Who says social selling necessarily says Linkedin. According
to a 2016 survey by the professional social networking giant, salespeople using
social selling would multiply their chances of exceeding their goals by 3. With
the health crisis, these figures are no longer fully relevant as, over the past
5 years, Linkedin has been become essential in acquisition strategies,
especially in B2B. Today, around 85% of B2B decision-makers use LinkedIn in the
course of their professional activity.
The social selling and social sales is a process of using
social networks ( Linkedin so but also Twitter , Instagram or Facebook ) every
step of the sales process. We explain what it is more precisely!
What is social selling?
Social selling does not stop with the simple creation of
profiles on different social networks . It's also not about opening a Facebook
page and gaining likes . It is different in B2C and B2B.
In a complex B2B sales process, social selling consists of
using social media as well as inbound marketing techniques to start a
conversation, in order to generate leads (or prospects if you prefer). The two go hand in hand .
For salespeople, managers or other entrepreneurs, it's a
long and time-consuming process:
• profile
search
• listening
to your network
• information
sharing
• mutual
aid between professionals
• interaction
with your prospects or potential partners.
The whole with an approach where it is a question of being
more interesting than interested, even if the finality remains to sell.
Aim to help, not to sell
Social selling is one of the techniques that can be found in
the broader methods today called "digital selling", namely the global
approach which also includes the various digital tools ( portfolio management ,
CRM, video, Sales automation, marketing automation ...) to sell better .
Learn more about the sales techniques that every good
salesperson must master in 2021
What is social selling used for?
Social selling has several objectives. Among other things,
it allows:
• build
your "personal branding" (your professional brand)
• detect
opportunities
• to speed
up or shorten a sales cycle
• to
develop your business.
• create a
relationship of trust
• start a
conversation with your network
• build an
employer brand
It is used at all stage of the sales cycle and remains very
suitable (and recommended) in the prospecting phase .
According to Hootsuite, 78% of sales reps who use social
selling for business purposes perform better than those who don't. This is
interesting data to convince you of the usefulness of this approach.
In short, if you are still using the phone book or the excel
file to make "cold" calls (and there are more of you than you think),
you are wasting your time while your competitors build their competitive
advantage .
Why is social selling still on the rise?
According to a study conducted by Iko-system , it would
indeed take 8.4 calls to reach a prospect and 22 calls (!) For 1 qualified
exchange (qualified lead).
If we take into account, again according to the study, that
90% of decision-makers never answer an email or a "cold" call from a
stranger and that the way of buying has been profoundly changed in recent years
years, you have the winning combo.
These figures are reminiscent of the fact that only 2% of
calls land a qualified appointment . Difficult in these conditions to achieve
its objectives. Unless you have pharaonic appeal volumes, by platforms and
more.
We have mentioned it on our blog and in our guides ,
traditional methods no longer work as they did before, because the customer has
simply changed and evolved in the way they buy .
And even if Linkedin does not replace traditional sales and
marketing techniques, it remains an additional and essential acquisition
channel, all the more so when we know that in B2B no less than 6.8 people are
involved in the purchasing process (Gartner).
Finally, in 2020, behavioral changes ( Mc Kinsey-August 2020
report ) accelerated with the health crisis and are becoming the new normal
with in particular 3 major changes:
• increased
remote work and / or collaboration
• changing
customer needs or expectations
• increasing
demand for online services and / or products
For these reasons, distance selling is becoming essential
for the year 2021: it is a major change for many companies, but it is
essential. According to CRM publisher Hubspot: 64% of sales managers with a
distance selling strategy (and the tools that go with it) have met or exceeded
their revenue targets in 2020.
Discover the 7 keys to revive your business development in
2021
Add to this that over 87% of professional events ( Forbes )
have been canceled due to the pandemic and many events have moved to a virtual
format (seven out of 10 respondents noted this change).
The results of social selling
Connected sellers would perform better than others. We see
it with our customers but it is also corroborated by figures:
• 90% of
the best salespeople in a business use social selling ( Forbes article )
• salespeople
using social selling are 51% more likely to reach their sales goals
• 84% of
B2B CEOs use social networks in their purchasing decisions ( source B2B marketers)
• 78% of
companies using these tools outperform their competitors ( Forbes )
• 64% of
sales teams who use social selling meet their quotas.
Since 2013, LinkedIn has made social selling its new
business model . Like what had been imagined for recruiters, the database of
the first professional network (including locally where there are now 130,000
profiles or more than 1 in 2 active ) is now the new muse sales forces.
