What is Social Selling?
Social Selling is a prospective part of the sales process, the basis of which is building a contact network and reaching it with a planned message.
Social Selling at B2B level is about building a valuable relationship with the company’s surroundings: potential and existing customers or partners. Social Selling engages employees, most often those responsible for business development, who share their knowledge on social media, building brands for experts in their industry.
Thanks to this, they remain on the recipients’ radar as experts, trusted specialists, to whom one can turn to as a first resort when they have questions in a particular field. Most sales take place in the “pull” not “push” model. Social Selling is not about mass, intrusive messaging. Social Selling does not run linearly, it consists of many different elements from the digital and real worlds, which, by creating many points of contact lead to relationships and contracts with potential customers.
Benefits of Social Selling
The main benefit of Social Selling is building recognition – both of the brand as well as experts.
Reaching the target group with your own message is the foundation of success in the work of every salesperson. Following the principle of “be where your customers are,” in business, the choice of a contractor to collaborate with is often preceded by research that begins long before the official RFP enters the market.
That’s why a strong social media presence is crucial to shape the narratives and ensure that customers know what questions to ask based on the content provided by your experts, not your competitors. Forrester’s research shows that 49 % of B2B organisations have social selling programs and 28 % are working on launching them.
How to implement Social Selling in your company?
It is worth paying close attention to “sponsoring”, which means gaining support from the highest possible level (ideally the management board). The bosses should own the topic – both on the sales and marketing sides.
We usually start conversations by presenting to the people running the company, some opportunities and goals – so that together we can clarify which direction to go in. It is important for everyone to have a common denominator and know which direction to row in. Then we show them real examples of success and hard data. Because Social Selling pays off. It is important to communicate the rules of participating in our program, the participant recruitment process, trainings and workshops that will make your people feel comfortable on social media.
Furthermore, we mustn’t forget about setting specific goals, measuring results and setting KPIs for the program. Sounds complicated? Don’t worry. Sharebee’s team has launched dozens project like this. We don’t leave our customers high and dry, we work hand in hand.
How to measure Social Selling results?
We know salespeople and we are aware that nothing works on them like growing bar graphs and gamification. KPIs and targets are their everyday reality.
This is where the Sharebee platform comes in. Which content is most likely to be published and which generates the most engagement? Which employees are active, and which are effective? Which ones build contact networks among potential customers?
Sharebee provides all this and much more – a platform that serves as the central hub for managing Social Selling programmes.
How to implement a Social Selling program in your company.
Setting goals and determining the number of ambassadors, communicating with employees, recruiting for the program, a survey, workshops and animation are some of the elements that should be taken into account when implementing a SS program in your company.
These elements are arranged into a roadmap with assigned dates. Don’t be stressed, we will support you at every stage to make it the best corporate programme you have ever done 😎.
We have prepared an e-book that will answer all the most important questions and help you prepare for implementation.
I want to talk about the Social Selling program at my company. Will you get in touch with me?
Practical LinkedIn workshops
We are practitioners. We have been operating on LinkedIn for years, running personal and corporate profiles. We know how to do it well, whilst ensuring authenticity and engagement.
We do not offer training, but workshops, which participants have rated at 9.2 out of 10. We conduct about 100 closed workshops annually, paying close attention to their quality, content and participant engagement.
Whether we meet online or offline, we always work on a live organism. We guarantee a profile transformation and a new-found perspective on social media!
Salespeople who carry out social selling on LinkedIn generate 45 % more sales opportunities.
Source: LinkedIn Sales Solutions
Why do we need Social Selling – what goals can we achieve?
The use of social media to attract business customers works. These are the facts, and it’s hard to argue with them.
Key players in the market, such as Microsoft and IBM, included social selling in their operations over a decade ago. This trend is increasingly visible in Poland. The time of cold mailing and waiting for the customer is over. Now what matters is building an expert brand, gaining brand awareness and activity.
Salespeople need to be where their customers are
If your products are online, your customers are online, shouldn’t your salespeople be online too?
LinkedIn is like a large industry conference, full of potential customers. Your salespeople need to know how to establish relationships with them.
Shortening sales cycles
Social Selling works well for both hunter and farmer sales models.
The most important goals include shortening sales cycles, reducing distance and strengthening relationships with existing customers.
Generating high-quality leads
Reaching out en masse to people who don’t know your brand or products is a way to nowhere and will burn through your budget. The effectiveness of cold mailing and cold calling decreases from year to year.
Especially in B2B, these methods don’t work anymore. Social selling is based on conscious networking and maintaining current and potential relationships with your customers. Warming up your leads, which in the long run translates into inquiries and orders.
Brand awareness
You can increase brand awareness among the target group, because the cumulative reach of salespeople’s posts provides incredible scale.
Instead of making more noise in corporate communications, you activate numerous smaller speakers that reach a wide target group. By monitoring this process appropriately, you know precisely which messages generate inquiries and sales.
Thought Leadership
Do you want your company to set the narrative in a given area or industry?
Do you want your salespeople to become industry voices, setting directions and asking the questions you want to pose? Social Selling provides the tools and knowledge that will allow them to outpace your competition in no time.
Does it work? What are the real benefits?
Salespeople who effectively leverage Social Selling in their activities have a 45% higher chance of making a sale, a 51% likelihood of achieving their targets, and a 78% chance of outperforming their competition that does not use social media.
Source: LinkedIn Sales Solutions
What does collaborating with Sharebee look like?
We are with you at every stage – from creating strategies to selecting ambassadors, creating content and measuring results.
Initial meeting
You talk, we listen and ask questions. We showcase the capabilities of the Sharebee platform and provide examples of processes. We send you materials and a brief to fill out.
Scope of collaboration
We discuss and refine the elements included in the project, the number of people involved, and schedule milestones.
Transparent valuation and formalities
You receive an offer describing the scope and valuation of individual elements for the present and the future. Everything is transparent and clearly defined. We review the draft, set the terms and conditions and sign the contract.
Social Selling Program Implementation Roadmap
We establish specific stages, deadlines and responsibilities on both sides.
We launch the platform
We prepare a content library, train your employees, conduct tests and set goals in the programme.
If you want to reach thousands of ears, speak through hundreds of mouths.
One of the biggest challenges in Social Selling programs is aggregating content available in various places within the organization into one place. Sharebee absolutely solves this problem, increasing the efficiency of the entire company’s actions.
Sharebee allows employees to actively enter the medium that is LinkedIn and to get rid of the fear of sharing content. We have a ready database of content that is appropriate, verified, and safe.
I highly recommend Sharebee for conducting Social Selling activities. True Bees who work with great commitment and empathize with the client’s needs.
Thanks to the Sharebee platform, salespeople generate large, and more importantly quality reach, delivering our content directly to current and potential customers.
Let’s talk about Social Selling program in your company
