SOCIAL SELLING 101 Learn how to master the basic skills of social selling! TRAPIT PRODUCT OVERVIEW 2014 1
WHY SHOULD YOU READ SOCIAL SELLING 101? Imagine a world where you meet people only online. Okay, you re right. Human civilization has not reached that point. We live in an age where business leaders still go to conferences and meet-ups. That said, most face-to-face networking now happens online. Every day, there are 15 million profile views on LinkedIn - via mobile alone! That s a lot of professional networking and prospecting! Since there are so many active professionals on social media sites like LinkedIn, sales teams are turning to social selling in order to meet prospects and reach their goals. What is social selling? It s the use of social media to increase a company s bottom line. In order to fill their pipeline with the right people, sales teams need to build relationships with their prospectives, and in order to build relationships, salespeople need to leverage their own professional brands online. When done correctly, social selling is a more effective sales technique than traditional methods like cold calling. In the pages that follow, you will discover The problems that sales teams currently face The ways in which social selling solves those problems The key steps in social selling on LinkedIn and Twitter The ways in which Trapit can help you with social selling SOCIAL SELLING 101 2
PROBLEM 1: WHO SHOULD GENERATE THE LEADS? By now, you re familiar with the blame game. The sales team says to the marketing team, You re not giving me enough leads! The marketing team retorts, You re not following up on the leads I m giving you! So, let s settle this argument once and for all - with some cold, hard facts. In a study by CustomerThink, they found that marketing teams typically produce between 15% and 30% of a company s new leads. In fact, according to CustomerThink, A world-class marketing team will trend toward 30%. Talk about putting pressure on your sales representatives. At best, they can expect to generate 70% of their own leads, but some sales teams have to generate upwards of 85% of their own leads. 70% At best, sales teams have to generate 70% of their own leads. 85% Typically, sales teams have to generate 85% of their own leads. SOCIAL SELLING 101 3
PROBLEM 2: COLD CALLS ARE INEFFECTIVE. To add insult to injury, not only do sales teams need to generate their own leads, but old sales techniques no longer work. In a not-so-distant past, it was much harder for prospects to obtain information about a company. Potential buyers had to use the phone book, request brochures, and speak with sales representatives. But with search engines and social media at their fingertips, prospects can do their own research before making a purchase. As a result, 57% of every buying decision is already made before a sales representative becomes involved (Marketing Leadership Council). Plus, prospective buyers no longer feel the need to answer the phone to speak with sales representatives. Cold calls are ineffective 97% of the time (IBM s Preference Study). So, what are sales representatives supposed to do? They face quite the dilemma: Their potential buyers are more informed. Cold calling is effective only 3% of the time. But they still need to generate between 70% and 85% of their own leads. This is where social selling steps into the picture SOCIAL SELLING 101 4
THE SOLUTION: SOCIAL SELLING Team Attainment of Sales Quota 49% 64% Users of social selling All others Aberdeen Group Don t think of social selling as a replacement for traditional selling techniques. You will still exchange e-mails and phone calls, and you will still have face-to-face meetings. Instead, think of social selling as a way to remove the ineffective parts of the sales process. Social selling works because you are engaging with prospects where they are. Did you know that Americans spend more time on social media than any other major Internet activity, including e-mail (Business Insider)? 100% of B2B decision-makers use social media for work purposes (Forrester)? The majority (57%) of B2B IT buyers use social networks as part of their purchase process (IDG Connect)? As a sales representative, you want to be wherever your buyers are, and if they are on social media, you want to be on social media. Engaging with prospects on social media is not merely a fad. It actually works! Sales teams that use social selling tend to come closer to attaining their sales goals than sales teams that do not use social selling. 64% of sales teams that use social selling attain their sales quota (Aberdeen Group). 73% of salespeople who used social selling techniques met or exceeded quota in 2012 (Aberdeen Group). 54% of salespeople close business as a direct result of social media (McKinsey & Company). SOCIAL SELLING 101 5
HOW DOES IT WORK? Have no fear! Social selling does not require you to reprogram your brain. It does not require you to learn a whole new skill set. The basic tenets of prospecting still apply. You simply adapt them to fit a new medium. Here are the general steps Step 1: Ready, aim, target! First, you look for a target company. Then, you determine which decision makers you should target. You find them on social media, and you follow them. On Twitter, following people is easy. On LinkedIn, following people can take more finagling. (See the LinkedIn section for more information.) Step 2: Observe the prospects in their social media habitat. Before reaching out, you want to observe the prospect s behavior online. What does my prospect post? How frequently does my prospect post? What are my prospect s interests? How does my prospect interact with people? Those are questions you want to ask yourself. Step 3: Engage. Look for an opportunity to engage with the prospect. Did the prospect post about something in your industry? Make a comment! Did you find a cool article that the prospect might be interested in? Share it with the prospect! SOCIAL SELLING 101 6
Step 4: Seal the deal. After you ve interacted a bit with the prospect, you can introduce your company, what you do, and how you might be able to help. Normally, you do not lead off with a sales pitch. Think about it this way: Most people wouldn t walk up to someone at a professional happy hour and say, I don t know anything about you, but I work for this company. And I would really like to sell our product to you. The same is true in the social media world. You want to have some kind of relationship with the person before you begin speaking about business. HOW DOES IT WORK ON TWITTER? Step 1: Locate the prospect on Twitter. Once you have determined which company you would like to target, visit the company s website. Check to see whether the company is on Twitter. Then, look at the company s bios to see which individuals you would like to target from that company. Go to Twitter.com and type the prospect s name into the search bar at the top of the page. If you find the prospect, follow him or her. Tip: Sometimes, it might be difficult to find a prospect. For instance, if the prospect has a more common name, try searching for the person s name, as well as the company name. SOCIAL SELLING 101 7
Step 2:Listen and profile your prospect. For the sake of example, let s say that you are trying to target Henry Nothhaft, Jr., the Chief Product Officer of Trapit. After you follow him, you should ask yourself, What s on Henry s mind? To find out, you look at his Twitter feed. As you can see on the left, his first two tweets are about generational gaps. So, it s safe to assume that he is interested in the intersections between social psychology and technology. Before you engage with him, you might want to brush up on those subjects. Also, you might assume that Henry is a history buff. His Twitter shows that he is interested in the early days of the web. When you finally initiate a conversation with him, you might want to share a historyrelated article with him. Your second question should be: How does Henry interact with people on Twitter? You want to know what to expect when you reach out to him. In the second image on the left, Henry s comment is direct. When you speak to him, you should not expect him to crack jokes, nor should you expect him to write you a haiku. SOCIAL SELLING 101 8
Step 3a: Mild engagement On social media, users like when you favorite, share, like, and retweet their stuff. So, when you finally have the courage to speak with Henry, the first thing you want to do is retweet or favorite a few of Henry s posts on Twitter. Why? Your actions show Henry that you are paying attention to what he is saying publicly. Plus, your actions may trigger an e-mail notification, which will most likely be sent to Henry s personal e-mail. When he sees your name in his inbox on a weekly (or semi-weekly) basis, he will take notice. Warning! Whatever you do, do not retweet or like everything that Henry posts. You will appear to be a stalker. Step 3b: More advanced engagement Step 3a will get your name in front of Henry in a mildly unobtrusive way. But it will get you only so far. You must show Henry your value. To do that, you have to take your relationship to the next level. You have to start tweeting at Henry, and you have to start showing Henry that you have common interests. SOCIAL SELLING 101 9
There is not a wrong or right way to show Henry your interest. Usually, you use a combination of: Retweets Replies to Henry s tweets Tweeting links to articles that Henry wrote and adding phrases like, Thanks for the insight, @henryhank. Step 4: Connecting Eventually, Henry will be curious about who you are. Most likely, he will look through your Twitter feed to see what interests you. Then, he may look at your LinkedIn profile to size you up. Has he heard of your company? Did you graduate from college? Do you seem to be an unemployed conspiracy theorist who hoards cats? Once Henry determines that you re smart enough, sane enough, and employed at a respectable company, Henry will signal to you that it is time to connect. He may Respond to one of your tweets Start following you on Twitter Look at your LinkedIn profile Send you a message on LinkedIn Send you a LinkedIn invite Once you connect with Henry, then, you can begin a more in-depth dialogue, and you can see how you can help each other. SOCIAL SELLING 101 10
HOW DOES IT WORK ON LINKEDIN? Step 1a: Locate the prospect on LinkedIn. Once you ve determined which company you would like to target, visit the company s website. Check to see whether the company is on LinkedIn. Then, look at the company s profiles to see which individuals you would like to target from that company. Go to LinkedIn.com and type the prospect s name into the search bar. Once you find the prospect, ask yourself this question: Do I know this person? If the answer is yes, send the person a connection request. If the answer is no, proceed to Step 1b. Step 1b: Ask a first-degree connection to refer you to a second- or third-degree connection. If you send a connection request to an unfamiliar person on LinkedIn, you are doing a cold call on LinkedIn. As I mentioned above, cold calls are not that effective. Warm referrals, on the other hand, increase the odds of a sales success. 84% of B2B decision makers begin their buying process with a referral (Edelman Trust Barometer). Step 2: Observe the prospects in their habitat. Once you have connected with the person on LinkedIn, then, it is time to observe. For the sake of example, let s say that you decide to target Patricia Hume, the current President of Trapit. SOCIAL SELLING 101 11
When you are observing a prospect like Patricia, you ask yourself: What kind of language does my prospect use? Is it formal? Does the prospect use contractions? This will help you gauge how to speak with her. What is the prospect s work history? Which skills does the prospect list? This might help you strike up a conversation with the prospect. Does the prospect share content in his or her newsfeed? This might help you gauge which topics you discuss. For instance, when you look at Patricia Hume s profile on LinkedIn, you can begin to piece together who she is. Her endorsements (on the left) show that she has extensive experience in marketing and sales. So, when you speak with her, you may want to discuss how to align sales and marketing. Step 3: Engage the prospect. If the prospect is an active sharer on LinkedIn, indicate that you are reading the prospect s links. Give a thumbs-up, or comment on the article. SOCIAL SELLING 101 12
After you connect with the prospect, you may want to send a quick InMail (private message). Keep it short and sweet. Introduce yourself. Indicate that you have some mutual interests. But don t give a hard sell right away. That s like asking someone to go steady during the first 15 minutes of a first date. Step 4: Seal the deal. Once you have exchanged InMails, you may want to do one of the following: Meet face-to-face if you re in the same city or attending the same conference. Take things offline and call each other. Keep things online, but move to a more convenient venue like e-mail. WHY DO YOU NEED TRAPIT? As you go about social selling, there is one important thing that you need to keep in mind. If you are observing prospects online, chances are that prospects are observing you. In order to impress your prospects, you need to have a strong professional brand on social media. If you do not have a photo or if you do not have a bio, prospects might be wary of connecting with you in the first place. And if you are curating Lolcats meme after Lolcats meme, your prospects will not take you seriously. SOCIAL SELLING 101 13
In order for social selling to work, you must have a smart, informative presence on social media. When someone looks at your profile, you want them to perceive you as someone who is trustworthy and who is up on the latest trends in your industry. Curating content is one of the best ways to bolster your professional brand online. What is content curation? Content curation is the process of finding content online and sharing it with your audience. Most Internet users curate content in some way, shape, or form. On a weekly, if not daily, basis, we share links with our friends, co-workers, and prospects. Many social sellers have sources that they read on a regular basis, and they use an RSS reader to manage those sources. Once they find something they want to share, they copy and paste the link and then share it to social media. Cut that out! There is a much easier, more efficient way to curate content. With Trapit, you can find and share content - all from the same tool. Here s how it works: Step 1: Create your own traps around topics that interest you. For example, social selling. Step 2: Trapit draws on a library of over 100,000 human-vetted sources, and it delivers content to you all day, every day. Step 3: You read the articles and decide what you want to share. SOCIAL SELLING 101 14
Step 4: With a click of a button, you push content to your preferred social media channels. By streamlining the curation process, you, as a busy sales professional, can save yourself time and money. To request a demo of Trapit, visit us at http://www.trap.it. ABOUT THE COMPANY Trapit is the most powerful, advanced, and intuitive way to curate content for your audience. Trapit automates the task of finding, curating, and delivering unique and relevant content in real-time to any device. With Trapit, you can discover content you never knew existed, or search for the most up-to-date information on specific topics. Trapit enables you to analyze how the content you are sharing impacts your business. We grew out of a $200 million DARPA-funded research project in AI and Machine Learning contracted to SRI International, the same collaboration that created the Internet. The largest artificial intelligence project in history, this project also produced the natural language processing and machine learning technology that eventually became Apple s Siri. Founded in 2010, Trapit is headquartered in San Francisco, California, and is backed by Horizon Ventures, SRI International, and others. SOCIAL SELLING 101 15
VISIT US AT TRAP.IT TO REQUEST A DEMO. TRAPIT PRODUCT OVERVIEW 2014 16