Welcome to Social Selling

Welcome to Social Selling

What is Social Selling & Why Do It?

Social selling is the process of researching, connecting,

and interacting with prospects and customers on social

media networks -- notably LinkedIn and Twitter.

The way customers buy products has changed -- so we

need to change how we sell things to them, too. According

to the CEB, 57% of buying process is complete

before talking to sales. Consumers are also 71% more

likely to make a purchase based on social media referrals.

IBM instituted a social selling pilot program

that saw a 400 % increase in sales.

Social Media Defined

Social media are computer-mediated tools that

allow people to create, share or exchange

information, ideas, and pictures/videos in virtual

communities and networks.

Social Media Platforms by the Numbers

Social Selling Defined

• Social selling – the practice of using tools and social

networks to be more effective in the sales process

• Social media has allowed us to know more about our

prospects than ever before

• Social sellers do not have to abandon email, phone calls

or face-to-face meetings

• Social selling eliminates some of the most wasteful parts

of the traditional sales process (like cold-calling)

• A misconception about social selling is that it entails

making sales pitches through social media

Social Selling Overview

• Buyer behavior has changed

• Embrace & Focus on Relationships

• Inject Storytelling into Your Sales Process

• Tell Your Story through Personal Branding

• Use Technology as a Competitive Advantage

Feeling Overwhelmed?

Optimizing Profiles for Social Selling

• Profiles are more than digital resumes

• They help you cultivate a reputation with

your buyers as a trusted advisor

• Your activity shows that you bring fresh

insights to their business

Privacy

• Set your LinkedIn privacy settings to support your goals

Turn on/off your activity broadcasts

• (recommended setting off)

Select who can see your activity feed

• recommended everyone

What Others See

• Select what others see when you’ve viewed their profile

• Select who can see your connections (recommended –

everyone)

Change your profile photo & visibility

Edit your public profile

Show/hide “Viewers and viewed” box

• Recommended on

Manage who you are blocking

Settings

• Manage your Twitter settings

Settings

• Manage your WeChat settings

Communications• Managing the Types and Frequency of Email from

LinkedIn

✓ Messages from other members (recommended -individual e-mail)

✓ Updates and News (recommended - weekly digest or no email)

✓ Group Digest (recommended weekly digest or no email)

✓ Notifications – Personal preference

✓ Messages from LinkedIn –personal preference

Set Push Notifications

Types of Messages you are willing to receive

Select who can send you Invitations:

• recommended anyone

Account

Privacy Controls

• Managing Advertising Preference (recommended select)

Settings

• Change Your Profile and Photo Visibility.

• You can control who can see your profile photo as well as whose

profile photos you want to see from the Account section on

your Settings page

• Posting a profile photo is optional

• To change the visibility of your profile photo, select one of these

options for "In addition to users I message, my profile photo is

visible to..."

• My Connections | My Network | Everyone (default setting) |

• To show or hide profile photos of other members, select one

of these options:

• Everyone (default setting) | Your Network | Your Connections |

No one

Customize the updates you see in your homepage

(recommended check all)

Select your language: (as required)

Manage your security settings: (recommended – turn off

secure connection and two-step verification unless “turn on

“required by your IT department)

E-mail, Phone and Password

• Add or change e-mail address

• Use work address as your primary e-mail AND use a personal

address as a secondary e-mail address

• Manage phone numbers (at your discretion)

• Change your password every few months

• Don't use the same password on all the sites you visit

• Select strong passwords that can't easily be guessed with 10 or

more characters

• Think of a meaningful phrase, song or quote and turn it into a

complex password using the first letter of each word

• Randomly add capital letters, punctuation or symbols

• Never give your password to others or write it down

Engaging With Your Buyers on Social Networks

✓ Create a buyer-centric profile

✓ Buyers use LinkedIn to identify people they can trust

and want to work with

✓ Scan a buyer’s profile before a call to tailor your

approach

✓ Role-specific: What are they responsible for?

✓ Goal-specific: What are the targets they need to hit in their role?

✓ Common ground: Find some sort of tie back to you, whether it’s

a common connection, a college, a hobby, or an experience

Create a buyer-centric profile

✓ Optimize your public profile

✓ Have a current, professional photograph

✓ Make your headline a mini value proposition

✓ Utilize Status Updates

✓ Populate your contact information with phone number,

e-mail, twitter handle, WeChat, company website

Exercise: Make your headline a mini

value proposition

Over the last few days you have created your USP,

take the next 15 minutes to adapt that to a format

that will work in LinkedIn.

Example:

Sales Manager at Air Canada | Connecting

business travellers around the globe

Create a Buyer-Centric Profile

✓ Write a 3X3 summary

✓ Set up your LinkedIn Profile to be discovered

✓ Post a few pieces of visual content

✓ Write the experience section with an emphasis on how

you enabled customers to be successful

✓ Seek recommendations

✓ Join groups

Exercise: Write a 3x3 Summary

Three paragraphs with three or fewer sentences

each …

✓ Reiterate your value proposition in the first

✓ Provide some social proof of how you help

clients achieve results in the second

✓ Include a concise call to action in the last that

explains why and how a buyer should reach out

to you

Exercise: Generate two or three

customer experiences to share

With an emphasis on how you enabled customers to

improve their businesses – not how many times or by how

much you exceeded quota

Leverage your Existing Network

✓ Leverage your existing network (friends, colleagues,

schoolmates, etc.)

✓ Connect with Co-workers – Use current or previous co-

workers to build your network

✓ Find valuable connections on LinkedIn – Use the built

in search feature to help you find new people

✓ Send Personalized Connection Requests – Do not use

automated invites

Adding Contacts

Groups for Social Selling Success

Groups worth joining:

✓ Industry groups

✓ Vertical Groups

✓ Local groups and groups in areas you want to build up

✓ Professional Groups that help you build craft

✓ Parallel Groups

Engaging in Groups

Remember:

✓Content is king

✓People who consistently share content get 2-3

times the number of unsolicited profile views

✓Articles should be of interest to your target

audience

Prospecting with Search

✓Advanced Search allows you to search through

first and last name, location, country, school,

title and industry

✓ 92% of prospects never respond to a cold call

or e-mail

✓84% of your prospects will respond to cold calls or

e-mails when you leverage connections

Twitter• Twitter is the brainchild of a programmers who worked at

the podcasting company, Odeo Inc. in San Francisco

• The founders were looking for a way to send text on

their cellphones and a way to reinvent a dying company

• At the heart of Twitter are small bursts of information

called tweets. Each tweet is 140 characters in length,

maximum

• Initially, there was no limit to message length. When it

went public, the 140 character limit was adopted

• Why? Because 160 characters was the SMS carrier limit

and the founders wanted to leave room for a username

Twitter

Since you don’t have much real estate to work with on

Twitter, a makeover is relatively simple to pull off.

1. Post a professional picture

2. Write your positioning statement

3. Link to your company’s Twitter account (Example: Sales

Rep @company)

4. List your LinkedIn profile

5. Include hashtags that your buyers follow

6. Offer a mini insight