Social Selling: with a focus on building business relationships online

Social selling is a hot buzzword being thrown around today. What is social selling and how do tomorrow's top sales people use social selling to become top performers?

Short answer: Linkedin’s Sales Navigator will help increase relevant lead generation, sales professionals productivity and CRM log activity - and management satisfaction. © Photographer: Suprijono ...

LEGO sells great toys all over the world, and they know that their customers “use” their products for different reasons. On any given day, in fact, three ten-year-old boys might buy the same exact set of LEGO blocks in the same store for the same price, but for three completely different reasons:

To succeed at social sales you must have something to offer beyond your product. You must be someone your prospects want to know.

Social selling has all but done away with the image of poor Willy Loman, the guys of Glengarry Glenn Ross, or the door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesman who cleans everyone’s carpets for free then doesn’t get a sale. Those guys were cold callers who didn’t know their prospects. Didn’t even know they weren’t prospects at all.

Finding new prospects is critical for B2B companies and seen as their biggest online marketing challenge. Social media is among the most challenging lead gen tactics, while email marketing, SEO and content marketing get the best results.

In essence it is simply a premium subscription to LinkedIn and by having this subscription you have access to a more detailed search facility with the option of email alerts when new members fit your search criteria.

As business-to-business companies rely more on social collaboration tools, some of the biggest gainers are going to be salespeople – and not just because they can fan, friend, or follow prospects.

Salespeople can use online social platforms to increase productivity. This includes understanding and influencing customer relationships, creating new channels for research, improving collaboration within sales teams, and increasing responsiveness to customers. We’re already seeing it start to happen.

Is social selling in need of sales enablement?

That’s the question posed by sales and marketing influencer Ardath Albee in a recent post for her Marketing Interactions blog. The article is in reference to a joint report from Ardath and Jill Konrath titled Cracking the LinkedIn Sales Code, which covers some of the ways top reps use LinkedIn to prospect and engage with potential customers.

As far as “social selling” goes, I’ve long maintained that LinkedIn is the most appropriate channel for reps looking to connect with potential prospects, if only because it’s a place people go specifically for professional reasons. Folks are less likely to be turned off by proposed business opportunities on LinkedIn than they might be on Twitter or (especially) Facebook.

To succeed at Social Selling, you need to establish yourself as a trusted resource to your prospects and customers. Here are the behaviors to learn.

Why you suck at social selling and how to be an effective social seller.

Need help making the most of LinkedIn’s InMail Feature?

As one of LinkedIn’s Experts serving as a Moderator for the Job Seeker Premium Group, I offer this advice to executive and professional job seekers on how to optimize the use of LinkedIn’s InMail feature and increase the likelihood that your InMail will receive a response.

As a former executive recruiter, I used the InMail feature to reach out to candidates, and as a prolific networker, I often use the InMail feature when it makes sense to do so.

Surprisingly I see much written about social media marketing: spreading brand awareness, reaching target groups, pushing out promotions, even efficient customer service. But one thing that is seldom discussed is the use of social media by sales professionals.

And why not? After all, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ are just communications channels. They serve the same purpose as the telephone, networking conferences or even the front door of a prospective customer. Despite all the high-tech hype, social media is just another way for a sales person to contact and then interact with potential buyers. Here are five reasons why you should consider incorporating social media into your sales process:

Generating sales can cost almost as much as the revenues they bring in. Here's how three companies are conquering the top line without a single sales...

Sales SVPs can help the team sell more new business by prospecting efficiently. Linkedin tools help reps with better prospecting.

Where will sales be in 10 years. Some of the biggest names in B2B sales thought leadership share their predictions. - Subscribe to the YouTube: http://www.youtu

HootSuite University is pleased to present 7 Steps for Sales Teams Going Social with Julio Viskovich, HootSuite’s Social Selling Sensei. Learn the key steps to deploying social across your sales team.

Have you ever wished for a personal assistant who reminds you when your colleagues are celebrating new jobs or birthdays? Or have you wanted to quickly pull up the last conversations you had with people before you head out to meet them?

You are a B2B Sales Rep with a new product to sell. Do you know who your Buyer is?

New company, new division, or new product, you must ask that question. This article discusses how Sales Reps define their Buyer as a Persona. I describe how to use LinkedIn as a source to create these Personas. Then I provide a Persona Builder tool to organize your effort.

The Linkedin Sales Navigator product opens up the lines of communication for sales professionals everywhere. Learn about some of the main features and how they can help with your prospecting.

Did you know that overall, you're 5X more likely to get a sales call returned if you have a personal connection with someone? To me, that's an amazing statistic.

Recently, I was lucky enough to attend the AA-ISP Leadership Summit at the Palmer House in Chicago. It was a great event which was well attended by many great companies and thought leaders within the inside sales industry.  I came away thinking about two things: the inside sales role is truly evolving and many organizations realize they should have a social selling strategy, but most don’t realize how to do it or what to do with it.

I had the pleasure of listening to multiple social selling strategies and was impressed with how some of our nation’s larger companies were piloting new social selling programs. With the evolution of the inside sales role and the ability to close business from your desk with tools like GoTo Meeting, Postwire and Docusign, it’s only natural that social selling becomes a larger part of the inside sales evolution process. The ability to find prospects who have a need, prospects who are raising their hand because they are already 70% of their way through the buying process and prospects who feel comfortable engaging with an inside sales rep.

B2B Sales Reps compete with their peers for sales support resources. Good Reps consistently secure resources and create their own virtual teams.