Social selling is a tool that professionals use to establish trust and rapport with their target audience. Also, sales professionals who use social selling are more successful than those who don’t use social selling.
What is Social Selling
Many people think that social selling is social media marketing or social media advertising. But Social selling is neither of these things, it’s about building relationships.
Social Selling Generate More Sales
When you master social selling in your business you’ll increase sales. According to LinkedIn, 76 percent of buyers are ready to connect with sellers through conversation over social media channels.
And that percentage goes up even higher when you’re an industry thought leader. The reputation of being an industry thought leader is something you can establish by hosting relevant and thoughtful content consistently on social media.
How to Use Social Selling in Your Business
A lot of people are using shortcuts when they first discover social selling. There are places where you can automate, as well as places where you should never automate.
Automation is great for developing a reputation as a thought leader by posting regular content to your social media platforms. You can use one of the many automation platforms help you manage and post content regularly.
Attention. you should never automate your interactions with real people.
The problem is that automated like and commenting tools don’t build relationships.
Instead, engage, interact, and show up. You want to make yourself more approachable and human.
Optimizing Your Social Media Profiles
When you’re creating your profiles for your social media platforms, make sure that you’re looking at them from your customer point.
Tailor your profiles to present yourself in the best possible way. And make sure your profiles are consistent across all social media channels.
Use The Art of Listening
Very Important Tip. Your customers are telling you exactly what they need and exactly what they want every day across social media channels. If you take the time to listen, then you are a winner. You can provide them the best solution for their problems. Pretty Awesome and effective!
You can even find out what people are saying about you directly using tools like HootSuite Streams.
Pay attention to where people are having trouble with your product or services, as well as to what they want in the marketplace.
When you’re reaching out to new contacts be sure to take a look at their contact list to see if there are any mutual connections between you.
Give Value and Help
It’s important to remember that social media is not a place to pitch all the time. (Not Hard Sales)
The main idea is to create and provide valuable information that can help create your authority as an expert in the field that you’re in. The easiest way to do this is to write posts and share posts that are relevant to your field.
The idea here is to establish yourself as an authority that people trust.
People Do Business With People They Trust
It’s very important to gain trust. Be sure to pay attention and stay in touch over time. If somebody posts a question, then try to post a helpful answer. It doesn’t have to be directly related to the product that you represent.
The idea here is to establish yourself as a go-to person within your industry. (The Expert)
Don’t forget liking and commenting on smart things they say as well.
Social Media Platforms for Social Selling
There are several platforms for social selling. LinkedIn is the most popular. You can also use Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, but LinkedIn is the powerhouse in this area.
On LinkedIn, it’s very effective to showcase your skills in a way that shows how your customers have reached their goals with your help.
Also, it’s important to maintain good relationships. Because these relationships become future referrals.
Another great feature of LinkedIn is the Groups feature. Groups allow you to join professional associations within LinkedIn to be able to find new people to network with.
If you have high ticket products or are in the business-to-business space, then social selling is one of the best ways to sell your products and grow your business. It allows you to develop useful, long-term, relationships you need before you make a pitch.
Relationships are a necessity for all businesses.