3 Rules for Successful Social Selling
First, let’s get this out of the way — social selling ISN’T direct sales via social media. It isn’t posting an offer and generating sales, it is storytelling, it is empathy, it is value all wrapped inside of a tweet, or forum post or whatever.
Whatever social selling is, it isn’t used car selling — that’s for sure. Social selling is about exercising influence to generate engagement.
So without further ado, here are The 3 Rules For Successful Social Selling:
- Target Clearly
- Share Generously
- Add Value Selfishly
Yeah, so those are pretty general ideas, let’s break them down into actionable steps that you can start using today to prospect for, accelerate and close deals — and this works for B2B & B2C sales!
Target Clearly: Social selling isn’t “broadcast” selling. It isn’t throwing out information to anyone — it is about engagement with an audience that will be receptive. For B2B sellers, LinkedIn is your friend, with thousands and thousands of incredibly targeted groups
. Do you you a great offer for job seekers in Dubai? LinkedIn hooks you up. Need Canadian MLM folks? Again, LinkedIn has you covered. The idea is to join these groups and engage (more on that shortly). We aren’t selling, yet, we are just identifying where our target prospects live. For B2C sellers, Facebook makes it even easier — just do a quick search in that fabulous blue box and Facebook gives you the places where your targeted consumers are hanging out. If you are selling to knitters — I just found 10,307 potential customers for you. All you need to do is join the group on LinkedIn or Facebook, and you are suddenly listening to all of the conversations that your target market are having. And our buddies at Twitter & Instagram use the magical hashtag — type in whatever you want and somebody is talking about it. Your prospects are telling you that they are prospects — all you have to do is type a few letters in a search box. That is the 1st rule — target clearly by finding where your target audience is active. Who knew this was so easy?
Share Generously: As a business developer or marketer, you are laser-focused on your industry. You know what is happening, you know what’s good, so you need to share that generously. If your knitters group wants to know where the best place to get yarn in Sherbrooke, Nova Scotia is, and you know — say it! Share it! If you are a biz dev pro who is hunting down CFOs as
prospects, and you find a great article about professional development for finance pros, share that stuff. This part isn’t about selling — it is about credibility and influence. The more you share that is on point and NOT SELF-PROMOTIONAL, the more the community that you’ve joined will listen to you. This part requires patience. At the left is a real world example of me offering up a great SEO guide for e-commerce. It wasn’t advertising my services or information. It was just sharing something that I thought could help. It could be 30 days of sharing what you know — or longer. This is laying the foundation for what comes next.
Add Value Selfishly: After you’ve targeted clearly, shared generously, it is time to kick this into overdrive. It is the perfect opportunity to leverage your credibility to add value the way that only you can — with your products and services. How you do this is up to you, but let’s brainstorm ideas:
A.) Find your perfect target on Twitter, like this intrepid sales warrior and simply ask a question after you’ve added value:
B.) Ask an open-ended, but self-serving question:
C.) Use a survey to generate opinion and discussion (and then follow up with offer):
But the direct selling part is what is most “expected”, but in social selling, you need to target, build credibility with, and then sell to your direct targets. Social selling is a lot like real life networking — find the right folks, drop a few value bombs and ask for the appointment. Social selling is exactly what you ALREADY know how to do. Just keep the process in mind and Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and forums will become a target rich environment that will help you grow your business.
This story originally appeared in the Sales Tips section of SellingToTheC.com
