Social selling, the use of social media tools such as Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and Linkedin for salespeople to interact with current and potential customers, is a valuable instrument in the martech bag that’s made the role of marketers both easier in some ways but often more complicated overall. The consumers being targeted today are more savvy than in years past, demand far better customer engagement and satisfaction, and can easily keep themselves informed about the products and their competitors which hold their interest. In fact, many marketing researchers and experts believe that the majority of consumers use online platforms to research products before committing to a purchase, and social media plays a prominent role in both the investigation and recommendation of purchases.
Social selling helps sales teams engage customers in an informal and continuing manner, without making these customers feel harassed or inundated by advertising. It is a way for marketing teams to nurture relationships with customers and foster personal connections that not only keep products top of mind in a non-intrusive way but also bolster feelings of brand belonging. Customers who feel a personal affinity to and pride in a particular brand are far less likely to stray to competitors in the future and also tend to promote the brand through word of mouth. (Social selling statistics and infographic discovered via Hubspot)
According to LinkedIn research, social selling leaders create nearly twice as many opportunities as peers with lower SSI, are 51% more likely to reach quotas, and 78% of social sellers outsell peers who don’t use social media. Thanks to the real-time characteristic of social media communication, social selling keeps marketers intimately entwined with their target audiences, and better indicates suitable moments for follow-up messaging and product reinforcement. It also offers a very informal and friendly method for answering customer questions and complaints and reinforcing compliments; it tends to come across as caring customer relations instead of impersonal sales management.
According to various research accumulated by Sales for Life, the number of companies adopting social selling tactics is growing rapidly and benefiting organizations both large and small. Six key data-driven reasons are highlighted driving the adoption of social selling:
Overall, top performers are more often implementing social media guidelines for customer-facing people, their salespeople know how to create effective campaigns and new opportunities through these channels, and they report that social selling better helps them identify new decision makers and business opportunities. It’s clear that social media helps sales and marketing teams involved in content development spark sales conversations and educate buyers through more relevant information, and in one study a revenue growth of 63.4% for social sellers was reported over the growth of only 41.2% attained by non-social sellers.
Clearly social selling is an essential tool for marketers and salespeople and fortunately today’s martech platforms recognize this value and help integrate social selling strategies into overall marketing plans. But the beauty of social selling is that it fits neatly into just about any strategy and all of the top social platforms are already striving to make social selling via their platforms fruitful and straightforward. For those willing to adopt the latest technologies, adjust their thoughts on traditional marketing, and train up to best take advantage of these tools, social selling promises great rewards.
By Jennifer Klostermann
