The Fundamentals of Social Selling

B2B buyers aren’t acting like they used to...

Buyers Have Changed

conduct more than half of their research online before

making a purchase.

Forrester - The B2B Sales Force Digital Reboot

74%

people are involved in the average buying decision.

5.4

Buyers Have Changed

Corporate Executive Board 2013 - Winning The Consensus Purchase

Buyers Have Changed

of decision makers ignore cold outreach.

90%

Harvard Business Review 2012 - Tweet Me, Friend Me, Make Me Buy. Decision makers

are C-Level

Unfortunately, sales hasn’t.

Buyers may have changed, but...

Why is social selling the answer?

Social selling is the missing block between salespeople and modern buyers!

Social Selling (v.)

The process of developing, nurturing and leveraging relationships in a digital environment to sell products or services by sharing relevant content, interacting directly with prospects and, personal branding and social listening and surrounding.

“Social selling isn't about jamming the sales process down people's throats; It's about using social media to create better relationships with prospects and

customers.”

- Jill Rowley, Social Selling Evangelist,

#SocialSelling

“It’s a discipline. It’s unlearning, especially as a seasoned sales person. It’s training yourself on a new methodology and a new toolset to get the job done. Social selling isn’t just the idea that you want to connect with everybody, but it is finding the right connections, the decision makers you want to do business with and the right insights about them.”

- Koka Sexton, CEO and Founder, Social Selling Labs

“There's a social selling hierarchy of needs, just

picture Maslow's hierarchy of needs, because

the most important element to success is

management buy-in. Your executive team truly

must believe that social selling will positively

impact your business. It's going to drive leads,

greater brand awareness, greater brand

champions within your organization.”

- Jamie Shanks, CEO, Sales for Life

What does it take to be a social seller?

Maximize every stage of the buyer’s funnel with a

different sales tactic.

Social Selling Works

63.4% of Social Sellers report an increase in their company’s sales revenue versus only 41.2% of non-Social Sellers:

Sales for Life - The State of Social Selling in 2016 [Infographic]

LinkedIn Job change alerts

Sharing content with prospects

Customer and employee referrals

Components of Social Selling

Components of Social Selling: Trigger-Selling

17

What: Lead-gen tactic (top of the funnel)

Why: Buyers who move onto new companies want to bring the people, processes and technology that made them successful with them!

How: Use LinkedIn job change alerts to monitor when someone you’re doing business goes to another company.

Components of Social Selling: Insights Selling

18

What: Nurture tactic (middle of the funnel)

Why: Overcome the “dead zone,” the time after a sales conversation when the buyer doesn’t get back to you.

How: Share insights (videos, infographics, blog posts) weekly to arm your buyer with information.

Components of Social Selling: Referral Selling

19

What: Bottom of the funnel tactic

Why: Connect past customers with potential customers (success stories).

How: Introduce them through social media (Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook) which helps build their personal networks.

Use social selling everyday to keep your funnel full!

Establish A Daily Routine

1) Find

2) Educate

3) Engage

4) Develop

Find

Find: a buyer, his or her

buying committee, and his

or her buying influences,

and socially surround all

these people to gather

market intelligence.

Educate

Educate: yourself and your buyer to have more contextual conversations that build rapport and trust. Digital insights are key to shaping a Buyer’s Journey.

Engage

Engage: your buyers with digital insights that push them off their Status Quo, and to think differently about their go-to-market priorities.

Develop

Develop: a network of people that can continue to open opportunities for you. You recognize that your “network is your net worth” (Jill Rowley).

Book A Consultation

Want to know more?

We’ve worked with companies like SAS, Thomson Reuters and CA

Technologies to grow their pipeline by 20% or more in 12 months

by creating behavioural change at scale.

Schedule a consultation with one of our social selling experts to

find out how you can accelerate pipeline and grow revenue with

social selling: