To LinkIn or Not to LinkIn: Getting Ahead of Your Competitors with Innovative Strategies

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Our Speakers

Robin Carey founded Social Media Today, LLC, one of the first companies to manage online B2B communities that connect large organizations with people they want to influence. As traditional media went digital, and the internet went social, Robin was one of the first to realize that the emerging social media platforms offered huge promise to corporations seeking to interact directly with, and learn from, their customers, their employees, and experts. @RobinCarey

Greg Cohen is the Sr. Manager for Social Media & Influence at UCB where he is in charge of identifying, validating, and building digital & social platforms to accomplish various business objectives. Greg manages a handful of online communities for patients living with Crohn’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and epilepsy as well as the corporate properties for UCB, including the global LinkedIn presence. Greg has also spent time consulting on social selling strategies utilizing platforms such as LinkedIn to improve connectivity with key customers and develop deeper relationships. @gcohen85

Gal Josefsberg. At Act-On, Gal is focused on building a successful product and team while guiding Act-On through the rapidly evolving world of marketing and sales automation. He was previously the VP Products at Social Chorus, a social marketing and advocacy software vendor, Senior Director, Product Management at Tealeaf Technology, the market leader in customer experience management and the Director of Product Management at Baynote, a leading vendor of recommendation and search optimization software. Bryant University and his MBA from Columbia University. @gjosefsberg

Renee Ducre is the Global Director of Marketing driving the go-to-market execution and market evangelism for IBM’s Social Business strategic growth initiative which includes communications, paid/owned/earned advertising, social media, event management, digital / web marketing, instrumentation / tracking, marketing programs, and client success stories. @rducre

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What people think social selling is…

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Provide value and develop a relationship before trying to make a sale

Create connection

Provide value to establish

relationship

Be interestingMake the ask

Get referred

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Depending on your situation, social is a sales enabler – not necessarily the sales process itself

Awareness

• Meeting the right people

• Understanding influence

Interest

• Comparison content

• Underscore value proposition

Conversion

• Staying connected

• Follow through and close

Retention

• Emotional purchase confirmation

• Showcase additional services through case studies

Data Tells Us

IBM Sellers engaged in social achieve:

• Significantly higher pipeline• Significantly higher closed revenue

Source: IBM internal data

1. Empower employees with the right collaboration tools to be social

2. Identify Subject Matter Experts / Influencers (internal & external) & Engage them

3. Enable sellers to set up social presence & find opportunities online• IBM Connections• LinkedIn & Twitter profiles• Industry Influencers to follow• Industry #hashtags• Leveraging Twitter data to find leads

4. Deliver engaging content & make it easy for sellers to promote it

Social Selling Basics

Empowering Employees to be social is critical

Empowering Employees with the right social collaboration tools is essential @IBMConnections @IBMSocialBiz @rducre

IBM Verse has IBM’s latest social & analytics capabilities to enhance productivity @IBMVerse @IBMSocialBiz @rducre

Launched IBM Verse – new social collaboration platform

IBM Verse Registration link

Make it easy for sellers to promote content & build social eminence

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What is Social Selling? What we are hearing from our customers

Most Customers Don’t Get It

Customers That Do - Find it Difficult to Execute

Customers That Have Experience Executing –

Find it Valuable

• Don’t know what it is

• Don’t know how to do it

• Wonder – Is this a gimmick?

• Don’t know where to start

• Generate small amounts of leads

• Actively working to train Sales

• Find leads convert 2 to 10 times better than non-social leads

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STEP 1: LISTEN

This should not be limited to the Social Team• Every sales person should do it• Or an expert should be designated

Provide your team with the tools to listen

Ideally – these tools should be connected with your

other systems

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STEP 2: INFORM

• A single tweet does not make a lead.

• Have they engaged with your company before?

• What is their social profile?

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STEP 3: CONVERSESocial selling means social conversationsGive your team the tools and training they need to carry on conversations

• Publishing Tools

• Templates

• Legal Training

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Our Speakers

Robin Carey founded Social Media Today, LLC, one of the first companies to manage online B2B communities that connect large organizations with people they want to influence. As traditional media went digital, and the internet went social, Robin was one of the first to realize that the emerging social media platforms offered huge promise to corporations seeking to interact directly with, and learn from, their customers, their employees, and experts. @RobinCarey

Greg Cohen is the Sr. Manager for Social Media & Influence at UCB where he is in charge of identifying, validating, and building digital & social platforms to accomplish various business objectives. Greg manages a handful of online communities for patients living with Crohn’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and epilepsy as well as the corporate properties for UCB, including the global LinkedIn presence. Greg has also spent time consulting on social selling strategies utilizing platforms such as LinkedIn to improve connectivity with key customers and develop deeper relationships. @gcohen85

Gal Josefsberg. At Act-On, Gal is focused on building a successful product and team while guiding Act-On through the rapidly evolving world of marketing and sales automation. He was previously the VP Products at Social Chorus, a social marketing and advocacy software vendor, Senior Director, Product Management at Tealeaf Technology, the market leader in customer experience management and the Director of Product Management at Baynote, a leading vendor of recommendation and search optimization software. Bryant University and his MBA from Columbia University. @gjosefsberg

Renee Ducre is the Global Director of Marketing driving the go-to-market execution and market evangelism for IBM’s Social Business strategic growth initiative which includes communications, paid/owned/earned advertising, social media, event management, digital / web marketing, instrumentation / tracking, marketing programs, and client success stories. @rducre

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Upcoming Webinar

June 23rd

Harnessing the Voice of the Customer in Social Media

Panelists: Katie Kendall of Walgreens, Kathleen Fetters of First Republic Bank and Jason Kapler of LiveWorld