Let’s talk about social channels. These channels are no longer just a place to share memes or photos but can be leveraged for business as well. In fact, an IDC report found that 75% of B2B buyers are influenced by social media during the buyer’s journey.
In this post, we’ll share best practices on how you can build a social selling strategy and level up your LinkedIn profile.
What is social selling?
Social selling is the purposeful practice of leveraging social media activity and engagement as a central part of the sales process. Instead of focusing on business transactions, social selling embraces two-way communication to build and nurture relationships that may eventually turn into business opportunities. It’s also important to note that to be successful, sellers should always start by setting the right expectations during interactions.
So what does success look like for social selling? It’s about building authentic relationships and enabling trust at scale, and less about selling. Social media gives sellers a platform to enhance existing relationships and authentically build new ones When this is done correctly, it can result in sales.
How to get started building a social selling program
If you’re wondering how you can kick off your own social selling program at your company, here’s a roadmap to help you get started:
- First, identify the roles you’ll support and assess how they use social media today. We recommend starting with business development teams as they stand to benefit most from a strong presence on social media.
- Determine how you will facilitate and enable sellers on your social selling program. The scalability of the program, while adapting to the needs of a role, is critical to long-term success.
- Identify success factors, and decide what success looks like for your organization. Then, communicate this clearly to your leadership and teams.
- Assess the current state of your program. For example, what content exists versus what needs to be built? Do you have a platform? What’s the adoption? Assessing the current state will allow you to have a more holistic view of what it will take to get your program off the ground.
Never stop growing.
How Seismic Can Help
We’ve made it easy! If you’re ready to get started, we’ve provided an objections checklist to help as you begin your social selling program. This checklist identifies the roles you’re supporting, uncovers the most common objections from those roles, and offers counterpoints to their concerns.
Additionally, here’s a handout to create your own personal brand and start social selling. This handout provides guidance on how you can get started on updating your LinkedIn profile. This guide is meant to serve as a reference for how you can customize and make it stand out.
If you’d like to learn more, watch the recording of our webinar: The Power of Social Selling: Enable go-to-market teams to increase their social media influence as experts in their field. We look forward to seeing you there!
