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Are you looking to expand your customer base and generate more sales? If so, consider incorporating social media into your sales strategy. Social selling is a powerful tool that allows you to leverage the power of social media to connect with potential customers, build relationships, and ultimately close more deals. Using social media platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook, you can reach a wider audience and engage with them more personally.
Social selling uses social media platforms to connect, engage, and build relationships with potential customers or clients to generate sales. It involves considering the social media environment and starting conversations in a non-sales way, introducing your product or service when appropriate, offering valuable information and resources, and gradually moving towards setting up a meeting or call. Social selling is a long-term process that prioritizes building relationships and establishing trust with potential customers or clients.
Social selling can be approached in two ways - outbound and inbound. Outbound social selling involves actively reaching out to potential customers or clients through messages on the social media platform.
In contrast, inbound social selling involves creating engaging and interesting content that attracts potential customers or clients to you.
Think about it this way: In the past, sales reps would have to rely on cold calls and other traditional outreach methods to find leads. With social selling, there's no need for that anymore. Thanks to social media platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook, sales reps can easily connect with prospects without even picking up the phone.
Moreover, social selling doesn't just make it easier to find leads; it also makes it easier to build relationships with those leads.
By engaging with prospects on social media, sales reps can develop a rapport and establish trust—two essential ingredients for closing a deal.
The inbound way is all about attracting strangers and turning them into leads, customers, and promoters of your business. It's a holistic approach that focuses on the entire customer journey, from awareness all the way through to conversion and beyond.
How do we leverage social selling to create more inbound? We share content that matters to our customers and attracts new leads by having them fill in a form. The better the content you share and the shorter you make the intake form (best only to ask for email), the more leads you will receive. You're not obligated to add a contact form; you might want to attract reactions, comments, and likes as a first step into social selling.
Sales reps can easily start sharing marketing content on their LinkedIn and other social media pages to start working on inbound leads today.
To practice inbound social selling, you must create intriguing, interesting, and interactive content. This can include anything from blog posts, videos, or social media updates. The goal is to create content people want to react to, comment on, share, and like. Doing so will increase your reach and visibility on social media, which can lead to more engagement and potential sales opportunities.
Once people start interacting with your content, engaging with them and continuing the conversation is essential. Responding to comments or messages can help build a relationship with your audience and establish trust. As you continue interacting with them, you can move the conversation to a private setting, such as direct messages or email.
Eventually, if there is a mutual interest, you can get them on a call to further discuss your product or service. The key to inbound social selling is building relationships and providing value to your potential customers or clients. Doing so will create a loyal following and generate more sales opportunities in the long run.
Sales reps should start using social selling techniques for many reasons. For one thing, social selling can help you close deals faster. Studies have shown that sales reps who use social media can close deals an average of two weeks faster than those who don't.
Not only that, but social selling can also help you close bigger deals. In fact, one study found that sales reps who use social media generate an average of 45% larger pipeline deals than those who don't.
The most significant benefit of social selling is that it levels the playing field between big and small businesses. Thanks to social media, even the smallest start-ups can reach a global audience with just a few clicks of a button. So if you're looking for a way to give your business a competitive edge, look no further than social selling.
Now that we've covered what inbound selling is and why you should be doing it, let's look at how you can get started. Here are three tips for selling inbound:
1. Be Where Your Prospects Are
You need to be where they spend their time online to reach your target market. That means having a strong presence on the social media platforms they use most often. If you're unsure where to start, try conducting market research to find out which platforms your target market uses most frequently. Then, create accounts on those platforms and start engaging with your audience.
2. Provide Value
When trying to sell someone something, providing value upfront is important. That means giving them helpful information to solve or answer their problem. If you can do that, they'll be much more likely to trust you and do business with you down the road. The positive side of being on a social media platform is that you can share posts like reviews, partnerships, and other 3d party information supporting your business.
3. Build Relationships
The best way to close more deals is by building strong relationships with your prospects. Start talking to people who interact, and get to know them as people, not just as potential customers. Find out their interests, pain points, and what they want in a product or service. Then, provide them with helpful information and resources to help them solve their problems. If you can build trust and establish yourself as a valuable resource, you'll be well on your way to closing more deals.
Outbound social selling is the practice of proactively reaching out to potential customers or clients through social media channels to start a conversation, build a relationship, and ultimately generate sales. This approach involves actively seeking out potential customers and engaging with them directly.
Outbound social selling involves direct messaging through social media platforms. It requires a well-planned strategy and a targeted approach to reach the right audience with the right message.
Unlike inbound social selling, which focuses on attracting potential customers to you through engaging content and building relationships organically, outbound social selling requires a more proactive approach. It involves identifying potential customers, researching their needs and pain points, and crafting a personalized message to capture their attention and interest.
Social selling uses social media platforms to connect and engage with potential customers or clients to build relationships and generate sales. To start a social selling conversation, it's important to consider the environment you are in.
On social media platforms such as LinkedIn or TikTok, people are often there to socialize and entertain themselves rather than to engage in serious conversations. Therefore, start with a comment or question that is engaging, interesting, and not too sales-y. This could be related to a recent post or shared update, such as "I saw you posted about X. What an interesting viewpoint. I'd love to hear more about your thoughts on that topic."
If you disagree with a certain topic or opinion, it's okay to respectfully express your opposing view, but be careful not to be confrontational or aggressive. Remember, the goal is to start a conversation and build a relationship, not to win an argument.
Once you have established a conversation, you can casually introduce yourself and your product or service, such as "By the way, my name is ___, and I work for ___. We specialize in ___, and I thought it might interest you."
If the person shows interest in your product or service, you can offer to send over some valuable information or resources, such as an ebook or a case study. This can establish your credibility and expertise in the industry and show that you are genuinely interested in helping them solve their problem or meet their needs.
Finally, if the person seems receptive and engaged after this initial stage, you can set up a first meeting or call to discuss further. However, it's important to remember that social selling is a long-term process, and building a relationship takes time, so don't rush the process or come across as too pushy.
Engage with prospects on social media; sales reps can develop a rapport and establish trust—two essential ingredients for closing a deal. Additionally, studies have shown that sales reps who use social media can close deals an average of two weeks faster than those who don't. So if you're looking for a way to give your business a competitive edge in the marketplace, consider implementing a social selling strategy today.
In conclusion, inbound and outbound social selling can be approached in two ways. Inbound social selling involves creating engaging and interesting content that attracts potential customers or clients to you. This approach prioritizes building relationships and establishing trust with your audience by providing valuable content and engaging with them through comments and messages. Over time, this can lead to more sales opportunities and loyal customers.
