Of the many new marketing methods to come to light in the digital age, one oft-underestimated but routinely successful strategy is social selling.
What is Social Selling?
Social selling is the art of using social media to find, connect with, understand, and nurture leads.
It is similar to the technique of cold calling but adapted to the era of social media for better and more effective lead generation.
It allows businesses to take a hyper-focused marketing approach towards more viable leads, and it begins with your social media pages.
This article will go over the ins and outs of social selling.
It will go over the various strategies and considerations you need to keep in mind for greater success.
Read on for some of the important things you need to know.
1. Social selling beats out cold calls in building relationships
Nearly 90% of decision-makers say they never respond to cold calls, whereas over 33% of B2B professionals say that social selling tools and techniques boosted lead generation by a considerable margin.
Strategies, such as social listening, allowed marketers to build better connections with potential clients and customers.
With the incredible amount of information out there provided by both peers in the market and potential leads, it is vital to use this information to determine your users’ needs.
From there, you can create a strategy that allows you to address these needs, resulting in more meaningful connections and sales.
2. Social selling sets up your leads for the pitch
Social selling allows you to seek out potential clients through existing mutual connections.
With these connections in place, it becomes easier to make introductions.
After all, if their colleague or peer trusts your service, why shouldn’t they?
It is important to remember that the resource that a salesperson must build is trust, and social selling can provide that trust even before a sales representative and client have exchanged a single word.
3. Social selling’s complementary concept, social buying, is already a habit of many potential leads
Many potential leads are already engaged in the act of social listening, eyeing potential suppliers, service providers, and vendors that their peers connect with.
Some of them may already have opinions about you and your competitors.
They may even be thinking about enlisting your services in the future.
Social selling and social listening can allow you to find clients who are all but ready to have your products or services bestowed upon them, particularly because over 75% of buyers and clients generally use information from social networks in their buying process.
76% of buyers in a survey also stated that they are fully ready to have a conversation with potential providers.
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Conclusion
Whatever industry you might cater to, and whatever product or service you might provide, it is critical to use every trick in the book to gain every advantage you can to maximize your profits.
Social selling is one of these tools.
It can help you find leads that are already somewhat convinced that they need you and push them along the process toward a purchase.
