MARKETING AND SELLING TO INSURANCE COMPANIES: DRIVING GROWTH VIA SOCIAL SELLING

Darin M. Reffitt, VP, Marketing Segment Manager – Director,

Demand Generation and Campaign Management

Chair of IASA’s Social Media Subcommittee

@dmreffitt on Twitter and SlideShare

Today’s Speakers

Darin M Reffitt, Director, EIS Group

@dmreffitt on Twitter

Darin Reffitt is Director of Demand Generation and Campaign Management with EIS

Group (formerly Exigen Insurance Solutions.) Bringing over 17 years of experience

in marketing and communications, his focus at EIS Group is on lead generation and

management in marketing core system software to insurance companies of all

sizes. He is also a volunteer with the IASA and chairs the Social Media

Subcommittee, leading the efforts of the IASA to better engage with carriers,

vendors, and individual members across social media platforms. He volunteers with

the United Way of Delaware, is passionate about social media, and golfs, poorly.

Background

Per a LinkedIn study released February 13, 20147

of Small and Medium sized

businesses (SMBs) are using

social media

of SMBs using social media are

doing so for marketing purposes

of “hyper growth”

companies say social media

helped increase brand awareness

of “hyper growth”

companies said social media

helped generate new leads

Background

More things to consider:

of CEOs do not return cold

emails or cold calls, per

InsideView1

the number of web or social media sources buyers turn to

before making a purchase decision26

of B2B buyers started product

research on social media or

other online communities in

201226

of B2B decision makers think

sales representatives are unprepared

for meetings, per SiriusDecisions1

How Do B2B Decision Makers Use Social Media?

Per 2013 Forrester Research, as quoted from KinetixMedia14:

visit communities or forums that are NOT associated with a single brand or

vendor at least once a month

visit Facebook at least once a month

visit LinkedIn at least once a month

Use support or discussion forums & communities associated with a specific

vendor or brand

visit Twitter at least once a month

Access Google+ at least once a month

The Combined Challenge

Buyers are 57% through their buying process before engaging with salespeople, according to the Corporate Executive Board30

More difficult to reach

decision makers

Easier for buyers to do

their own research on

solutions

Greater adoption of

social media by companies and

individuals

A shift in sales approach is required

Social Selling

Definition: the use of social media to increase revenue and sales team

productivity25.

What it is:

Listening

Connecting

Engaging

Advising

Sharing

Monitoring

What it isn’t:

Pushing products

Spamming

“Before LinkedIn and other social networks, in the sales world, ABC stood for Always Be Closing. Now, ABC means Always Be Connecting, because your connections lead to your next hire, your next job, your next lead, and your next close.” - Jill Rowley, Social Selling Evangelist at Oracle30

Social Selling

of B2B buyers are informing themselves about enterprise products and services

through 3rd-party sources before consulting a vendor’s salesforce31

of those say that these 3rd party sources are a factor in their purchase decisions31

“B2B buyers are shopping at work like they do at home.” –Avanade31

On the Other Hand…

Traditionally, companies have limited access to social media by anyone other than Marketing or

Communications

Perceived (and sometimes valid) brand risks limit the ability of the salesforce to post or share content

if it’s seen as being on behalf of the company

Proper training is a better solution than denying access

General Strategies

Listen Prospect companies voluntarily deliver significant amounts of

strategic information about their goals, challenges and plans for

growth via social media. Sales teams can use this information

to target their approach to the needs of each prospect

Individuals in targeted companies often share challenges or

seek ideas for solutions via social media. Proactive response to

those individuals can lead to sales growth and additional

referrals

General Strategies

Connect Social media has become—digitally—a combination of what

chamber of commerce mixers, class reunions, and conferences

used to be in person

Networking via social channels can lead to sales opportunities

not only directly, but via referrals from clients, former

classmates, distant relatives, and digital influencers

Include your social media links on business cards and email

signatures to make it easier to find you via various channels

Crosslink your social media accounts to each other

General Strategies

Engage, Advise, & Share Social media enables members of the sales team to become digital influencers themselves

Acting as an ongoing resource for advice and expertise keeps both the salesperson and the company

top of mind when a window opens for a sales opportunity

Answering questions about the business in general keeps you top of mind as a resource

Post relevant content from other sites that will interest targets

Blog about industry or implementation best practices

Link targets to solutions to other issues

General Strategies

Monitor Just as companies issue strategic clues on Twitter and other social sites, so too do competitors,

enabling you to monitor their strategies and prepare for future campaigns, initiatives, and/or challenges

Intelligence gathering on social media is more current and enables real-time response

Set up Google alerts for key names and topics to listen proactively for news38:

Your Name

Company Name

Competitor Names

Client Names

Key Unique Terms

“According to a study by conversocial, only 3% of tweets directed at a company actually use their official @username37

General Strategies

Develop a daily routine4

Watch the Hootsuite video entitled “7 Steps for Sales Teams Going Social”

10/10/10 rule:

Spend:

each day connecting with buyers

each day gathering intelligence about prospects/competitors/etc.

each day becoming a trusted advisor

“Distinguish yourself as a provider of consistently good advice.” –The Social Media Sales Revolution

LinkedIn

Forrester Facts:

B2B Decision Maker use of

LinkedIn: “88% have

connected with peers or

colleagues in the past

month, while 40% have

participated in groups that

are affiliated with a brand or

vendor. 81% of LinkedIn

users visit the site with a

business purpose at least

some of the time.”

LinkedIn is “the world’s best business networking database”35

Your profile is your online resume

Professional photo

Complete background and experience

All relevant skills and expertise

Ask for professional recommendations from other clients

Join relevant groups37

You may join up to 50 groups

Groups give you a place to answer questions and

demonstrate knowledge

You can contact people in your groups even if they

aren’t direct contacts

LinkedIn Profile

Professional picture

Professional name

Attention-grabbing heading

Vanity URL for links

Contact info

Other social media

Summary demonstrating

expertise

Experience

Twitter

If new, start by following key companies and industry associations – Look at who is following them

Search and monitor key hashtags4 – follow the people posting about those topics

Use your profile space strategically – Use hashtags and key info in a very limited space

Use the same photo across all social sites for easy confirmation

“Stakehold” your handle on new sites to protect it38

If selling into a geographic region, search geographically4 – use Twellow

Forrester Facts:

B2B Decision Maker use of

Twitter: “86% of users look

to Twitter primarily to read

others' tweets, with very few

actively sharing through this

channel. More than half

have posted a tweet

themselves or retweeted

something they've read

online. And 42% have used

Twitter to get product

support.”

Twitter

Same profile picture

Describe your value

Cross-linked sites

Distinctive header photo

Facebook

Consider separate accounts for personal and business purposes35

Join public & private groups related to your field

Be cautious with privacies and photos

Remember that your profile photo and your cover photos are public

If connecting with business colleagues in a personal account, use the List

feature to organize and ensure you’re sharing appropriately.

Forrester Facts:

B2B Decision Maker use of

Facebook: while ”Only

2%…view their Facebook

presence as primarily for

business” many use

Facebook for business

sometimes. “Of those that

do, 71% use it to connect

with people…Slightly more

than half have liked a brand

or vendor (57%) or clicked

on an ad/posted on a page

owned by a brand or vendor

(51%).

Google+

If only 49% are using it, why leverage it?

72% of product research for a future business purchase begins on Google, according to Pardot's 2013

State of Demand Generation Report2

Google+ ties directly to SEO for your website and for social media

Enables a link into YouTube, for video blogging

An alternative to using two Facebook accounts

Facebook for Personal, Google+ for Business

Allows organization by “circles”

Circles are like Facebook Lists

If not already on Google+, you can start fresh with ideal groupings

Control who sees various posts and who you see in your feed

Google+ leader Vic Gundotra left Google in April, leading to speculation that Google+ was being phased out. So far, this doesn’t appear to be true…

Blogging

Hubspot reports that 92% of companies that blog multiple times per day have acquired a customer

from their blog1

“Encourage team members to think about new ways to focus on prospects’ needs and business

challenges by answering common questions that prospects ask in their buyer journey”6

The most successful B2B content marketers rated blogs as the most effective social media tactic, per a

2014 Benchmarks study8

Blog about industry trends, challenges

Blogs can be written or video

Platforms:

WordPress

Blogger

YouTube

SlideShare

Upload presentations on general educational topics to SlideShare as a PowerPoint or PDF

Link them to your LinkedIn and publish them via Twitter/Facebook/Google+

Ensure you include an author biography within your presentation and link it to your other social media

accounts39

Be strategic with keywords to reach your target market

Searching “Insurance Accounting”:

Searching “Insurance Systems”:

Searching “Insurance Technology”:

Other Sites to Consider

Quora: a question and answer site that enables experts to share their

expertise, and which is tied to your Twitter/Facebook/G+ account

Other trending sites may not seem applicable, but there’s something to be

said for being first to market via a new channel

Pinterest and Instagram may seem largely B2C, but according to a recent

FastCompany article2, that’s not set in stone:

“…whether they're sharing photos "From the Factory Floor" or

showcasing "Badass Machines," General Electric does a great job on

Pinterest. When it comes to images, Maersk is leading the B2B pack on

Instagram”

Instagram and YouTube can serve as ideal content generators for other

sites

Video and photos tend to gain traction over other types of content

A study by Simply Measured showed that Instagram photos shared by brands to Facebook resulted in 274 engagement actions, and to Twitter resulted in 22 retweets per photo37

Who are you online?

Photos & Art

Music

Social

Videos

Review Selling

Communication

Productivity Craft

Entertainment Dating/Meeting

Professional

Presentations

News

Food Sports

Shopping/Fashion

Medical

Travel Causes

Blogging Fitness

Automotive

Education

Salesforce Social Roadmap

Each company’s roadmap will be different

Things to consider:

How socially engaged is your company?

Who is allowed to post content at your company?

What legal/regulatory challenges does your industry face?

To whom are you selling? Where are they on social media?

Sample Social Roadmap

Who may access social media?

How

so

cia

lly e

ng

ag

ed

is yo

ur c

om

pa

ny?

Tw

itter is still

kinda scary

We’re on

LinkedIn and

Tw

itter

Just LinkedIn

and T

witter?

Pshaw

!

Only Marketing

may use social

media

Everyone can

see social

media; but only

a few authorized

people may post

Our client facing

staff is an

extension of our

brand on social

media

Silent

Observers

Active

Listeners

Skilled

Networkers

Client

Advocates

Responsive

Listeners

Brand

Promoters

Brand

Advocates

What Sales Managers Can Do

Provide Training

Read Chapter 9 of The Social Media Strategist for a great overview of training approaches and

areas

Recommends three levels of training:

Intro level for everyone (“Undergraduate”) - Policy, platforms and ettiquette

Intermediate level for those with social media exposure (“Graduate”) – Brand & reputation, case

studies, crisis preparation

Advanced level for those engaged directly in social media (“Doctorate”) – In depth training & real-life

examples with outside speakers

What Sales Managers Can Do

Advocate for social selling

H&R Block’s approach can serve as a model32:

“H&R Block’s approach reflects a solid understanding of the environment. It recognizes that

employees and associates are going to be active in the social Web and that trying to restrict or

control all of their conversations is futile—not to mention limiting their potential effectiveness. To

protect its brand and ensure consistency, H&R Block educates everyone at the company on its

online communication (social media) policy—to the extent of even including that policy in vendor

and partner agreements.”

What Sales Managers Can Do

Lead by example

Show them how to get engaged on the various sites and demonstrate appropriate usage

Incorporate social engagement into goals

What gets measured gets done

Develop incentives to salespeople to engage on social media9

Prizes

Rankings

The best at social sales get access to the best tools9 (ex. LinkedIn Premium memberships)

“We incentivize salespeople every day to record the number of appointments, outbound calls, proposals sent, and other activities that we know drive sales. Why not include their number of blog comments? Or new Twitter followers? Or recommendations on LinkedIn? Make it fun, and make it competitive at the same time. Rank the sales team in order of their ‘social strengths.’” – Jeff Hoffman16

What Marketing Can Do

Help drive the cultural shift at your company to embracing social media and enabling use by the

salesforce

Incorporate the salesforce into the overall social media plan goals2

As you define your overall social media marketing goals and tactics, including the salesforce as a

channel for distribution and lead management will help you to succeed

Ensure a comprehensive Social Media policy is created that enables the salesforce to engage

socially

Provide tools to assist2

Corporate accounts with services to help the salesforce manage and measure social media success

will standardize processes and ensure compliance with corporate requirements

If you don’t give them the tools to do the job they will find or make their own

“If the culture in the organization doesn’t encourage communication, whether internally or externally, then adding in social media technologies is going to be difficult. And it’s often management that has difficulty understanding how to integrate, not the employees.”5

What Marketing Can Do

Support the Sales Team

Give them content to share - according to a recent IDG Connect B2B study, 89% of IT buyers want

educational content, and the study notes that, "IT buyers will soon look to social media as the single

most important content source to inform their buying decisions.“2

Provide fully-developed Company pages and Official Twitter Accounts to lend the sales team

credibility

Follow the sales team back on Twitter

Other Considerations

Account Ownership

Decide up front who will own the accounts

Company-owned accounts should follow standard naming conventions

Personal accounts have more freedom to share content without appearing to be endorsing

Legal precedent is being set*

LinkedIn is generally viewed as personal

Avoid ambiguity

Set a policy and get forms signed for corporate-owned accounts

Legal/Compliance

Make legal a partner instead of an adversary

Use appropriate tools for legal and compliance purposes

*“Who Owns a Social Profile? You or Your Company?”

http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130807115218-5214630-who-

owns-a-social-profile-you-or-your-company

Tools

Hootsuite: social media dashboard that enables organization of social media

accounts, keywords, posts, hashtags, etc.

Within Hootsuite you can form followers into groups4

Prospects

Customers

Competitors (private twitter list)

Influencers

Partners

Twellow: Twitter directory

Topsy.com: Twitter Search Engine

Twitonomy: Twitter Analytics

Followers

Retweets

Mentions

Twiangulate

Finds accounts using multiple variables

Tools

RSS Readers37:

• Feedly

• NetVibes

• Newsblur

Twitter Automation/Schedulers37:

• HootSuite

• Sprout Social

• MarketMeSuite

• TweetDeck (now owned by Twitter)

Tools to Measure Social Influence37:

• Klout

• Kred

• PeerIndex

Vendors

Enterprise Social Marketing and/or Compliance Platforms:

• GaggleAMP9

• Hearsay Social

• PeopleLinx

• Socialite

• Socialware

• Smarsh

Training Programs:

• PeopleLinx – LinkedIn specific

• Sales Performance International

Listening Platforms:

• Radian6

• Sysomos

Social Media During #IASA2014

Social Media Contests:

• Twitter: “Tweet Your Way to an iPad Mini!” Contest

• One random tweet including hashtag #IASA2014

will be drawn to win an iPad Mini

• Instagram: Snap Your Way to an iPad Mini!” Contest

• One photo using #IASA2014 hashtag will win an iPad Mini –

whichever photo has the most likes as of Wednesday morning

Social Media Education:

• “Beyond LinkedIn: Leveraging Social Media to Build Your

Professional Brand”

• Will cover best practices, pitfalls, and strategies for social success

BOTH ARE OPEN TO EXHIBITORS TOO!

How to Ride the Social Wave at #IASA2014

Find your audience

Everyone using #IASA2014 hashtag could be a prospect

Follow them and get them to follow you!

Join the conversation

Tweet about your activities using the #IASA2014 hashtag

Engage on Twitter

Shoutouts to people on Twitter

Respond to their posts

Direct messages to people tweeting interesting content

Establish your company on Instagram

Not many of the exhibitors are on Instagram – Be among the first

Final Thoughts

Start by listening and learning the rules of engagement

• Figure out what your audience is doing and what your opportunity is32

Voice matters

• Building a personal brand requires a personal voice

• On social media, organizational voices are less trusted than the voices of real people32, which carry

more weight and seem more real

The 4-1-1 Rule37

• Published in 2009 and popularized by content marketing guru Joe Pulizzi

• For every 6 posts:

should be original posts to interesting content

may be self-serving to your own content or campaign

should be a retweet/repost of someone you’re following

Final Thoughts

Cone Inc. 2009 “Social Media in Business Study:

of business buyers believe all companies should have a

presence on social media

of business buyers believed social media should be used to

interact and become more engaged with them

Online Sources

1. 10 Ways To Teach Your Customers To Buy From You: http://marketingthink.com/10-ways-to-teach-your-customers-to-

buy-from-you-social-selling/

2. 5 (Relatively Simple) Steps To B2B Social Media Marketing Success: http://www.fastcompany.com/3026450/dialed/5-

relativity-simple-steps-to-b2b-social-media-marketing-success

3. 5 Ways Your Company Can Use Social Media: Tools to Employ – Infographic:

http://socialmediatoday.com/rtmixmktg/1824456/5-ways-your-company-can-use-social-media-tools-use

4. 7 Steps for Sales Teams Going Social – Video: http://blog.hootsuite.com/7-steps-for-sales-teams-going-social/

5. 7 Steps to Making the Most of Social Media in Your B2B Business: http://www.business2community.com/b2b-

marketing/7-steps-making-social-media-b2b-business-0768144

6. 7 Ways Your Sales Team Can Get Results with B2B Social Media: http://socialmediab2b.com/2014/02/b2b-social-

media-sales-team-results/

7. 81% Of Small And Medium-Sized Businesses Use Social Media: http://mashable.com/2014/02/13/linkedin-social-

media-study/

8. B2B Content Marketing Statistics and Trends: How Do You Measure Up?:

http://www.business2community.com/content-marketing/b2b-content-marketing-statistics-trends-measure-0777094

9. Empowering Sales Teams with Social Media to Drive Leads – Video: https://gaggleamp.com/blog/video-empowering-

sales-teams-with-social-media-to-drive-leads/

10.Even Though It’s Called B2B, There’s Still A “C” On The Other End: http://steveolenski.blogspot.com/2012/05/even-

though-its-called-b2b-theres-still.html

Online Sources

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platforms/

12.Hot or Not: The Best Methods for Finding New B2B Customers in 2014 – Infographic:

http://profitecture.com/recommended-reading-whats-new-in-b2b-social-media-marketing-112713/

13.How B2B Companies Are Using Social Media – Infographic: http://www.spiral16.com/blog/2013/10/how-b2b-

companies-are-using-social-media-infographic/

14.How B2B Decision-Makers are Using Social Media: http://bringyourbrandtolife.kinetixmedia.com/blog/bid/151129/How-

B2B-Decision-Makers-are-Using-Social-Media

15.How Do B2B Companies Use Social Media? – Infographic: http://unbounce.com/social-media/b2b-social-media/

16.How to Ease Your Sales Team Into Social Sales: http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/easing-into-social-selling

17.How to Enable Employee Brand Ambassadors Through Social Media;

http://www.marketingpower.com/ResourceLibrary/Pages/newsletters/b2b/2014/February/brand-ambassadors.aspx

18.Make Social Media Easy For The B2B Sales Team – Slides: http://www.slideshare.net/markeelliott/venture-

accelerator-partners-sm-for-b2-b-sales-130923

19.Other Than LinkedIn, Why Are B2B Marketers Still Unsure About Social Media?:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/steveolenski/2013/10/21/other-than-linkedin-why-are-b2b-marketers-still-unsure-about-

social-media/

20.Preparing sales teams for social media – it’s not just about the hard sell: http://www.eyefortravel.com/social-media-

and-marketing/preparing-sales-teams-social-media-%E2%80%93-it%E2%80%99s-not-just-about-hard-sell

Online Sources

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22.Selling Social Media to the Sales Team: http://socialmediatoday.com/fbocchino/2016111/selling-social-media-sales-

team

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b2b-brands-tapping-social-media

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http://socialbusiness.hootsuite.com/rs/hootsuitemediainc/images/hootsuite-socialsellingexecutive-whitepaper.pdf

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