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Social engagement. Is it just another term to check off the buzzword bingo card at your next sales meeting? Not really. It simply means having robust conversations, exchanging ideas, providing insights, and sharing expertise—whether we’re online, on the phone, or meeting in person. It’s what salespeople do—or should be doing—all the time.
Does this sound like a lot of giving? You bet, and it’s critical to increasing B2B sales effectiveness. By sharing information, ideas, solutions, and even referrals with our clients and prospects, we become trusted resources.
Put simply: By giving to them, we give them a reason to buy from us.
CSO Insights agrees with me. The newly-released “2014 10th annual Lead Management & Social Engagement” report explains:
Not every social outreach is going to result in a sale, nor should it. As you become more immersed in the “social stream,” you’ll find it has more to do with contributing and, as a result, being recognized as knowledgeable and credible. Credibility is synonymous with “trust” in the B2B world, and for all that has changed, one thing hasn’t: lack of trust will kill more deals than lack of money, urgency, and need combined. And high levels of credibility and visibility will increase your lead flow, brand awareness, and win rates.
This proves what I’ve been saying for the last two years: Social selling only works if you’re actually social, not just selling something.
Here are four ways salespeople get social engagement all wrong:
Don’t invite people to connect on LinkedIn if you just want to sell them something. Social media is a great tool for researching prospects and referral sources, and for positioning yourself as a thought leader. But it is not the place for a sales pitch. If you’re sending sales offerings to strangers on social media, you’re pretty much cold calling.
Never, ever ask for a referral introduction on LinkedIn. You’re jeopardizing your relationship by assuming the other person even wants to refer you. Most people only refer others they know well and trust implicitly to take care of their connections as they would. Until you actually reach out and talk to your potential referral sources, you don’t even know how they’re connected to the prospects you want to meet or if they even know those people well enough to make referral introductions.
It’s easy to get so caught up in developing new relationships that we forget about existing ones, at least until we need something from them. Big mistake!
We all know “those” people—the ones who only reach out when they want something. The people who drop off the face of the earth until they need a referral or want an introduction to someone in your network. After a while, don’t you find yourself thinking, “What have you done for me lately?”
You don’t want to be one of those people. Once you’ve done the groundwork to earn someone’s trust and friendship, don’t waste that effort by neglecting to stay in touch. Reach out to all the people in your professional network on at least a semi-regular basis. Find out what’s going on with them. Ask how you can help. Share your insights and offer introductions to others with whom they could have mutually-beneficial relationships. And while you’re at it, ask for referrals.
Remember the days when people accepted every LinkedIn invitation? We felt special and included. It was like we were back in high school, vying for acceptance and popularity, and any invite was a good invite. We were finally going to the big party!
Well, sales is not a party. Selling is about building relationships, not having the most LinkedIn connections. For social selling to work, it’s not enough just to grow your networks. You must also nurture them. That means putting in the time and effort online. It also means eventually taking those sales conversations offline and making in-person connections that count.
To learn more about the future of sales, visit salesforce.com, or download our free e-book.
