Does your sales team use social selling? An approach ...
Social selling - by Sven Martens
Much has already been said about multi-channel and omni-channel approaches in sales. It is absolutely the right way to support the customer in the consumer goods sector, but also in the capital goods sector, on his way to the purchase decision. Many companies are omnipresently available to their customers from the initial approach of interest, awareness, through to the purchase of the product, the conversion. They are permanently accompanied on their customer journey.
Addressing potential customers through the appeal of the brand, the innovation of the product or the visualization of the offer is a prerequisite here.
But what about the sales team's behavior on social media?
The introduction of internal customer relationship systems (CRM) has taken a first step towards optimizing Salesforce. Know-how is no longer just held by individual people, customer data and the history of activities are accessible, there is a connection to the ERP system and this is used to prepare for meetings. In modern terms, you could say that "farming" has been digitally mapped.
But what about "hunting"? How does my sales force generate new potential?
The classic method of cold calling is often still chosen here. In shorthand style: selection of the sector, cold calling by mailing, phone call, appointment, product demo. This approach works, but it only provides the benefits of social selling to a limited extent. The maximum here is e-mail marketing instead of the classic letter.
What does the market say?
According to several studies, more than 75% (source: IDC) of buyers of capital goods use social networks in addition to researching on the open Internet (with its unmanageable variety and controlled advertising). In addition to the objective benefit argument, a buyer often also decides on the basis of the personal factor.
Is my Salesforce utilizing this potential?
Isn't it the case that many salespeople today still use business portals such as XING or LinkedIn as a digital address book to maintain their contacts with (former) colleagues and customers? Is the maxim of use to be approached by recruiters for a new job? But how does this compare to the aforementioned customer journey, how is digital customer acquisition mapped?
Approach: Active social selling
Through an attractive appearance of your sales team online, you create a personal, digital business card that can be decisive for sales and potential.
Certainly, a precise recommendation is only possible in dialog with your company, but a few basic tips may be allowed at this point:
- Clarity of the profile. What do you offer? Give tips for a clear message and use keywords
- Style of the photo. The first impression counts. Encourage or invest in high-quality photos as an offer for your employees. The first impression counts
- References. Have your employees evaluated by business partners after successful projects. References are a positive for new customers
It should also be mentioned at this point that these are always personal profiles of employees, in addition to available company pages. Nevertheless, there are many approaches to utilizing the new potential together.
Conclusio:
When sales processes become digitalized and there is 24/7 interaction with the customer, the customer is constantly accompanied on the way to the purchase decision, social selling should also be an integral part of your sales team. Today's sales managers should actively integrate social selling into their daily work, not only in the form of internal CRM reporting but also in the form of active presentation, recording the social activities of existing customers or simply in the development of new potential.
Alongside sales technologies, today's social selling is an integral part of a company's virtual selling.
Martens & Kollegen will be happy to support your company in the targeted integration of your sales team into social & virtual selling.