It may seem like an oxymoron to tell you to sell socially when everyone has been saying, “Don’t sell!” But in this case, a social selling program is just widening the field for what you have always done…sell to people by listening to what they need, letting them know you are there to help solve their problem, and supporting them in their decision making process. 
Social selling is one of the best methods of allowing customer behavior to help you match your selling process to the customer’s buying process; a process that increasingly relies on recommendations from others, online research, and only conversing with you toward the end of the buying cycle.
Where to Start
Do your research. Find out where your customers are in the social media world. What social channels do they favor? Are they more Facebook or are they a little bit Twitter? Are they blog readers or do they frequent an industry forum or community?
If you become active in the right area you are more likely to be in the right place at the right time when someone needs your product or service. This also means you don’t have to have a presence on every social channel out there. What are some clues that let you know who has a problem you can solve? Use these clues as part of a system of alerts to show you where those problems are discussed. Then build your presence on those channels.
Prospect Research
A good sales person learns about the prospect before approaching. Social media has simplified this research and added depth to it. A few years ago the prospect’s website and annual report gave some information but it was pretty shallow.
With social media, it becomes much easier to determine:
- Key decision makers
- Company activity in real time
- Acquaintances and potential allies
- Hiring and development trends
All this information can be used to customize the pitch so it can be all about the prospect, not your product or company. Sales can show exactly how your solution solves their specific problem.
A Tool for the Complex Sale
B2C big ticket items and most B2B sales are on the complex side. Social selling provides a better, more personalized pathway to engage, offer value and provide information for every phase of the funnel. In order to effectively process complex sales over social channels you may need some tools to help you stay on track.
- Social CRM - Make sure your customer relationship software provides an avenue for tracking and monitoring social channels to enhance collaborative selling across your company.
- Social Monitoring - Social media selling begins with listening. Tools exist, both paid and free, to track and trend social activity and provide you with market research intelligence in real time.
- Social Collaboration Tools - This goes farther than social CRM. These tools let everyone in your company learn about the client’s needs and provide input into the sales process. You can easily find your in-house expert, share documents, update the status of the prospect and monitor the sales process.
Competitive Intelligence
You can use social selling for more than selling; you can use it to keep tabs on your competitors. Social media offers a transparency to business that wasn’t possible before. If your competition isn’t watching you, they will be.
Use Google Alerts to be notified of competitor terms such as the names of their products and key people. If they have a group on Linked In, join it. Watch for their presentations on SlideShare, Scribd, or Squidoo. Follow them on Twitter and watch forums and sites such as Quora if relevant to your industry.
Customer Retention
Social media can also help you monitor your current customers. By keeping up with their posts you can keep up with their needs and provide the solution. You will know if they are researching a competitor, have another issue you can help with or if they are having problems with your company.
With social media selling and monitoring you can unobtrusively reach out to them to fix the problem, let them know you have other solutions that could help, or simply keep them informed of industry news to maintain their awareness of your business.
Social selling is a misnomer because it is so much more, and less, than selling. Social brings together all the advantages you already have online plus provides an information conduit directly from your customers that you don’t have with your website or email campaigns.
If you aren’t using social for marketing and selling, now is the time to start. It’s a good bet your competitors are already out there. If not, get the jump on them before they get the social message.
