1. Social Selling in a
Buyer Empowered World
Adam Thorp – Managing Director, Huthwaite
Corporate Social Media Summit March
2013

2. Our Agenda Today
1. To give an overview of the changes in
buyer behaviour and the implications
for sales and marketing
2. Provide an understanding of the role
of social selling, its challenges and
why it matters
3. To show and discuss the relevance
and what it means for
sales, marketing and the broader
organisation

3. Discussion Breaks
• I learn from discussion and argument
• I don’t learn from listening
• After 10 minutes my mind wanders
Therefore it will be
“Your Turn” every 10-15 minutes

4. CHANGE
Research from the frontline
4

5. Times Are A Changin’
Buyers now engage directly with sales
people later in the sales process
Q2 2012 Q4 2012
35% 41%
Source: Huthwaite Sales
Pulse Survey

6. Power to the Buyer!
Buyers undertake a lot more research
before engaging with a vendor
Q2 2012 Q4 2012
41% 43%
Source: Huthwaite Sales
Pulse Survey

7. Talking Behind Your Back
Buyers use social media and professional
networks as part of the buying process
Q2 2012 Q4 2012
24% 34%
Source: Huthwaite Sales
Pulse Survey

8. Insight or Out of Sight
Sellers believe they need a higher level of
business acumen to be able to provide
business insight
Q2 2012 Q4 2012
79% 85%
Source: Huthwaite Sales
Pulse Survey

9. What Others are Saying
9

10. Sticking with Tradition

11. Shifting Focus – Inbound v Outbound
52% of respondents now consider themselves creators / publishers of
social media content, up from 32% in 2012.
Traditional marketing tactics are in decline, losing 5% share of budget.
By 2014 digital marketing spend will exceed traditional.
Companies plan to spend more on inbound than outbound.
Source: Australian B2B
Marketing Outlook Report
2013

12. Your Turn
How does this look in your
world?
Discuss with those around
you.

13. Social Upheaval
200,000,000 – The number of members for professional social network LinkedIn, an
increase of 13 million since November 1, 2012. (Source: LinkedIn)
181,000 – The number of Twitter users with “social media” as part of their bio as of
January 2013, up from just 16,000 in 2009. (Source: AdAge)
2 - The number of people that join LinkedIn every second, which equates to more
than 172,000 new members per day. (Source: LinkedIn)
200,000,000 – The number of monthly active Twitter users. (Source: Twitter)
33 – The percentage of US Internet users who said they ended a connection with a brand
on social media due to the brand sharing too many updates. (Source: eMarketer)

14. WHAT IS SOCIAL SELLING
Why does it matter
14

15. What is B2B Social Selling?
Social selling is an
inevitable consequence
of social buying.
► Developing a Reputation
► Gathering Intelligence
► Building your Network
► Micro-marketing and Insights
► Building and Engaging

16. Why Does It Matter?
Sellers don’t have to make a decision to
adopt social media - their customers
have already made it for them.
Social selling remains an ambition, not
reality at most B2B organisations today;
however, the evidence is clear that
change is underway.

17. Why Does It Matter?
46% of all
Internet
searches are
for product &
service
information
91% of social
marketers see
improved
website traffic
& 79% are
generating
more quality
leads
1/3 of global 75% of global
b2b buyers b2b buyers
use social expect to use Sources: HubSpot, Social
media to social media Media
engage with in future B2B, Business2Community
their vendors purchases

18. CHALLENGES AND ISSUES
There is still a long way to go
18

19. Social Media Satisfaction
Main areas of dissatisfaction was in generating leads and to a lesser
extent nurturing leads. Why?
Source: B2B Marketing
Outlook Report 2013

20. The Issues
2012 Sales Management Association
(SMA) survey of sales managers and
sales leaders:
96% of them use LinkedIn at least once a
week.
80% believe their sales force would be
more productive.
>50% expect to increase their
engagement with LinkedIn, Facebook
and Twitter.
66% of firms do not have a social media
strategy for the sales organisation.
33% believe their firms are undertaking
“significant” social media engagement.

21. Further
Only 11% of companies had
formalised customer-facing social
media efforts for sales, compared
to 82% for marketing.

22. The Challenge
60% of companies will have
adopted social business
practices in their sales
functions within the next two
years.
IBM’s Institute for Business Value

23. Your Turn
What are the implications for
you?
Discuss with those around
you.

24. WHAT DOES THIS MEAN
Sales, marketing and organisation
24

25. Myopic Solutions

26. Egocentricity
“I see so many organizations that do
campaign-based marketing. They're looking
at doing something next week, next month for
a product they're launching six months from
now, and that's marketing on the time frame
of the company, which is sort of an egotistical
approach to marketing, isn't it?”

27. Quality Matters
B2B buyers say that less
than half of vendor
content is useful…
…vendors who produce
low-value content are
27% less likely to be
considered by buyers…
…and 40% less likely to
win the business.
Source: B2B Marketing
Insider

28. Heard not Herd
.
Good content is concise… Resonate
.
…case-study based… Motivate
…contextually personalised Differentiate

29. Flow Sales & Marketing
Websites must
offer
valuable, easy-
to-access
.
information
Selling skills Phone
conversations &
increase in voicemail must be
importance .
concise & targeted
75% of senior
executives say
they watch work-
related videos on
Targeted, con
Buyer
YouTube twice a
week .
cise, sparingly
Fast access
but only if
used .
thoughtfully B2B companies
with blogs
generate 67%
more leads per
month
The new
networking
event

30. Your Turn
What are some of the things
you need to do differently?
Discuss with those around
you.

31. Getting Real

32. Marketer 2.0
In Out
Highly
targeted, segmented, business- One-to-many generic campaigns
driver related messages
Selling skills and going further
Strict demarcation, early hand-off
into the sales cycle
Freely providing information &
Gated forms, give-to-get
insights

33. Sales Person 2.0
In Out
Increased business acumen Product focus
Researcher, Micro-
Waiting for “hot” leads
marketer, Personal Brand
Multi channel expertise Reliance on relationships
The opportunity for sellers
is in being insightful and
helpful to buyers at the
right time and place.

34. Company 2.0
In Out
Understanding changes in Department-centric views of
buyer behavior customer
Taking an organisational
approach to communicating I’m not in Sales!
with buyers
Greater partnering and
collaboration between Hard and fast internal hand-offs
Sales, Marketing & Customer
Service

35. Our Latest Research
26% post for
business purposes
weekly
38% see low return
on investment as 87% use it for
the barrier research & make
connections with
32% company prospective clients
culture resistant to & buyers
change as barrier
45% don’t know how to
best maximise use of it
39% don’t know if 93% are a member
high-quality sales of a business
leads are coming related social
via social media networking
channels community
60% of sales force
currently use
social media
outside of LinkedIn

36. THANK YOU
Questions?
36