Social Selling Definition { Why IT'S a Must For You }

Written by Rick Rea
​Fargo, ND

Social Selling Definition and Why It's a Must In Today's Market

Social Selling Definition

Is Social Selling Social Media Advertising?  No

Is Social Selling Social Media Marketing? No

What is Social Selling?

Definition of Social Selling:

Social Selling Definition is taking all the advertising and the marketing out of social media, and gives salespeople the ability to laser target prospects and establish themselves within their social tarket market network.  Fo most that are good at social selling can practically eliminate cold calling.

Social Selling Builds Relationships

Why Is It Important To Build Online Business Relationships

1. Strengthen your social media network by connecting and establishing trust with decision makers. 
2. 73% of B2B buyers prefer sales professionals who have been referred by someone they know.
3. 87% of B2B buyers said they would have a favorable impression of salespeople who was introduced to them from someone in their professional network.
4. Buying decisions now typically include 5.4 people.

Expert Social Selling Tips To Build Online Business Relationships

10 Reasons Why Social Selling Is Important!

1. Connect with all your contacts online to establish future business relationships within their network. (Larger networks have bigger odds of opening more doors with more prospects)
2. Connect with prospects after any introduction.
3. Focus on Decision Makers: Focus on building relationships with senior level people. 
4. Don't rely on one design maker at each company. Connect with as many decision makers at each prospect company you can.
5. Look at your current network for mutual connections to have a current connection make a warm introduction.
6. Nurture relationships over time to keep yourself top of mind with your prospects.
7. Share, like and comment on your prospects social media posts to your network in a way that works with your network.
8. Write (blog) and post relevant professional content and share on social media that your prospects and network will be very interested in.  
9. Use professional software (app) that measures your companies approved posts for engagement, shares, conversions and most importantly it's EMV (earned media value). 

Your Prospects and Clients Are Already Engaged in Social Selling

Social media is the number one place for product research. Recent study of 100 Tweets containing the phrase, "Can Anyone Recommend", shows that brands who actively engaged with those tweets received a positive response more than 60% of the time. This represents a higher engagement rate than both email marketing or cold calling! Wow!

4 Pillars of Social Selling

1. Create a Professional Brand
B2B buyers are very selective and only work with people they can trust. Professional brands shows you are an active participant in your industry. It leads to more inquiries from prospects. It leads to more responses to your communications.

2. Focus on the Right Prospects
Social Selling enables you to find and connect with prospects more effectively than traditional sales. Over 76% of buyers feel ready to have a social media conversation and identifying prospects that meet your established criteria – such as role, function, or industry.

3. Engage with Insights
Position yourself as a subject matter expert by sharing relevant industry content, commenting on news alerts, and build yourself as a professional brand. Over 62% of B2B buyers respond to people that connect with common insights and opportunities. Salespeople can broaden their leadership by staying up-to-date with prospect news, and by identifying new contacts or decision makers.

4. Build Trusted Relationships
Build trust with prospects and clients by sharing your perspectives and helping provide relevant information to common pain points. Have genuine conversations and focus on the needs of the prospect first, selling second.

Measuring Social Selling Success

Important to understand what Social Selling is and the ability to measure it. Quantify the value of social selling, LinkedIn produced the first-of-its kind social selling measurement – The Social Selling Index (SSI). The Social Selling Index is scored on a scale of 0 – 100 based on your LinkedIn activities relating to the 4 pillars of social selling. In our internal study, we’ve found a strong correlation between achieving sales goals and sales reps with high SSI:

- 45% more sales opportunities
- 51% more likely to hit quota
- 78% of social sellers outsell peers who don't use social media
- 3X more likely to go to club

What is Your Social Selling Index?

Rick Rea Social Selling Index - Look up your Social Selling Index and strive to Build Relationships.

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Written by: Rick Rea

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