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ToutApp’s practical guide to Social Selling
Copyright © 2015 by ToutApp
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Printed in the United States of America
First Printing, 2015
ISBN-13: 978-1518805943
Printed by CreateSpace, An Amazon.com Company
www.CreateSpace.com
Table of contents
why social selling?
Chapter 1: Framework for Social Selling
Chapter 2: Is Social Selling Relevant to Your Target Industry?
Chapter 3: How to create Social Selling- ready linkedin And Twitter profile
Chapter 4: How to Do Social Selling And Apply the framework
Chapter 5: How to Create a Social Selling Program and Roll It Out
Chapter 6: how Social Selling Directly Impacts Your Business
Chapter 7: Tools for Social Selling
Social Selling Success Story: HireVue
About ToutApp
Social Selling Experts
References
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Why social selling?
B2B buyers are spending more time on social media conducting research before they make their purchase decisions, because of that
action alone, Salespeople need to spend more time on social media. Today’s modern Salespeople must adopt Social Selling as a core strategy within their existing methodology to remain relevant to their buyers.
Enter: Social Selling.
Why Social Selling?
These data points prove that Social Selling is a successful strategy that’s more than just a trend in Sales. Once reps introduce and integrate Social Selling into their strategies, they’ll never send blind emails or make cold calls again.
What is Social Selling? The purpose of Social Selling is to connect with prospects, which leads to building credibility, referrals and booked meetings. Social Selling isn’t a clean break from traditional selling activities such as calling, emailing or meeting face-to-face. The best-in-class Social Selling strategies eliminate the reliance on cold outreach as the single way to approach and connect with prospects.
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72% of Salespeople say they use social media to close more deals
70% of buyer's journey happens before they talk to Sales
*Source: Corporate Executive Board
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The key to winning in Social Selling is not to adopt a separate strategy for it, but to look at the existing sales strategy and integrate social (LinkedIn and Twitter) into it.
Social Selling equally leverages modern technologies to find, engage and connect with prospects, all of which isn’t possible through calls and emails alone.
What is it all for? Social Selling is a powerful way for reps to reach out and engage with prospects that will lead to a healthier pipeline and an increase in revenue. If you’re still not sold on Social Selling, here are a few statistics on the amount of activity that is happening on LinkedIn and Twitter:
If your prospects spend that much time on LinkedIn and Twitter, it’s important that your reps focus their time on those two channels and dig into researching, connecting and engaging with prospects. Just like email before it, Social Selling is the latest addition to the sales stack—so don’t categorize it as an auxiliary activity. Instead, think of incorporating LinkedIn and Twitter as additional tools within a rep’s sales stack.
As Social Selling continues to develop, managers and reps struggle with tactics, implementation, measurement and overall know-how. Even if your reps are brand new or seasoned on LinkedIn and Twitter, each of them will benefit from creating a Social Selling-ready profile. On the next page, you’ll find all the information needed to create a polished and thoughtful Social Selling profile on LinkedIn and Twitter. And, in this book, we’ll give you actionable takeaways that you can apply to every deal in your sales pipeline.
• There are 316 million monthly active users with about 56% of users tweeting regularly
• The average time spent on Twitter per month is 170 minutes
• There are 500 million tweets sent per day
• There are 380+ million members with two new members joining every second
• 40% of LinkedIn users check the site on a daily basis
• Users who post long-form content on LinkedIn typically have 1,049 connections
Chapter 1: Framework for Social Selling
A common mistake for those who are just getting into Social Selling is that they jump in without setting up a framework to understand the strategy
behind it. An Entrepreneur article titled “Why the Future of New Business Is Social Selling” provides the following statistic: “this strategy [Social Selling] generates 40% more qualified leads than cold calling and allows you to build genuine connections.”
After reading that number, you’re probably thinking that your Sales organization needs to jump on Social Selling right away. But before jumping head first into it, take the time to build a framework around it and understand why.
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Start your day with your Inbox
Go through your leads and prospects
Read through LinkedIn and
Twitter feeds to get informed on
updates, topics and trends
Call prospects and/or leave a voicemail
Don’t forget to engage via email
with a call summary, follow
up or share content over email
Nurture your leads and prospects throughout the day on social and email
HOW SOCIAL SELLING FITS INTO YOUR SALES STRATEGY
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The Goal of Social Selling The goal of Social Selling will vary depending on the rep, but the most common goals are:
• Build a personal brand on LinkedIn and Twitter
• Gain credibility with decision makers and product champions within targeted accounts
• Build a network of customers, prospects and peers where you’re seen as a trusted advisor
• Generate a healthier pipeline of leads by expanding the Top of Funnel
• Take an online conversation offline and book a meeting
Regardless of the goal, with one in place, reps can do a better job of targeting and filtering prospect information in a scalable way.
LinkedIn and Twitter Are the MVPs of Social Selling Before we can dive into a Framework for Social Selling, we need to understand what are the most viable channels for strategic Social Selling. From the research and data that we’ve collected from industry experts and our own team of social sellers, the only two social channels that matter are LinkedIn and Twitter.
• Find the right prospects based on interests, shared content and activities
• Interact and engage with a wide net of prospects in real time
• Sharing valuable content shows industry knowledge and personality
• Begins professional relationships
• Find the right prospects based on role, company and industry
• Receive notifications when your connections are promoted or change companies
• A profile showcases professionalism by building trust and credibility
• Deepens professional relationships
USING LINKEDIN AND TWITTER FOR SOCIAL SELLING
Note that not all prospects, leads or customers live on social channels. Some prospects use LinkedIn for professional purposes, but only use Twitter in their personal lives. Sales reps should only engage with prospects on social channels where it’s appropriate, as most people prefer to be communicated with in a certain way, and this may differ from person to person and medium to medium.
Because it is early days for Social Selling, the rules are not yet written. This means that there is a tremendous opportunity to get ahead.
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THE AUDIENCES AND ETIQUETTE ON LINKEDIN AND TWITTER
Audience: with whom would you like to engage?
Etiquette: How should you
engage with your audience?
Type of Content to Share
Activities
Decision makers and prospects in your targeted accounts. Narrow down your audience by role, company, industry and location
Engage with your audience in a professional manner that shows authenticity, empathy and personality
News, thought leadership, rep authored blog posts and articles from a company blog
Congratulate a prospect on a promotion or new job, like a post, join a discussion or group and network with peers
A wide net of prospects, peers and thought leaders—all of whom you can interact with on a personal level
Share tweets that are professional, show personality and deep knowledge of subject matter
RTs from thought leaders, articles from credible sources on relevant topics, blog articles and infographics
Consume content, RT, start a conversation, send a Direct Message (DM) and click-through on a link
RT is short for Retweet. Retweeting is a great way to find great content and reshare it to your own followers. It’s hard to be original and authentic every single time, so re-sharing is a great way to easily add value to your followers.
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However different LinkedIn and Twitter are from each other in terms of audience and etiquette, one single truth remains: reps must have a framework around Social Selling in order to be successful on either channel.
Now it’s time to dive into our Framework for Social Selling (we’ll be referencing this Framework throughout the book, so bookmark the page for future reference.)
ToutApp’s Framework for Social Selling Step #1: Research on Social Prospects share a lot of information on social channels, and it’s up to the reps to do their research to better understand their buyers, their companies and explore their entire digital footprint, which includes:
In addition to exploring a prospect’s LinkedIn and Twitter profiles, reps should expand their search to a prospects’ authored content. Check to see if they’ve written any blog posts on their company or personal blog to get a better understanding of what they’re interested in, topics that they’re experts in and what they know about their industry.
Reps should think about the following questions as they’re researching their prospects on social:
• Are they talking about their favorite sports teams?
• Did they go to the same school as you or a rival school?
• Do you have a connection to their hometown or a city that they’ve lived in?
• Do you have a connection with their previous companies?
• Do you share a same skill set with a prospect?
• Reading through their micro-bios, tweets, RTs and content shared
• Look at their favorited tweets and lists they’ve created
• Reading through their profile, updates, Pulse articles and Recommendations
• Look at their skills, interests, volunteer experience, etc
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Once reps have parsed through the available digital content and found commonality with every prospect in their pipline, it’s important that they mention the information during their calls to build rapport.
Step #2: Connect on Social The struggle with cold calling or cold emailing is that there’s little to no context or commonality. With Social Selling, reps have to define a target prospect, conduct thorough research and provide value in order to move forward. After reps have conducted their research on the treasure trove of data that comes with social, the next step is to connect with prospects. Here’s how to thoughtfully connect with prospects on LinkedIn and Twitter:
• Find mutual connections through your current network and ask them for a warm introduction to your prospects on LinkedIn
• Write a personalized message when asking to connect with a prospect on LinkedIn (Remember to use the information found in Step #1 in the Framework for Social Selling
• Follow prospects and their companies on Twitter, then organize them into lists by “prospects” and “companies”
• To gain more Twitter followers, ask your current network if they can ask their followers to follow you
Once reps have made thoughtful connections on LinkedIn and Twitter, this increases their likelihood of leading to genuine conversations.
Step #3: Engage on Social Once a connection or follow has been made, the next step is to engage with the prospect on his or her preferred social channels.
Don’t just blast out marketing content on either LinkedIn or Twitter. Maintain your relationship by continuing to share relevant, rich content.
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For true engagement between the prospect and seller, reps need to engage on social by:
• Directly sharing relevant content with prospects via LinkedIn and Twitter with a personalized message
• Contributing to a prospect’s communities, such as LinkedIn Groups or Twitter Chats, by adding value and not noise
• Becoming the go-to resource for prospects and getting conversations going in an authentic manner (by listening and understanding a prospect’s needs)
• When a prospect shares a relevant article on LinkedIn, like it and add value by writing a thoughtful comment about the article
• When a prospect shares a relevant article on Twitter, favorite it and/or RT it—add even more value by adding “Great tips from @RyanSales”
Social Selling is about providing value and sharing ideas, which leads to authentic discussions about what’s top-of-mind for prospects. Think of Social Selling as a full circle that amplifies a rep’s sales strategy. Once reps get conversations going with prospects, whether they’re about articles they shared or LinkedIn Group chats, it’s important to continually look at what prospects are sharing, commenting on, liking, RTing and favoriting. The ultimate goal for reps is to showcase themselves as experts in their fields, and then experts in their products once prospects are ready to talk.
The key to Social Selling is to offer value and be non-salesy. No one ever closed a deal with a tweet.
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Next Steps This Framework for Social Selling must be added to your sales organization’s playbook, because it not only teaches the basics to reps — but it also means they’ll know how to apply Step #1, Step #2 and Step #3 to every deal.
Chapter 2: Is Social Selling Relevant to Your Target Industry?
In the previous chapter, we provided an actionable Framework for Social Selling and defined the differences between Social Selling on LinkedIn and Twitter.
Ultimately, the success of a rep’s Social Selling strategy depends on whether the prospects within his or her targeted industry buy into it or not.
After conducting research on whether social is a viable method of communication with prospects, it’s important to note that the impact of Social Selling varies by role, industry and company size.
An annual Fortune 500 and Social Media study conducted by The Center for Marketing Research at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, stated:“Social media has penetrated parts of the business world at tremendous speed” and provided the following data points:
• LinkedIn, for the third consecutive year, is the channel of choice for 94% of study participants and saw a 6% increase from the previous year
• Twitter is the third preferred channel of choice for 79% of study participants and saw a 5% increase from the previous year
It’s worth looking at Fortune 500 companies because their activities and spend are strong indicators of future adoption and implementation trends at other companies. So, if Fortune 500 companies are increasing their activity and presence on LinkedIn and Twitter, it makes sense to map that data back to your company’s targeted industries.
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Studies show that 75% of B2B buyers and 84% of C-level/Vice President Executives use social media to support their purchase decisions. Yet, according to Gartner, “buyers do not value their interactions with Salespeople as much as they did in the past. Sales must adjust processes and skills to learn to guide buyers through their purchase cycle.”
As B2B buyers no longer have to rely on companies or Salespeople for information to guide their purchase decision, this has lead to a disconnect between the the buyer and seller. According to Social Selling evangelist Jill Rowley,
“Trust between the buyer and the sales rep is at an all-time low, hovering around 30%—whereas trust between buyer-to-buyer, person-to-person, peer-to-peer is at an all time high of 92%.”
Here are a few reasons why trust between buyers and sellers is so low:
• Reps do not account for buyers who are more educated and researched than ever before
• Selling today is about listening, and Sales reps are missing crucial opportunities to listen to buyers on social
HR & RECRUITING FINANCE & BILLING SOLUTIONS
BANKING
SOFTWARE / IT / SAAS
ADVERTISING & MARKETING
REAL ESTATE
INDUSTRIES THAT ARE MORE RECEPTIVE ON SOCIAL MEDIA
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• Reps are unable to connect with buyers based on their interests, roles or backgrounds
The premise of this book is to prove that reps must adopt Social Selling, but more importantly, it’s about how they must adopt a Framework of researching, connecting and engaging with prospects on LinkedIn and Twitter.
Here’s a specific breakdown of how Social Selling eliminates those three top-of-mind problems:
Whether reps are prospecting or closing deals, they can use Social Selling as an effective discovery tool as they’ll be more in tune with their prospects and their companies (in terms of product launches, new hires, partnerships and reports).
PROBLEM SOLUTION
Sales underestimates the informed B2B buyer
Reps don’t read the social profiles of their prospects
Sales is unable to find connection points with prospects that are authentic talking points
Research their prospects based on role, industry and company
Conduct a full social profile audit on their prospects to see what types of social content they’re consuming and sharing
Dive deep into the interest, volunteer experience and education sections on prospects’ LinkedIn profiles.
On Twitter, thoroughly read prospects’ micro-bio and tweets
For those on the post-Sales side, like Customer Success Managers, Social Selling allows them to stay in touch and remain top-of-mind for current customers.
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Having said that, it’s not just buyers who are having a tough time; these problems are reciprocated on the Sales side as well.
Half of the battle in Sales is gaining credibility with a prospect. But, given the lack of trust, coupled with the Top Sales Issues, it’s more important than ever to apply rigor and include Social Selling as a part of a rep’s core strategy.
71% 65%
35% 32%
Rep ability to connect offerings to business issues
Inability to manage today’s more educated buyer
Reps spend too much time on non-selling activities
Lack of relevant content from Marketing
TOP SALES ISSUES FOR 2014
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Many companies see a 50-50 success rate when their reps use LinkedIn and Twitter for their Social Selling efforts. Much of that success can be attributed to having a polished profile on LinkedIn and Twitter. Prospects are paying attention, so make it count.
BEST PRACTICES: • Use your real name
• Use a professional headshot and use the same photo on LinkedIn and Twitter
• Add a custom background
• Don’t protect your profiles, but make sure they’re professional
• Use the same Custom URL (LinkedIn) and Username (Twitter)
LINKEDINTake the time to write, edit and tailor your profile, so it’s more than just a digital resume. A polished profile stands out from the thousands of other Sales profiles.In addition to the above best practices, here’s what it should include:
• A thoughtfully written summary of who you are (not just your role at Company X), who you want to help and how you can help
Chapter 3: How to Create A Social Selling-ready linkedin and twitter profile
• Published Pulse articles or blog posts that you’ve authored
• In your experience section, under your role at a company, include videos created by your company to showcase company culture, product launches and customer testimonials
• Fill out as much as possible on your profile, such as: skills & endorsements, education and interests
• Join groups and follow companies (not just your own, but prospects and customers)
TWITTERMuch like a LinkedIn profile, a Twitter profile is a digital reflection of a Salesperson. A Twitter micro-bio is limited to 160 characters, but should outline a clear value proposition:
• Who you are (remember to @mention your company), who you want to help and how you can help
◦ A Good Example
• Link: Add your Custom LinkedIn URL, or your personal website if you have one
• Don’t forget to add your location
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Marketing can provide guidelines on tone, language and content for LinkedIn and Twitter profiles.
As your organizations continues its Inside Sales model, Social Selling puts that much-needed human touch of 1-to-1 interactions back into the sales process
with every touch point:
For any sales strategy, it’s best to figure out a goal and work backwards, and the goal for Social Selling will vary depending on rep. This goal is Step #0 in Social Selling, and as a refresher, here are those goals that we shared in Chapter One:
• Build a personal brand on LinkedIn and Twitter
• Gain credibility with decision makers and product champions within targeted accounts
• Build a network of customers, prospects and peers where you’re seen as a trusted advisor
• Generate a healthier pipeline of leads by expanding the Top of the Funnel
• Take an online conversation offline and book a meeting
• Participation in a Group Discussion
• Liking an Update
• Sending a personalized InMail
• Following a prospect’s company on LinkedIn
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Chapter 4: How to do Social Selling And Apply The Framework
• Participation in a Twitter Chat
• Favoriting a Tweet
• Sending a personalized Direct Message
• Following a prospect on Twitter
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Reps must follow and apply our Framework for Social Selling to their sales methodology and to every deal within their pipeline.
Whichever goal the manager and rep decide upon, whether it’s better prospecting or gaining credibility to help close deals — for the goal to be effective, it has to be mapped back to the Framework for Social Selling.
Research Step #1: Generate a list of your targeted accounts; this list will be
your ideal audience Step #2: Use tools like LinkedIn’s Sales Navigator to research and
determine (based on role) who are the right contacts to connect with and follow
Step #3: Check whether those contacts have a Twitter profile and/or a larger digital footprint spanning blog posts, interviews and conference talks
Step #4: Look through their online profiles and look for clues that will tell you about their interests, background, skills, education, etc.
Researching members of your network or prospects is much like nurturing leads. The first step is figuring out your audience based on your target accounts and figuring out how you can add value for them. Remember, Social Selling isn’t about getting in front of prospects—it’s about socializing information.
• Read their micro-bios on Twitter and their headlines on LinkedIn
• Figure out what type of content they’re sharing and where they’re sharing it
• Follow the blogs and sites that they’re sourcing from and read them
• Read about their company and see if they have a company blog
• Explore their entire digital footprint to learn as much information as possible; this includes blogs, conferences they’ve spoken at, groups that they’re part of, meetups that they attend, etc.
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• Track what they share on LinkedIn and follow them on Twitter
ConnectStep #1: Synthesize the information found during your research
and see how and where you can add value for your prospects
Step #2: Search through your network to see if you have mutual connections on LinkedIn and followers on Twitter, if so, ask for a warm introduction to your prospects
Step #3: When you’re sending your connect invite on LinkedIn, personalize the message by referencing an article they shared, a common interest or background, and if you have a mutual connection
Step #4: Follow your prospect on Twitter Step #5: Continue to share insightful information on LinkedIn and
Twitter to prove a genuine desire to share ideas professionally, rather than a connect-to-sell mentality
According to research conducted by the Brevet Group, only 13% of buyers believe that Salespeople can understand their needs. This statistic tells us that the disconnect between buyers and Sales is worse than we thought.
The takeaway here is simple: Salespeople still don’t understand the importance of connecting with their buyers. Making an effort to conduct research and connect with a prospect, humanizes Salespeople and gives them credibility, and increases the 13% statistic.
EngageStep #1: Stay on top of information by reading content that your
prospects share Step #2: Find and directly share relevant content with your
prospects and attach a personalized message with each piece of content (ex: @RyanSales Saw this article on LinkedIn and thought you could relate linked.in/1WotMR1)
Step #3: When you share or RT a prospect’s post on LinkedIn or Twitter, add a synopsis or quick thought before hitting publish—this shows that you’ve read and thought about
it (ex: Great post by Ryan Sales on team productivity linked.in/1WotMR1)
Step #4: Join relevant Linkedin Groups and Twitter chats of which your prospects are already members
Step #5: Take your online conversations offline and schedule a call
Getting a prospect’s attention is step #1 in the sales process. To understand how to effectively engage with a buyer, simply look at it as a Dos and Don’ts list:
With the list of Engagement Do’s and Don’ts, Sales reps will be better armed to integrate Social Selling into their workflow with ease.
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DOS DON’TS
• Do share thoughtful information that you’ve read and can easily discuss with a prospect
• Do ample research on the audience and core goal of a group discussion and Twitter chat in order to be fully prepared
• Do generate interest with personality, authenticity and credibility
• Once you’ve engaged with the prospect, Do listen carefully to them and take notes
• Don’t blast marketing content
• Don’t lead a group discussion or Twitter chat in the wrong direction
• Don’t use tacky techniques that traps prospects into thinking you know your stuff (when you don’t)
• Don’t talk over prospects or start selling your product right off the bat
Chapter 5: How to Create A Social Selling Program and Roll it Out
For many managers, the struggle with Social Selling is three pronged: there’s the why piece, the how piece and the implementation piece. In the previous
chapters, we solved for the why and how, and now we’re going to tackle implementation.
According to Aberdeen Research,
60% of best-in-class companies train sales reps to engage in online conversations with prospective or current customers, whereas laggard organizations do so at a 19% rate.
Social Proof as Method Training According to The Sales Management Association, 2/3 of companies have no social media strategy for their sales organizations. Regardless of the size or shape of your sales organization, you simply cannot roll out a Social Selling strategy to the entire organization all at once. Rather, follow the infographic on the next page for the best roll-out scenario:
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Once individual reps share their knowledge of Social Selling with their peers, that information becomes tribal knowledge—which enables the entire sales team to share best practices from that day forward. This tribal knowledge is huge because it affects the ease of implementation, adoption by the reps, the ability for your sales organization to scale Social Selling and revenue (we’ll go deeper into how Social Selling drives revenue in Chapter Five).
You can’t roll out a Social Selling practice
to the entire sales organization all at once
Break it down to pieces and get a few reps who are already doing it and/or willing to try to new methods (use the Framework for Social Selling as training)
Track the results for the subgroup and once they show success, highlight them and empower them to do better
Teach reps how to polish their LinkedIn
and Twitter profiles and give them the ammo
they need to be successful in
Social Selling
Continue to roll out to a larger group of reps
(again, use the Framework for Social
Selling as training)
HOW TO ROLL OUT A SOCIAL SELLING STRATEGY TO YOUR ORGANIZATION
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For leading organizations, there are four key aspects for implementing a Social Selling program:
TRAINING Refer back to the Framework for Social Selling (found on page nine) as a guide for training and benchmarks for the program.
LEAD BY EXAMPLEManagers should set up their LinkedIn and Twitter profiles as an example of the ideal polished profile.
TOOLSReps should sign up for automation and scheduling tools, like Buffer, and create an RSS feed of reputable sources and blogs (more on Tools for Social Selling in Chapter Six).
TONESocial Selling is about building credibility, so it’s important that reps know how to present themselves to their audience on LinkedIn and Twitter.
If either Linkedin or Twitter profiles are set to public, this provides a much wider audience than if reps set parameters on who an view their profiles.
How to Implement a Social Selling Program For Your Organization
Leverage Sales and Marketing AlignmentThe best way to add value is to share compelling content that educates buyers throughout the sales process.
The most important component of Social Selling is Marketing and to get the best content, Sales must partner with Marketing.
The clearest way to achieve alignment is to hold bi-weekly or weekly meetings between stakeholders in Sales and Marketing. During those meetings, a topic of discussion must be Social Selling, particularly how content can be added to the different stages of the sales process. This means that, Marketing should come up with a social content strategy that is easily deployable by Sales on their social channels.
A problem that many organizations face today is how they can find and curate great content and feed that content to Sales. To fix this problem, Marketing needs to work with Sales and Sales needs to leverage Content Marketing.
Content Marketing and Social Selling revolve around customer-focused content that attracts readers who are hungry for valuable content.
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Content Marketing Social Selling
Primary Focus
Sharing Content
Angle
Goal
Communicate, listen and teach prospects
Produce content that people want to read
Authentic and genuine
Build a company’s brand
Communicate and share ideas
Produce content that people find valuable
Authentic and genuine
Build a personal brand
Not only is Marketing responsible for the creation and distribution of its content, it should be held accountable for mapping the said content back to the Framework for Social Selling.
Content for Research:
• How-to Blog posts (that meet buyers business needs) • Overview Reports about their industry
Content to Connect:
• Long-form blog posts • Infographics that relate directly to their roles
Content to Engage:
• Case Studies with competitors in their space • Newsletters
For a more in-depth look at content for the each stage in the funnel, read on to Chapter Five.
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Marketing creates a piece of content (blog post, whitepaper, infographic, etc.)
Sales & Marketing in a meeting share the content ideas
Marketing creates a library of content, a single go-to place for all social content—organized by persona, industry, etc.
Sales uses the content in Social Selling
HOW MARKETING CAN PROVIDE SOCIAL CONTENT FOR SALES
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However, as Salespeople are sharing on social and emailing more content than ever, they’re starting to become mini-marketers and are no longer tied to the email, phone and follow-up activity chain. On both LinkedIn and Twitter, Salespeople should share the above Marketing-produced content in addition to content from credible sources and articles that they’ve written themselves (either green content published on LinkedIn Pulse, their blog or company blog).
“
“
When reps figure out how to have great content dripping out from their social channels time and time again, it’s going to generate awareness and buzz that’s going to spill into the next month and quarter.
KOKA SEXTONContent and Social Team - LinkedIn Corporate Communications, LinkedIn
Chapter 6: how Social Selling Directly Impacts Your Business
When reps adopt Social Selling as part of their core strategy, it opens the doors to a wider audience than those on a targeted account list. In relation
to the sales funnel, think of Social Selling as how reps can continuously engage, educate and empathize with a wide audience.
Organizations have to create a measurement program for Social Selling:
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Actionable Steps: • Curate content by finding reputable sources and share them with your network • Write content on LinkedIn Pulse or your company blog to show your expertise • Leverage Marketing to help optimize social channels, like LinkedIn and Twitter,
for better credibility
Actionable Steps: • Build your community and network by commenting on posts, answering
questions and joining digital conversations • Use automation and scheduling tools, like Buffer, to save time
Actionable Steps: • Sprinkle in content from your company—either a new case study, blog post,
eBook or product feature • Engage with your network on LinkedIn and Twitter
SOCIAL SELLING FITS INTO EVERY PART OF THE SALES FUNNEL
AWARENESS
INTEREST
CONVERSION
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Actionable Steps: • If you’ve invested the time to build a network and have become a trusted
advisor, prospects will turn to you for advice and your product • Prepare and personalize your pitch, but keep it authentic to the conversations
that you’ve had on social
Actionable Steps: • Follow through on your engagement and social relationship with your prospects • Continue to share valuable content and join conversations
Actionable Steps: • If prospects-turned-customers see that you’re in it for the long haul, they’re
more likely to participate in customer testimonials, case studies and renewals • People distrust ads, but they listen to real people. Make those customers
advocates for you and your product
Reps can now nurture prospects and maintain ongoing contact with them that’s highly engaged, no matter where a prospect is in the funnel. Any contact or touch point on social, like a tweet or comment, is an opportunity for a Sales rep to add value and up the conversion rate.
LOYALTY
EVANGELISM
SALE
If you’re looking at the Top of the Funnel, you’re trying to get a prospect’s attention. At the Middle of the Funnel when you’re trying to work them through the deal, you share relevant content with them as they’re evaluating your product. And then, at the Bottom of the Funnel, you want to make sure that you’re still relevant with a prospect and not just trying to close a deal.“ “
JAMES CRANEAccount Executive at Lean Data
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TOP OF THE FUNNEL According to a study conducted by Pardot, 76% of B2B buyers prefer different content at each stage of their research process. At the Top of the Funnel, reps are driving awareness and positioning themselves as credible sources at the widest stage in the funnel. The relationship between Social Selling and Top of the Funnel is building credibility through sharing insightful, but not dense content that piques a prospect’s interest (which aligns with the Framework for Social Selling).
In addition to RTing prospects’ content, favoriting tweets, liking status updates on LinkedIn and chiming in on communities, reps should also engage in light touches that contribute to the Top of the Funnel. These light touches include sharing content on topics that matter to a prospect’s business such as:
• How-to blog articles
• Infographics
• eBooks
• Content from credible sources and thought leaders
At this point in the funnel, you want prospects to be aware of you, but don’t prepare your sales pitch just yet as many prospects are just warming up to these kinds of interactions from Sales reps.
MIDDLE OF THE FUNNEL The Middle of the Funnel is where sales reps should focus on medium touches by connecting with prospects through sharing the following on their profiles:
• Case Studies
• Data Sheets
• Long-form blog articles
In addition to sharing content that will lead the way for connections, reps should continually contribute to conversations in LinkedIn Groups and respond to a prospect’s tweets on Twitter.
The Middle of the Funnel is where prospects are one step closer to their purchase
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decision. All the work that a rep has done in utilizing the Framework for Social Selling has brought them to this point in the funnel. At this crucial point, the engagement on social cannot end; instead, up the ante on Social Selling here and share specific and role-relevant thought leadership that engages.
BOTTOM OF THE FUNNEL Much like the Engagement phase in our Framework for Social Selling, at the Bottom of the Funnel is where sales reps must engage 1-to-1 with their prospects with a heavy touch. As the last step in our Framework for Social Selling calls for efforts in sending an InMail on LinkedIn or a DM on Twitter, reps can also share any of the following content:
• Product Demo & training decks
• Long-form blog posts
• Customer testimonials
• Pricing Guides
• Free trial or product demos
Social Selling Drives Actionable MetricsOnce a Social Selling program has been implemented and ample time has passed, organizations should move past baseline and vanity metrics and drill down into the metrics that directly drive revenue.
For Social Selling activities, it’s important to look at the following metrics:
• Dollar amount of pipeline generated from outbound Social Selling (SDRs)
• Dollar amount of closed business attributed to Social Selling
• Percentage of Sales reps able to meet or exceed their quota when they make it a point to do Social Selling
• Percentage of deals closed or sales cycles shortened because of a relationship that was established on social
• Number of connections per month attributed to leads
• Number of Sales rep written posts and the engagement level
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The takeaway for understanding metrics for Social Selling is that you have to align those metrics with your goals for doing Social Selling in the first place. Once you know what your goals are, you’ll know how to measure and track their success.
Referrals as a Key Performance Indicator Ninety-two percent of consumers around the world say they trust earned media, such as word-of-mouth and recommendations from friends and family, above all other forms of advertising. Furthermore, 69% of B2B buyers are more likely to choose a vendor who is recommended to them.
In working through the Framework for Social Selling with prospects, reps are in a better position to ask for the referral — which is the ultimate Social Selling strategy.
For a profession that has a large disconnect between the buyer and seller, referrals not only act as social proof for the buyer — they open the door to new prospects and leads. Here’s how you should ask for a referral:
1. Comb through the current customer database and seek strong customers who have truly found success on your platform
2. Ask those customers if they’d be willing to contribute to your organization’s referral database, which can be a customer testimonial, usage of a company logo or a video case study
3. Create any necessary collateral and be sure to use the referral in your organization’s Social Selling strategy
4. Remember: Social Selling isn’t unidirectional. Reps have to invest back what they take from their referrals and provide more value
Social Selling Index LinkedIn, as a company, is a champion for Social Selling. It has created a Social Selling Index (SSI) that measures your company’s adoption of Social Selling practices on its platform within four categories and gives each category a possible score of 25, with a total number anywhere from zero to 100.
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LinkedIn breaks down the Social Selling Index number into four pillars:
1. Establish Your Professional Brand Angle your LinkedIn profile with the customer in mind and become a thought-leader by sharing insightful posts and filling out all the details for every title and company
2. Find the Right People Better identify prospects by using efficient search and research tools such as LinkedIn Sales Navigator
3. Engage with Insights Share ideas and valuable insights with your network and on Pulse to grow your network and establish new relationships
4. Build Strong Relationships Be authentic in strengthening your networking, connect with decision makers and build their trust as an advisor
At HireVue, the company tracks their SSI number across the entire Sales organization. According to Blake J. Harber, Manager of Inside Sales, if sales reps have a low SSI score, it tells him that they’re not engaging enough or not having enough meaningful conversations on social. Low SSI scores might indicate that reps are spending too much time focused on only emailing and dialing, and not learning to innovate and be creative on social.
For Blake Harber, he walks through his rep’s workflows and figures out where the rep can leverage social in his or her sales process, which leads to more opportunities flowing into the Top of the Funnel.
Chapter 7: Tools for Social Selling
Of the many platforms and tools available for Social Selling, we’ve picked the most effective ones for the Framework for Social Selling. Each of
these platforms and tools make the Social Selling process simple and integrate seamlessly into any sales rep’s sales stack.
LINKEDIN Rep’s LinkedIn profiles should reflect their business and shouldn’t be left as just their digital resumes. Successful social sellers see their LinkedIn profile as a powerful marketing tool that builds their credibility.
What makes LinkedIn the ultimate Social Selling tool is its built-in capability to find the right people and as portal to build those relationships. People don’t want to be sold to; instead, they wanted to be advised on a direction, and LinkedIn does just that.
Koka Sexton recently wrote a Pulse post titled “What’s Your LinkedIn Connection Philosophy?” and gave the following advice for using LinkedIn as a Social Selling tool:
“There’s no right or wrong way. In Sales, you should connect with a wide range of people in different roles and industries to get a larger perspective.”
And he offered this tip: Come up with your LinkedIn connection strategy, put it in your profile and live by it.
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SALES NAVIGATOR LinkedIn is about optimizing a sales reps’ abilities to connect with more people than they know face-to-face. In Sales, opportunities exist everywhere, but the hard part is figuring out the right time to reach out. LinkedIn Sales Navigator is a tool that allows reps to recognize opportunities (based on role, experience, industry, etc) and create warm introductions that jump-start relationship building.
TWITTERFor prospecting, Twitter is a tool that allows sales reps to curate a list of Twitter users (prospects) and organize them in a private or public setting. These curated lists can be organized by industry, prospects, stage in the funnel, etc — and are a centralized place where sales reps can read the tweets of those on the list.
By setting up lists, sales reps are able to jump in and out of conversations, and are given context for any type of engagement. Think of these highly engaged conversations as nurturing 2.0; and reps should take the time to keep the conversations on topic, personalized and elicit responses from the other end.
SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGEMENT Should a rep find all this Twitter activity overwhelming, there are tools out there to manage and scale the entire process.
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For a bird’s-eye view on what’s happening across a home feed, notifications, hashtags and lists, there are tools like TweetDeck and Tweetbot that give reps access to everything in one place. TweetDeck touts itself as the personal browser for staying in touch with what’s happening now, and reps can sort everything from #prospecting to #socialselling to notifications.
BUFFERSocial media automation tools, such as Buffer, make it easy for reps to share and schedule content on LinkedIn and Twitter. Scheduling content, allows reps to block off time on their calendars to load insightful content onto their social feeds — so they can go back to closing deals and reading the content shared by their prospects.
Buffer makes scheduling posts and content easy by dragging and dropping articles, infographics and videos into social feeds. While Buffer distributes the queued content, on the backend it provides analytics, so reps can see which pieces of content worked best with their network.
HOOTSUITEMuch like Buffer, Hootsuite is an all-in-one social media management tool to schedule content, engage with your audiences and measure activity. Hootsuite even has a Social Selling solution that helps reps identify and engage with the right prospects through their platform.
In addition, Hootsuite has free courses in social media through its Podium program of six online courses designed to teach students about:
• Social media strategy to support business goals
• Generating compelling content
• Growing their network and personal brand
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GOOGLE ALERTS & INDUSTRY NEWS Creating Google Alerts and following industry news is the best way to stay informed on your industry and changes in targeted accounts. Conversations happen all the time over LinkedIn and Twitter, but those conversations have to be fueled by reputable content—setting up alerts and following news is the first step in getting there. This allows reps to listen to what’s being said and what’s breaking news. Then, it allows reps to join the conversation and engage with their networks in a meaningful way. Then, it allows for real-time and insightful engagement that’ll lead to offline conversations about your organization’s products and features.
TOUTAPP With a powerful suite of tracking, template and analytics that allows reps to follow up in a highly personalized way, it brings Social Selling back into the fold of traditional sales.
Tracking Once you’ve built that relationship with a prospect, it’s time to go in for “The Ask” via email. With Tout Tracking, never send a blind email again.
TemplatesSuccessful sales teams and reps have Tout templates for every sales scenario that zero in on the most effective messaging.
Analytics Sales is a numbers game and Tout Analytics allows your organization to rely on data and insights to accelerate the sales process.
Sales BeatAlignment between Sales and Marketing is crucial, Sales Beat allows the two teams to cross-share content, updates and messaging.
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Social Selling Success Story: HireVue
“Social Selling is the route that Sales is going down and for any company that hasn’t adopted it yet, you’re behind the curve.”
TRICKLE-DOWN EFFECT OF SOCIAL SELLING When Blake Harber entered the SaaS world as a Sales Development Representative, he had never heard of Social Selling—let alone thought about implementing it into his core sales strategy. He got a crash course in Social Selling from Gabe Villamizar, HireVue’s Social Selling Director, and quickly read everything he could about it, from how-tos to thought leadership. In three weeks, he was fully ramped and engaged in conversations on LinkedIn and Twitter.
Within months, Blake saw incredible results, was promoted to Manager of Inside Sales and attributed his success in the SDR role to his training and adoption of Social Selling. Now, Blake leads by example and trains his 13 Sales reps on the practices and benefits of Social Selling.
HireVue’s purpose is to give people a voice, help them tell their stories and demonstrate their true abilities throughout the interview process. HireVue’s agile and cutting edge Sales team has been able to outsell its competitors by widely adopting Social Selling as part of its core sales strategy.
Industry:
Computer Software
Company Size:
201 - 500 employees
Location:
Salt Lake City, UT
@HireVue
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“Social Selling is what sets us apart from other Salespeople and allows our reps to truly engage with prospects and build relationships.
Blake J. HarberManager of Inside Sales - Account Development at HireVue | @BlakeJHarber
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CUTTING EDGE SOCIAL SELLING TEAM The results and success at the Management level influenced the trickle-down effect for the adoption of Social Selling for individual sales reps across the company. Through Blake, Gabe and Peter Chun, the Director of Account Development, sales reps are trained and armed with Social Selling best practices and strategies that allow them to build their network and Top of the Funnel. With the success of Social Selling training and implementation across the entire Sales team, HireVue is looking beyond sharing content, liking posts and commenting, and moving toward getting its reps to publish their own content. This original content will then drive traffic and engagement back to the reps’ LinkedIn or Twitter and act as stronger ammo for their Top of Funnel and sales cycle.
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TOUTAPP IS BUILT TOEMPOWER SALESPEOPLE
ToutApp helps salespeople close more deals with the power of Tracking, Templates and Analytics, plugged
directly into Gmail, Outlook and Salesforce
THE MOST INNOVATIVE SALES TEAMS USE TOUT
SALES REPSClose deals faster with integrated sales intelligence and productivity tools
Close more deals with complete visibility across the sales cycle
Increase productivity while maintaining the personal touch with your prospects
Measure and improve messaging using real-time data that tells you what works
SALES MANAGERSStreamline your sales process and increase rep productivity
MARKETINGArm your Sales team with the best content and email templates
Social Selling Experts
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Bill Cushard Director of Marketing at ServiceRocket / @billcush
ServiceRocket enables customer success for software companies and their enterprise customers through training, utilization and support services.Industry: Computer SoftwareCompany Size: 51-200 employeesLocation: Palo Alto, CA
Blake J. HarberManager of Inside Sales - Account Development at HireVue / @BlakeJHarber
HireVue transforms the interview experience and gives people a voice, helps them tell their stories and demonstrates their true abilities. Industry: Computer SoftwareCompany Size: 201-500 employeesLocation: Salt Lake City, UT
Brian GrothSales Enablement Manager at Xactly / @BrianGroth
Xactly is a leading provider of cloud-based, incentive compensation solutions for employee and sales performance management.Industry: Computer SoftwareCompany Size: 201-500 employeesLocation: San Jose, CA
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Koka SextonContent and Social Team LinkedIn Corporate Communications at LinkedIn / @kokasexton
LinkedIn connects the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful, and is the largest professional network on the Internet.Industry: InternetCompany Size: 5001-10,000 employeesLocation: Mountain View, CA
Misha SobolevFounder and CEO of ExecFile / @msobolev
ExecFile provides real-time updates when senior executives change jobs, are promoted, win industry awards, speak at conferences and publish books.Industry: InternetCompany Size: 1-10 employeesLocation: New York, NY
James CraneAccount Executive at LeanData / @jamesrcrane
LeanData is a fully managed, intuitive lead management solution to simplify B2B sales with account-based marketing.Industry: Computer SoftwareCompany Size: 11-50 employeesLocation: Sunnyvale, CA
References
Barnes, Hank, and Bova, Tiffani. “Tech Go-to-Market: Sales Organizations Need to Upgrade Skills and Processes to Meet Buyer Expectations.” Tech Go-to-Market: Sales Organizations Need to Upgrade Skills and Processes to Meet Buyer Expectations. Gartner, 03 Sept. 2013. Web.
Buffer. Buffer - A Smarter Way to Share on Social Media. N.p., n.d. Web.
“Collaborate, Listen, Contribute: How Best-in-Class Sales Teams Leverage Social Selling.” Aberdeen Group Research Access Login / Registration. Ed. Aberdeen Group Research. Aberdeen Group Research, Nov. 2012. Web.
Hanington, Jenna. “Demand Gen Report: The 2013 State of Demand Generation.” Pardot. Web.
Hootsuite. Social Media Management Dashboard. N.p., n.d. Web.
“How to Move Your Team to Social Selling.” LinkedIn Sales Solutions, 06 Nov. 2015. Web.
“Nielsen: Global Consumers’ Trust in ‘Earned’ Advertising Grows in Importance.” Nielsen: Global Consumers’ Trust in ‘Earned’ Advertising Grows in Importance. Nielsen, 04 Oct. 2012. Web. 01 Sept. 2015.
Rowley, Jill. “How to Train 23,000 Salespeople in Social Selling.” Write Better Sell More. B2B Marketing Portal, 29 Oct. 2013. Web. 01 Sept. 2015.
Zent, Monica. “Why the Future of New Business Is Social Selling.” Entrepreneur. Entrepreneur, 27 Mar. 2015. Web. 01 Sept. 2015.
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