Social selling involves salespeople using social media and digital tools to interact directly with prospects. The four pillars of social selling are creating a personal brand, focusing on the right prospects, engaging with insights by sharing knowledge, and building trusted relationships. Social selling is important because buyers now research solutions online and educate themselves before engaging with salespeople later in the purchase process. Salespeople must become mini-marketers by educating prospects through helpful content instead of directly selling.

1. Social Selling How to Use Social Media
to Increase Your Revenue Potential

2. What is Social Selling?
Social selling is when salespeople use social media and other digital tools to
interact directly with their prospects. Salespeople will provide value by answering
prospect questions and offering thoughtful content until the prospect is ready to
buy.
The 4 pillars of social selling:
1. Create a personal brand
2. Focus on the right prospects
3. Engage with Insights
4. Build Trusted Relationships

4. Why Social Selling?
The Sales funnel has changed
The buyer is now in control of the
sales funnel
• Buyers self educate and research
solutions that meet their needs
• Buyers don’t engage with sales until
they are long way through the purchase
funnel
• The modern sales professional has to
become a mini-marketer
Educate, don’t sell
• Share your knowledge
• Share your success stories
• Help others wherever you can
• Instead of being a hunter or a farmer,
be a magnet

5. Create your personal brand
You are a brand
• People do business with you because they like and trust you
• You represent your company because it fits your core values
• When anyone in my market thinks of my services, I want them to think of me
• Your customers want information,
share all your knowledge

6. You are a brand
Online
Advertising
Townsquare
Media
Digital
Marketing
Family
man
Technology
Networker
Sales
University of
Iowa Allumni International

8. Focus on the right prospects
Social listening – track what is being said about your company and your industry
Google Alerts – set alerts for certain keywords to stay up to date

9. Focus on the right prospects
• The
Source: https://business.linkedin.com/sales-solutions/blog/t/the-most-important-bar-graph-youll-see-all-year

11. Engage with Insights
› Read, read, read, and read some more…
› Find your mentors and engage with them
› Share your thought – don’t overthink this
› Have discussions
› Find your niche and be the expert
› Social selling has to happen online
AND offline
› Educate in the research phase and they
will follow you towards the purchase
Become a thought leader in your industry

12. Engage with Insights
Educate
Entertain
Promote

14. Built trusted relationships
•Connect online after first meeting
• Stay top of mind with the buyer
• Offer additional insight
• Monitor prospects
• Monitor and manage your
online reputation
•Ask for recommendations and referrals
•Participate in online discussions
to share your expertise

15. Built trusted relationships
Social Media needs to be social
• Have genuine conversations and focus on the
needs of the prospect first, selling second
• Listen to conversations and debate
• 92% of B2B buyers will engage with a sales
representative who is a known industry
thought leader
• Be visible
• Be forward thinking
• Be a curator
Don’t be this guy

17. Social Selling Game plan
•Get a professional picture
• No bar or tuxedo pictures
• Profiles with a picture are 7 times
more likely to be viewed by others
•LinkedIn is not a resume,
its your digital business card
•Use keywords in your summary
so Google will find you
•Create a catchy headline
•Test scores, Certifications,
memberships, and projects

18. Social Selling Game plan
• 73% of online customers trust
advice from Twitter
• Audience is young and educated
• Get notifications on your
competitors tweets
• Participate in twitter chats
• #linkedinchat
• Twitter advanced search
• https://twitter.com/search-advanced

19. Social selling Game plan
• If you could own every bill board on the
interstate for free, would you do it?
• Every social channel has a different
audience
• Use the social channels that fits your
personal brand and your audience
• To get the best exposure,
post content at the right time

20. Social Selling Game plan
•Schedule your posts ahead of time
• Hootsuite
• Buffer
• SocialOomph
•Gather content that you want to share
• Feedly
• Digg
• AOL reader
• Feedspot

22. Measure your social selling skills
business.linkedin.com/sales-solutions/the-social-selling-index