A strategy widely used in digital marketing, social selling is nothing more than the use of social networks to increase interaction with customers and improve sales effectiveness.
The central idea is that you build long-lasting relationships, and selling is just a consequence.
So that you become a digital strategist and get the best benefits I've created this article, where I highlight some important tips to understand social selling and apply in your business.
Below you will find the following topics:
- Definition of social selling
- How to Social Selling
- Pay attention to the “2Cs”
- Why is social selling important?
- Understand the Benefits
- Conclusion
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1. Definition of social selling
It is a lead generation technique (contacts, prospects) where vendors interact directly with their potential customers on social media platforms.
A simple example:
Jonas works in sales for a floor company. On Facebook, he sees a woman called Fernanda is opening a bakery in her city and posted something looking for recommendations from contractors.
Jonas sees this as an opportunity to recommend some companies he has worked with and send her a message through the social network.
Fernanda gets the message and sees in Jonas' social profile that he works for a floor company. She intends to buy floors and put Jonas' company on her list.
Jonas sends a note of follow-up by whatsapp message the following week, and Fernanda arranges a visit to his showroom.
As you can see, social sales is not a quick and ready business. But social networks are the main territory to connect with new potential customers and the basis for new business relationships.
To do this well, you need to have a deep understanding of how it works – and accept that it is not “property” of a department of your organization. In fact, social sales is – like many successful business initiatives – a team effort.
2. How to Social Selling
It is a concept very similar to that of inbound marketing: the goal is to improve general sales and marketing efficiency by building relationships via shopping journey with the target audience.
Instead of spending time with cold and active prospecting, you focus on generating conversations and engaging in the entire sales process.
Members of your sales team participate in social networks, share interesting content and build relationships organically – over time.
As an organization, you can encourage sales representatives to share a mix of branded and brandless content, so that they are seen as expert curators.
Over time, the visibility that their sales representatives bring through the content they are sharing collectively returns to their company as a whole.
Social selling is the process of using platforms like Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn for:
- create relationships
- define your reputation
- gain visibility between your target market
- add value to your target market
- establish credibility.
The more a salesman is present, the more relationships he can build. The less you sell and the more you focus on adding value, the more your business portfolio will grow.
In addition, social sales is important because it positively influences these marketing metrics:
Reference traffic: Web visitors arriving on your site through social media. This metric informs that its content is generating knowledge on social media.
Direct traffic: audiences visiting your website by typing the URL in the browser. This metric indicates that your brand is memorable.
Net prosecutor score: this metric measures loyalty between brands and their customers. This metric is based on the direct question – “What is the probability of you recommending our company / product / service to a friend or colleague?”
Exposure to new audiences: the content will quickly become the engine for growth of your brand. A defense marketing program can help your company discover new customer acquisition and conversation channels.
In addition, social sales should also influence the following sales metrics: sales revenue, commitments, social network metrics and social influencer score.
3. Pay attention to the “2Cs”
Regardless of what you've heard about this concept, it really comes down to two things: connections and content.
The personal brand expert Dan Schawbel I told Forbes that “the success of social sales consists in making new connections and sharing great content. You start by identifying your target audience and connecting with your network of influencers.”
And he's not talking about over-promotional brand content that you'll often find covering your feeds on the networks. He is referring to the content that makes salesmen great storytellers who add value to their personal connections.
4. Why is social selling important?
In fact, every sale can be considered social. There will always be a relationship between someone who wants to solve a need and someone who wants to sell their solution. So, sales on social networks are already long before the internet.
The novelty now is the speed, scale and efficiency that social selling has gained on social networks such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and even Instagram.
Remember that the digital world has not only transformed the sales tools. It also changed consumer relations:
Consumers want to build a reliable relationship with brands before doing any business. In this context, sales are the result of the construction of a relationship between brands and consumers.
Since social networks are the main spaces of coexistence today (even more after the pandemic), it is mainly there that these relationships happen. Consumers are already on the Internet searching for information and searching for solutions to their pains, long before talking to a representative of their company.
So the role of Social Selling is to put vendors in touch with these people while they seek solutions and position them as experts by providing the information they need. By attacking potential customers' needs, sellers are more likely to close down business.
5. Understand the Benefits
Better customer service and relationship
First of all, there is no denying that this strategy brings customers closer to their brand. So this relationship goes beyond the sales process and even becomes something of trust!
That way, you create a much closer and more lasting relationship. In digital marketing, that's nothing more than a customer loyalty.
Greater Range
In addition, one of the great benefits of social selling is the possibility of finding customers who may never have known their brand. After all, salesmen do this in-depth search of potential customers to be able to contact.
Soon, your company becomes an active part of the sales process. Instead of waiting for the customers to get to you, you go to them!
Shorter sales cycle
Finally, with social selling you can still shorten sales time. In practice, it may seem the opposite, since sellers are not in a hurry to complete the sale. However, the truth is that this approach facilitates the purchase decision.
6. Conclusion
Throughout this post, you learned what social sales is, why it is important, some challenges and got some valuable tips on the subject.
And here it is important to observe: social sales is an endless experiment.
With each message you post on social media, you create a new opportunity to test content and discussion points.
- What are you snoring? What isn't attracting the attention of your audience and why?
In time, your social sales strategy will help you answer these questions.
And after you do, you will have tested and data-based perspectives to inform your sales strategy in the future. The end result will be higher closing rates and stronger long-term relationships.
The idea is simple: make every digital interaction count and you will see the results in your general sales.
See you in the next article!
