5 Steps to Mastering the Art of Social Selling

Transcription

1 5 Steps to Mastering the Art of Social Selling And to Eliminate Cold Calling Gary Levine, WSI, McLean, VA Copyright WSI 2014 Do not copy or reproduce

2 ABOUT WSI Global Leader in Digital Marketing Global Knowledge. Local Results. Provide advanced digital marketing solutions Businesses of all sizes and industries World s largest network of Internet Consultants Service more than 80 countries internationally Industry winning solutions Corporate head office in Toronto, Canada

3 Why apply social selling techniques? The best sales reps are not just present in social media, they position themselves as credible and influential sources in customer networks Sales Executive Council The B2B social buyer relies on social media and online communities during the purchase process ITSMA

4 CORE CHALLENGE 57% of a buyer s journey is done, BEFORE your sales reps involvement

5 AND the first to add value WINS! 65% of buyers choose the company that was first to add VALUE

6 RESULT: Your buyers will begin looking for answers to their questions WITH OR WITHOUT YOU! Buyers find the most convenient suppliers.

7 Master the 5 steps that will eliminate cold calling Apply the power of social selling 1. Identify your targeted buyer s persona 2. Intelligence is key 3. Establish a content marketing plan 4. Become a trusted authority 5. Monitor and improve

8 STEP 1: IDENTIFY YOUR TARGETED BUYERS PERSONA

9 Identify your targeted buyers persona Identify the key decision makers What keeps them awake at night? What influences their decisions? Where do they get their information? What information to they find relevant? How can you help to educate them?

10 First we need to understand our visitor by doing a Persona Exercise

11 Once we understand our visitor We can tailor our content around our ideal customers Provide them with relevant information Use the keywords that they search for Determine where they are most active on social media Search on the various social networks View profiles and connect with prospects Follow discussions Check out your competition Connect with influencers

12 STEP 2: INTELLIGENCE IS KEY Create a strategy to listen and gather relevant intelligence which will help you to provide relevant content and be considered a key part of your customers sphere of influence

13 Intelligence is key Listen in order to gather information* Be prepared for every interaction by researching contacts and companies Ask sales what are your customers questions, challenges and pain points What are your competitors doing? Develop your personas and engage Build as many relationships as you can *Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood Habit 5 of: The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People

14 Consider what to listen for 1. Your buyer s competitor gets acquired 2. Your buyer s competitor launches a new solution 3. Relationship severed competitor sales rep and/or the buyers representative leaves 4. Your buyer changes decision-makers 5. Your buyer wins a major account 6. Your buyer completes a capital raise

15 Social listening ideas Set up Google alerts Twitter follow events and trade shows (use # hashtags) Use Social Mention (Mention.com) real time social search Set up and save searches on LinkedIn Search groups, Clients, Prospects Products or services Competitors Keywords etc Consider HootSuite, Feedly or FlipBoard to aggregate your feeds

16 Feedly social aggregation tool

17 STEP 3: ESTABLISH A CONTENT MARKETING PLAN Share quality targeted content of your own as well as syndicating valuable industry information Connect with and intrigue your buyer

18 Establish a content marketing plan Plan a content calendar around themes or events Answer questions of searchers Plan to use multiple media and channels to distribute content Blogs Press releases Case studies Local reviews Video Presentations Newsletters

19 Match content to the sales funnel

20 Create a publication calendar

21 STEP 4: BECOME A TRUSTED AUTHORITY Develop your sphere of influence and become a trusted source of information to your target audience

22 Become an authoritative thought leader Share interesting and insightful information Curated vs created content Identify the top 10 lists that influence your buyers Filter the content to add value Use Feedly or another social aggregator Share content regularly Hootsuite can help schedule and organize content

23 Contribute insights share ideas through status updates, and groups

24 Search Twitter to find content sources Use Klout for Twitter to see who s content is most influential Scores are out of 100

25 Use Hootsuite* to schedule Use Hootlet to schedule posts on the fly!

26 STEP 5: MONITOR AND IMPROVE Use tracking techniques to monitor your level of engagement with you and your content

27 Measure and Analyse Track engagement to measure success Likes, re-tweets, mentions, favorites rather than just followers Which content is most useful to your audience? do more of that Are we covering each stage of the sales funnel? Monitor the quality of the leads generated Remember part of social selling is becoming an authority and can boost referrals

28 Socialbro to measure Twitter engagement

29 Facebook Insights

30 LinkedIn Stats

31 Build a daily routine to keep current Track success Network growth and reach Engagement Leads and opportunities Revenue Set up your system to follow Use mobile applications to constantly be active Content marketing and social media engagement are now a key part of marketing strategies Ensure your sales and marketing teams are working closely together Transform your sales processes with social selling

32 The Bottom Line: The Successful sales person of the future Builds a solid online reputation that clearly shows they are an industry expert Masterfully can use social networking and communication tools to connect Adept at creating and delivering digital content that provides value to customers Can leverage social CRM to study prospects and customers for buying signals and information

33 THANKS FOR ATTENDING!

34 You ve seen the show, now Get Your Copy of Digital Minds! Buy it online, or download it to your Kindle reader:

35 QUESTIONS & ANSWERS