Social Selling
27.05.2019

XING, LINKEDIN & SOCIAL SELLING – How to approach the topic correctly

The Buzzword “Social Selling” is used more and more in large and medium-sized companies. However, not every company deals properly with this supposedly new discipline. After extensive seminars, social selling is often used as cold acquisition via LinkedIn. Basically exactly the wrong approach. Here’s why.

You’ve probably also encountered the situation on LinkedIn: You receive a contact request from a person you didn’t know before. The profile looks appealing, you may have similar interests and you accept the contact request. What you didn’t expect – the classic sales pitch comes one day later at the latest – via InMail or direct message. Somehow so intrusive that it reminds one of the telephone sales of mobile phone providers or insurance companies. An approach that in this form has nothing to do with social selling.

Cold call vs. social selling

Unfortunately, this scenario is not an exception. Rather, it seems that colleagues who have had little to do with social media so far are following exactly this approach. But why? If you look through the definitions of “social selling” it becomes clear that this is the wrong way:

“Social Selling is the art of using social media networks to find, contact, understand and maintain interested parties. With this modern method, you can build significant relationships with potential customers who keep you and your brand in mind. This will make you the first port of call for potential buyers.” (Source: Hootsuite)

 

You read correctly – ” maintain relations”. Social Selling focuses on maintaining existing relationships in social networks, building new relationships in order to enter into a conversation at exactly the right moment and to be able to offer solutions to a current question or problem.

In order to use social selling properly, however, it should be clear to everyone what social selling is not. Social selling is not about gaining access to potential interested parties and aggressively sending strangers an unsolicited company pitch with new offers & specials in private or public messages. Basically that would be nothing else but SPAM, and SPAM is also in all other areas, whether telephone, e-mail or even by fax, an absolute “No Go”.

What Are The most Important Components In Social Selling?

When it comes to social selling, you will always come across these  important components: Social prospecting, personal branding, employee advocacy and social relationship management.

1. Social Prospecting

Social prospecting is the screening of social media platforms according to user interest. How does the potential interested party behave in the network, what interests does he or she have, in which industry does he or she operate, what function does he or she have in his or her company and what topics are of interest to him or her? If you now take a look at the world of insurance, a consultant can use social media to collect the first important information about a potential customer – and then later sell him a new insurance policy due to a change in his relationship status or the birth of his first child.

Social selling is much more than just LinkedIn. Source: iStock / gilaxia.

2. Personal Branding

Personal branding is essential in social media to build a person’s reputation and credibility. The basis for this is a professionally designed, convincing and complete profile that, for example, expresses your competence in a specific area. In order to be able to build a common basis with potential customers – even if it is about the same interests – it is also advisable to highlight personal information (e.g. work experience, hobbies, charitable activities or awards) in your own profile. Personal branding is rounded off if, for example, you publish your own contributions on certain topics or share content from the network. You can also position yourself as a Trusted Advisor in your network.

3. Employee Advocacy

For credible social selling, “Employee Advocacy” is now used in addition to screening potential customers and maintaining one’s own profile. This means that employees express themselves positively on their own social media profile with contributions, news or in comments on their company. Company news is often shared within the company’s own network, questions answered, industry or topic leaders included, or industry and company-related hashtags used. Companies handle this very differently. Some leave employees free to create their own content, while others set up social billboards to guide employees or provide appropriate content for posting and sharing. But the most important thing here is always to prepare colleagues in advance and show them the benefits.

4. Social Relationship Management

Finally, of course, in social selling it is important to cultivate your contacts in digital networks and keep them “in good spirits”. Social Relationship Management is therefore to be understood as an extension of traditional relationship management, which now, however, concentrates on communication with the customer in social media. The most common methods here are above all “listening”, reacting to customer feedback, but also placing content – by sharing foreign content or publishing one’s own industry-relevant content, which can be interesting for the potential customer. You should always ensure that you are authentic, maintain authentic contacts and interact directly with your interest groups.

Why pitching will not bring sustainable success

The classic sales people, as we know them from telemarketing, have to make a significant change in social selling. A cold acquisition via LinkedIn or XING is mostly not successful – social selling takes place in writing. The “tried and tested” sales method of taking the customer by surprise by telephone and getting him to make a decision quickly does not work in social networks. In contrast to a telephone conversation, the recipient of a message has time to question the information, delete a message or ignore it completely. The momentum of the surprise effect is completely eliminated. It is now up to the person to contact you or not.

Conclusion: Social selling is a hard way to go

If one now considers the definition of social selling as well as the components that are necessary for a successful application, it quickly becomes clear that real social selling takes time, must be operated continuously and be designed for a long-term outcome. True to the motto Consistent and long-term activities are necessary in order to be successful in social selling. Sending your own company pitch to potential interested parties can be convenient according to the “quick & dirty” principle, but it certainly does not have the desired effect and creates antipathy rather than the desired outcome.

Source title image: iStock / Prykhodov

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