Lead Generation isn’t Rocket Science it doesn’t happen by itself. 

Social Selling is as much about networking as it is about marketing yourself, your business or your brand. Sales are crucial to the growth of any business. Generating leads takes time irrespective of the industry you are in.

It’s interesting to me that there is still an argument about which is more important, Marketing or Sales. To this, you can now add Social Media. If you’ve worked in either of these fields you’ll know firsthand that they’re most successful when they work hand-in-hand, interchangeably. One compliments the other.

Without marketing, there would often be no sales, and without needing to generate leads to create sales, there would be no need for marketing. You can wrap a bow on the whole process by using social media to either generate opportunities or promote the ones you are already involved with.

Social Selling is a derivation of Social MediA. 

Good salespeople are invariably interested in gaining appointments with high-level decision-makers. Those who have ‘carried a bag’ often quickly know the difference between a decision maker and a time waster. If you don’t know what I mean by ‘carried a bag‘, then it’s quite possible that you need my help most of all.

Social Selling does require an understanding of which social tools to use in order to be successful at generating leads. However, it takes more than just knowing which buttons to push. Marketing can create interest and social can help you to get your message out there but it still takes solid sales principles and experience to close the deal.

Taking the conversation offline is really important. Not everybody either enjoys nor has the time to use social media when interacting with you. You have to talk to people in the language that they will understand you. This means mirroring their style and approach to the conversation. Remember that this doesn’t mean being inauthentic, it just means being approachable and capable of showing empathy with your audience if you want them to get to know, like and trust you. It’s equally important to make sure that you are showing up in the spaces and places where your audience or ideal customers actually are.

It’s equally important to make sure that you are showing up in the spaces and places where your audience or ideal customers actually are.

Persistence is key and so is engaging in the right way. 

It’s only through persistence and execution that any skill can be learned. Social Selling is no different. There is no quick fix to networking, that’s not to say that you can’t be lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time. However, once you find yourself in networking situations it’s important to make the most of the opportunity. That includes being prepared to engage in the right way. For example. It doesn’t hurt for you to have prepared an elevator pitch so that you have the basis for a discussion of interest to the people that you’re speaking with.

Exactly the same can and should be said of social selling. Prepare for these discussions ahead of time to ensure that your profile both attracts and resonates with your target audience. You make sure that all of the places in which you can be found are demonstrating that you’re putting your best foot forward. This means having credible information on those profiles.

Customers today are more educated than they have ever been. They have vast amounts of information on the things that they are interested in. What your customers are looking for is confirmation that you are the right choice for them Click To Tweet.

Are you an Expert or a Student?

You won’t hear me claim to be an expert at anything. You won’t hear me make promises that I can’t keep. The reason for that is because:

• A) I leave it to others to call me an expert, but I certainly believe myself to be a student. Now granted if I’ve been studying longer than you and on the same subject matter then I can understand how I will appear to you an expert and therefore the right person to speak to. As diligent a student as I am, I know that I pride myself on gaining as much up to date information as I can about my subjects. I also think that I’ve never been a better student.
• B) The reason I never make promises to my kids is that I’m really conscious of how important a promise is to a child and how by breaking that promise you are essentially doing something that cannot be on done. You are damaging your credibility and trust in such a way that could be impossible to regain it. For me, that is the price too high to bear.

Therefore my approach to working with clients is not unlike dealing with my children in that it is one of honesty and commitment to the truth. It’s an agreement with myself to do the best I can for them and a signal to them to trust that I have their best interests at heart.

How are companies screwing this up?

It’s more common than we might think for our Marketing Department not to fully have a grasp of how to integrate social media into the sales process and instead treated more like an advertising platform. That’s great for getting the company name out there but it doesn’t do much in the way of helping you to engage or network with your customer particularly if you don’t take any personal action to help the customer to feel like you are the right person for them to speak to.

What’s your social selling strategy?

There are only so many reasons why you would choose to engage a consultant to work with you. Certainly, a common one is increasing your own knowledge of an area and having your hand held whilst you start on your journey. Do you or your team need help with your social selling strategy?