Aristotle said more than 2000 years ago that man is a social being by nature. But we have reached a point where we are not just social beings, we are social and connected. But why stay solely with the power of dissemination that social networks offer us? Why not use them strategically and intelligently to sell through them?
What is social selling?
Social Selling consists of using social networks to manage our personal brand, identify contacts, create content and share relevant information that generates value and establish long-term relationships of trust. If we do this our value in professional social networks will go up “like foam.”
It consists of using social networks as tools for sale, both in B2B and B2C businesses. We emphasize the word tool, and not channels, because they constitute a support on which to develop sales techniques. Strategically, we must forget about the objective so sought after by many of obtaining likes, since Social Selling seeks to obtain the necessary information from social networks to sell products and / or services.
Listen, interact with consumers, investigate the competition, and trends in the sector, as well as the interests and needs of consumers, detect opinion climates, generate a brand, get closer to the target audience, create emotions and links, customer service channel , disseminate information on offers and any information related to the company…. All these are actions that we can carry out through social media and they are key to discovering new business opportunities and cross-selling and complementary.
10 reasons to do Social Selling
- 90% of cold calls are not attended: the “cold door does not work”.
- 5.4 decision-makers are involved in the purchase decision: the purchase process is more complex.
- 50% of purchase decisions are made before the salesperson intervenes. In other words, we only have access to 50% of the market.
- 75% of the buyers are informed before in the Social Networks.
- 72.6% of commercials achieve better results using Social Selling techniques.
- LinkedIn and other networks are the easiest way to position ourselves as experts: manage your professional brand!
- It allows us to more easily identify our prospects.
- We can share information and create valuable content of our own.
- We are informed of the needs of our clients and we build stronger relationships with our leads.
- We know what the value proposition of our competition is (benchmarking).
How to use social networks to sell?
To clearly understand the operation of Social Selling, nothing better than an example: for the case of B2C sales, let’s assume the case of a car dealer. The first thing you should do is assess the target of each car model to focus efforts on promoting and selling vehicles whose target audience is a regular user of these networks.
You can create a YouTube channel where not only the spots produced by the brand are posted, but also videos showing details of the interior and exterior, finishes, videos that demonstrate stability or other driving performance. They can also be more creative, such as pills that show the satisfied faces of your customers when they first see their car ordered two months ago, or videos that provide real testimonials from owners recommending models that they have and the dealer sells.
Like YouTube, it can be very interesting to use Instagram or Pinterest for products that are sold by sight or by provoking emotions. They are excellent virtual storefronts to capture attention.
Facebook, Twitter and other channels such as blogs are ideal for providing information. They will only meet the objective if they are not used solely as a channel for self-sales and advertising, since then they will not attract any visitors. The contents that must be dumped on these channels have to attract and retain, be of interest to our target. For example, industry news, such as car routes for ATV users, games or techniques to entertain children during trips, tips for safe driving, measures to take in extreme conditions, information on driving courses, promote participation of users through contests, etc. And obviously, offer any news about government aid for the renovation of the car park. It is important to take care not to use them only as self-sales by the dealer itself, but mainly, providing other types of information that our target may be interested in.
Through social networks, the dealer can also carry out co-branding actions with certain models. For example, a car for a young audience, with a radio station aimed at the same target group –very active also on the networks–, or a high-end model with a luxury watch brand, etc.
It is well known that it is easier to retain a customer than to win a new one. Precisely, in the automotive sector there is a marked loyalty to brands within family nuclei and by the same person, even though purchases are spaced out over time. With social networks you can maximize this point very easily and obtain brand advocates. On the other hand, they are also an excellent springboard to capture leads, in addition to seeking information from the target audience and the sector, spreading messages and generating engagement.
For B2B sales, the strategy is different. Social networks allow companies to be informed of customer and supplier movements and in these cases, the sale is carried out according to rational criteria and the network of contacts becomes important.
Linkedin provides relevant information about companies and entities and is very useful when looking for potential clients, presenting yourself with third-party recommendations, designing tailor-made sales strategies, identifying key interlocutors, etc. Google+ is gaining strength and is essential right now. Also Slideshare and Youtube are very suitable platforms for companies to present themselves and publicize their services, show presentations, workshops or conferences, etc. The use will depend on the sector in which it operates.
We must be present in the networks and depending on our market and our strategy, we will bet on one or the other.