The growing power of the internet has transformed the way we generate sales prospects. From scouring the phone book in order to find new leads, to communicating with your target audience in a single email, the digitisation of sales has created a new market space to support the growing consumption of goods and services.
One channel that has played a major role in this transformation is social media. Providing a valuable opportunity to interact with potential customers on a regular basis to build relationships long before discussions about a sale are broached. In total, 89% of top performing salespeople believe social networking sites are pivotal in their strategy for closing deals, and 64% of sales teams who invest in social media meet their quotes - compared to just 49% who don't use any form of social media.
Social Selling uses social media platforms to cultivate sales prospects by enhancing the connection between the brand and user. By answering questions, responding to comments and sharing relevant content throughout the buying process sales people can build relationships without being pushy about a sale. Nurturing these relationships with potential buyers enables you to rely less on traditional sales tactics, and focus instead on building brand awareness, all the while warming up prospective leads.
The art of Social Selling is finding the right moment to join the conversation. This enables you to present your product or service as the solution to a problem, addressing a significant pain point for your sales prospect, reducing the likelihood that your content will be actively ignored.
While the focus of selling used to be placed predominantly on the fast sell, Social Selling is a much softer approach, as it involves a long-term strategy to build strong customer relationships.
Traditional selling relies heavily on cold calling and aggressive sales messaging to generate new leads. However, research has shown the value in spending time to understand and nurture sales prospects. A staggering 90% of top decision-makers don’t respond to cold calls, emphasising the missed opportunity to build authentic relationships and long-term customers. Social Selling enables you to increase awareness of your brand with ongoing interaction - a vital activity in the marketing funnel, that plays a big role in converting followers into purchasing customers.
Your clients are already 'social buying', aka using social media to find potential brands to work with by researching them online. Almost all brands have some sort of online presence, and even if they aren’t actively posting content, they will be exploring and listening to the conversation. So, if you're not investing in Social Selling, you won't be visible to a large audience of potential customers actively looking to buy - and therefore missing out on opportunities.
Readers are unlikely to consume content that isn't from a trusted source, that seemingly has little to no experience in the area being discussed. A rapport must be built with the target audience in order to give them confidence that you are an authority on the subject. The long-term approach used in Social Selling allows your business to showcase a multi-faceted understanding of the matter in question, portraying you as authentic and trust worthy.
With over 40% of the world's population on social media, it's safe to say the landscape for e-commerce is changing. In fact, 71% of all sales professionals are already using Social Selling tools and harnessing the valuable power of social media platforms. Utilising key opportunities, like Social Selling, is not only important for staying ahead of the competition, but it also ensures you are equipping your sales team with the resources and tools needed to communicate your brand's messaging in the most effective way, maximising return on investment.
At iCandy Design, our digital specialists can devise a robust sales-informed marketing strategy while executing the right messaging to grow your Social Selling profile. We can tailor posts, articles and content for sharing on your social channels and develop the connections to strengthen your business.
Our expertise lies in generating leads for businesses. Additionally, we can help you determine how to best maximise your new-found leads, through a bespoke website, ad campaigns, email tactics or a combination of the above.
Let iCandy Design be your marketing team. Get in contact today to talk things through further.