There isn’t any question that social networking is here to stay. But what of social selling? Social selling is a relatively new buzzword that stated to appear in 2007 and has picked up considerable search interest since then.
Social networks really aren’t the place for the “hard sell.” But there is tremendous value when both sales and marketing embrace social networks and leverage social selling within the boundaries of a company’s comfort zone.
Marketing organizations at most B2B organizations have embraced social channels as a “must-do.” 78% of B2B companies have dedicated social media teams and are actively using social networks for marketing purposes. The focus on social spending by marketing is increasing. Three of the top five areas for increased marketing spending in a recent salesforce marketing survey relate to social. Marketing gets it. Sales, however may not be embracing social to the extent needed for success.
Surveys by KiteDesk found that Social Sellers outperform their non-social sales peers by almost an order of magnitude. Sales people that are skilled users of social media are able to overachieve their sales goals relative to assigned quotas by nearly 3X as compared to their peers with average or few “social” skills.
The bottom line is that poor-performing sales people aren’t using social to their advantage and high performers are. This really points to a gap between points of view between marketing and sales. It’s a gap that must be closed.
Leads are the number one want in almost any sales or marketing organization. Social sites are excellent places to find, and become known to larger audiences.
Group Buying
Once the sales process begins they’re also an excellent place to find out who are the other folks within an organization that may have an influence at an account. Almost every sale comes with a committee, where several people within an organization have a say in any acquisition of goods or services.
View the Webcast
Social selling and a range of related topics were recently covered in a webinar featuring Eric Quanstrom, CMO of SaaS provider KiteDesk. It’s less than 45 minutes in duration, including questions and answers and really shines a light on the practical aspects of social in today’s sales environment.
