Get your sales team ready for social selling in 2022
Get your sales team ready for social selling in 2022
There's no doubt that the way the world sells things has changed dramatically over the past few years. Are you and your team ready for optimising your social selling in 2022 to get ahead of the trends?
The pandemic saw an overnight interruption for traditional sales teams. Physical meetings and introductions were no longer allowed. Everything went online. But if you were like many businesses, you were not prepared for social selling then, and may still not be now.
Although the pandemic has caused many businesses to change the way they operate, there are still many companies who are slightly behind the times and need to focus on improving their social selling in 2022 to keep up with the competition.
Recent statistics state that "75% of B2B buyers use contacts and information from social networks" as their purchase process.
Online activity on social media has never been more important for selling. Read more about ‘why now, is the right time to start socially selling’ on my previous blog post.
What is a social selling strategy and how do I start?
If social selling is a new concept to you and you're wondering what it means, here's a definition -
"Social selling is a softer sales lead generation technique. Where your individual sales staff directly interact, engage and nurture their online connections, socially".
So, what does that mean for your business sales team and how do they start social selling in 2022?
First, you want to identify your target market and create ideal customer profiles.
Then you want to use the LinkedIn search feature to find people that fit these profiles to build meaningful relationships.
Social selling should not be seen as a sales quick-fix but as a way to build your reputation and gain people's trust over time.
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Using LinkedIn for social selling in 2022 to get ahead of your competition.
LinkedIn is a great tool for social selling, as people have their job information available to see publicly. People are generally on there to do business and connect with like-minded professionals, so opening a conversation is important.
You can connect with people on LinkedIn by sending them a personalised connection request, mentioning why you would like to connect (a compliment about their work or content works great here!).
One important thing to note is that people don't like being instantly pitched to in their direct messages. Your aim is to build a personal rapport with your connections rather than just collecting information or cold-pitching. For more on this topic, read my blog 'Make the right first impression on LinkedIn’.
But the real work is done when you engage with other people's LinkedIn posts. By liking and commenting on other people's content, your relationships will form quicker and your profile reach will also be higher.
When you use the platform more often and engage regularly, your content will be shown to a larger proportion of your connections and you're more likely to get good results. Using the comments section to share your own thoughts on other people's posts can help you to be seen as insightful and knowledgeable.
Beyond the initial sale, "53% of customer loyalty is driven by a salespersons' ability to drive unique insight, share their knowledge or prove their worth". Being consistent with sharing your own insight and engaging with others will not only help you to generate new leads, but it will keep your current customers' loyalty.
Train your team on the importance of social selling
By now many of us have realised that the effects of the pandemic are here to stay. And one huge impact that's not going anywhere is the increased use or social selling. It now needs to be a vital part of your overall marketing strategy.
One way of achieving this is by signing up your sales team for The Thinking Cap's LinkedIn Training Tailored to YOU. This training will guide you through getting your business noticed and staying in front of your target audience. The live online training will be tailored to your team's needs to ace social selling, showcasing industry-related examples and tips, to bring into your social media strategy on LinkedIn.
With an actionable plan after the LinkedIn training session, your team will instantly be able to -
- have a completed profile that people will find and want to connect with
- post with confidence
- understand the LinkedIn algorithm
- create varied content that stops the scroll to stand out in the LinkedIn feed
- search for and connect with correctly targeted people
Enquire about the LinkedIn Training now to learn how to start making money from social selling in 2022.
Sharing content to improve your social selling in 2022
A key part of a good social selling strategy is to share useful and educational content to your LinkedIn feed to position yourself as an expert within your industry.
Suggestions of content ideas include;
- free downloads
- book a demo
- infographics
- top tips
- free audit
- videos
- reserve your seat on a free training session
- relevant articles
Social selling does not need to stay on the social media platforms, because even though the relationship starts there, you can encourage your connections and followers to join your mailing list, book a call or meeting, or buy directly. You should have measures in place to start collecting these prospects' data. A good example is you can share a link to a landing page to encourage a sign-up to get their contact details, and so taking the conversation away from LinkedIn.
Creating content for your team on LinkedIn can be time-consuming. Many companies team up with a marketing company to get extra support for this and here at The Thinking Cap, we can help. In addition to the LinkedIn Training, you can get personalised design materials and online collateral for you to make the best overall impression.
To start making money through social selling in 2022, sign up to LinkedIn Training Tailored to YOU with The Thinking Cap and get a head-start for your sales team.
How you can effectively use LinkedIn for free to boost your marketing and grow your podcast audience
I hope you enjoyed reading this blog post.
If you’d like further help, let’s jump on a call and have a chat.
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