Social selling has become extremely popular in today’s marketplace, for a matter of fact, it is replacing traditional marketing tactics; such as cold-calling and bulk mailings.
Selling through social networks is helping many data centers with their sales and lead generation, through continually publishing eye-catching content that draws their customers to them.
Salespeople have changed tremendously throughout the past decade. Today, sales professionals realize that it is a buyers’ market. Buyers have more control, due to the large amounts of available information; including, reviews, product/service descriptions, and comments.
Let's face it; if your company has a bad reputation, it will be readily available for all to see on the internet. This means that more salespeople have turned from pushy to helpful and educational; through the use of social media.
What Is Social Selling?
Social selling is the use of social media platforms to reach out to potential customers. Sales professionals use social media to connect with and add value to their prospects, through responding to inquiries, acknowledging comments, and promoting useful content with each stage of the buyer’s journey in mind.
This type of marketing is customer-centric; not just focused on the amount of revenue that will be made from the sale.
How Social Selling Can Improve Your Business
In the State of Inbound Report of 2016, a survey revealed that “42% of buyers said they communicate via social networks such as LinkedIn and Twitter for business purposes, and sales teams growing more than 50% were more likely than any other group to identify LinkedIn as a valuable sales connection channel.”
This research signifies that potential buyers and salespeople are engaging through social media sites. This year through next, selling socially will be a top priority for salespeople more than ever before. From 2015 to 2016, research revealed that the use of social selling went from 22% to 28%.
If your data center has not started the social selling trend, it is highly important that you start the process by strategizing a social media plan.
How to Get a Social Media Plan Started
Social media's primary objective is about building relationships; to get started, you must understand who your buyer persona is. By understanding this information, you will be able to select social media sites which are most relevant for your marketing efforts; as your goal is to be on the same social networks as your customers in order to increase exposure.
Your first step is to choose which social media networks to use. There are numerous social networks, and each represents different marketing channels. For instance, LinkedIn is a professional network, YouTube is a video streaming network, and Instagram is for photos. So, choose the proper network that works for your audience.
Your next step is to start building your network, on Twitter and LinkedIn, the more connections that you develop, the more views your content will receive. Whenever you meet someone new, invite them to connect.
Additionally, you can grow your network by joining LinkedIn groups and participating in their discussions. There are currently more than 1.8 million groups on LinkedIn. With the number of groups available, it is a big opportunity to network with people in your occupation.
Through social media, especially Twitter, you can see who is talking about your company. Most importantly you can share relevant and educational content through all social networks, and provide your input on certain topics or questions. People like working with knowledgeable people, so if you are a sales professional, sharing your knowledge can bring you future success.
Are you ready to start selling through social media?
Has your data center started to use social media to increase sales? Let us know in the Comments below.
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