How Social Selling will enable your sales team

2. Pitney Bowes Sales and Marketing Challenge • Existing marketing tactics were proving increasingly ineffective • Budget limitations meant the sales • Buying cycle disruption – with the rise of online and social media reps are finding it hard to get in front of vendors ahead of RFPs • Longer sales cycles – post recession the buying committees have grown and fewer RFPs are being issued 2

3. Solution: Enabling the Sales Team via Social Selling LinkedIn’s Sales Solutions deliver impact & scale  Leverage the network & Uncover hidden connections  Search the Entire Network & Create Custom Lead lists  Effecting Sales Prospecting – Full Profiles & Names 3

4. Solution: Enabling the Sales Team via content Pitney Bowes Company Page provides a platform to share content with sales in an immediate & shareable format 4

5. Results: Sales are engaged & actively using the solution 67% of Pitney Bowes Salesforce are using LinkedIn >5 days per week 5

6. Results: SSI increases for LinkedIn license holders Users of LinkedIn Sales Navigator have an SSI* 60% higher vs. non users *LinkedIn Social Selling Index is an aggregate measure of sales engagement on LinkedIn, independent studies have shown a direct link between SSI and sales performance. For more information on SSI visit sales.linkedin.com 6

7. Results: Sales and Marketing working together The marketing function at Pitney Bowes has become a key business partner (& were the only support team on stage at the annual sales kick off event) 7

8. Results: LinkedIn’s Social Selling tools have delivered ROI • 18 deals currently in the pipeline sourced by LinkedIn Corporate Sales Solutions • 1 Introduction to the right person at the right time resulted in an $800K opportunity • Sales Navigator closed its first deals for Pitney Bowes within six months of adoption, faster than the business’s average sales cycle • Sales LinkedIn Updates are creating inbound leads • Sales teams interaction with Company Page resulted in 15% lift in Page Views from target audiences 8

9. 8 tips to drive adoption at your organisation 1. Marketing owns the LinkedIn relationship 2. Focus on your advocates 3. Build the foundations 4. Keep the content flowing 5. Be prepared to fail 6. Include senior management 7. Use the LinkedIn Sales Team 8. Keep sharing results 9

10. Sales and Marketing need to evolve What once worked, will not work anymore % 75 B2B purchaser influenced by social % 57 Buying decisions are made before sales rep involvement % 97 Of the time cold calls do not work *7% worse every year since 2010 Corporate Executive Board 2012 Connect & Sell 2012 IBM Buyers Preference Study 2011 ©2013 LinkedIn Corporation. All Rights Reserved. LSS 10

Editor's Notes

Hello everyone, I’m Jeremy Harpham, Product Marketing Manager at Pitney Bowes Software. My focus is enabling the sale of software solutions to help large B2C organisations improve their customer experiences. I’ve been with Pitney Bowes for 2 years and in Software Product Marketing for over a decade. Personally I’ve been using LinkedIn for nearly 10 years, and drove Pitney Bowes Software to actively use it in 2013.
Traditional Sales & Marketing initiatives becoming increasinglyineffective at driving leadsBudget limitationsSales people engagement in buying cycles was happening laterDeal cycles taking longer as tougher economic climate encourageslarger buying committees
Start by making it easy for sales to share content.LinkedIn participation should be marketing led.They don’t have the time, knowledge, nous, confidence to create themselves.Part of your content marketing strategyWe did this 3 months before rolling out our Premium accounts.
Start by making it easy for sales to share content.LinkedIn participation should be marketing led.They don’t have the time, knowledge, nous, confidence to create themselves.Part of your content marketing strategyWe did this 3 months before rolling out our Premium accounts.
We are doing well.
Continual enablement and reinforcement generates success. As you can see the trend is increasing particularly for our Sales Navigator users but even the general employee population.
You need to use your advocates in sales to help you build momentum. Make them champions. Make them heros. Sales will learn more and pay more attention if they hear it from their peers instead of from someone in marketing ;-)I recently did an optional panel session at our Global Sales Kickoff. I let the sales people talk about their successes. The objective to get more people to engage.It was a half hour session. I used LinkedIn to personally invite all the sales, inside sales and presales people to attend. Each had a personal tip on improving their profile. 6% of those I reached out I could not find on LinkedIn. Half I was already connected to so I messaged them, the others received connection requests. Half the audience replied to my message. Virtually 100% turnout.
You need to use your advocates in sales to help you build momentum. Make them champions. Make them heros. Sales will learn more and pay more attention if they hear it from their peers instead of from someone in marketing ;-)I recently did an optional panel session at our Global Sales Kickoff. I let the sales people talk about their successes. The objective to get more people to engage.It was a half hour session. I used LinkedIn to personally invite all the sales, inside sales and presales people to attend. Each had a personal tip on improving their profile. 6% of those I reached out I could not find on LinkedIn. Half I was already connected to so I messaged them, the others received connection requests. Half the audience replied to my message. Virtually 100% turnout.
My top tips
Buyers are increasingly tech savvy and are using the internet and social media to get more information. Quite often they know as much or even more about your products than your reps will. Not just the information from the vendors but also from 3rd party reviews, blogs and forums give them a 360 view of what they are thinking of buying. Nor do they need to wait for vendors to give them information – they can go out and get it. Additionally, they are less inclined to believe the sales and marketing messages from vendors and increasingly inclined to believe validations from friends, colleagues, peers – whether face to face or online.There is empirical evidence to back up this changing landscape. A recent IBM survey show that 75% of B2B buyers research online (although this seems low to me). Also the point that the vendors sales team is being invited into discussions is getting later and later. If you think of the buying process as starting with a problem statement and going through stages such as needs analysis, evaluation of possible solutions, preferred solution and so on. With all the information that the buyers have, the point in the buying process that they are now starting to talk to sales people is over 60% down the line. A clear change from the way that buying has been done in the past.If you look at things like the solution sales process then this can have a significant impact. Solution sales is all about getting in early in the sales process and influencing requirements, and it will be much harder for your sales reps to do this.We need to start to think differently how we sell and how we engage in the buying process.(Appendix)BOB – COPY AS WITH PREVIOUS WCsHarvard Business Reviewhttp://www.hubspot.com/marketing-resources/marketing-statistics/http://www.customerthink.com/blog/b2b_sales_and_marketing_in_transition_whats_working?goback=.gde_4311285_member_176349737

How Social Selling will enable your sales team

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Editor's Notes