Episode Summary
Have you ever wondered why you can't seem to close deals with social selling?
While it's emerged as one of the most successful sales channels over the last few years, most people still don't know how to do it right.
It's not about sending a ton of DMs and hoping it resonates with your prospects. Social selling is a calculated, data-driven tactic that's all about consistency and credibility.
Stakeholders of all ages are overwhelmed with the amount of information in the world and tune out anything they think doesn't apply to them. A carefully-crafted social selling strategy is one of the few things that can actually break down this "brick wall.”
Leveraging social selling with LinkedIn isn't just about hiring influencers with the most followers. The key to social selling is to choose the path of least resistance to drive the conversations you want to have.
Remember, social selling doesn't just mean finding prospects on social media and sending a cold DM. In fact, if you're only thinking about pitching in the DMs, it’s time to go back on the phones and email because you missed the point.
Go out and genuinely engage with your buyers. Add valuable comments to their posts on LinkedIn, contribute to a meaningful discussion with additional data points, and show up consistently. Once you've built up meaningful interactions, you can move to the DMs or send the prospect an email.
We take a deep dive into everything social selling, from what we've done that does (and doesn't) work, to the most common mistakes people make.
Tune in to hear our top tactics for social selling, how to break through the "brick wall" consumers build up to avoid information overload, and the ways SDRs and account executives can build trust and credibility.
B2B Power Plays
Top takeaways from this week’s conversation
🔑 Showing up consistently is key to successful social selling.
You don't have to build a personal brand or have tons of followers to be a good social seller — just show up consistently and credibly.
Spend 30 minutes a day engaging with people on LinkedIn. Jump into the comments section, create your own content, send connection requests, or slide into a few DMs of people you have engaged with recently.
Don’t sweat making stunning content. Sometimes, the highest-converting posts don't have much engagement, but they still resonate with your target market.
❓ Build credibility by answering these four questions.
In addition to consistency, credibility is key to social selling. Credibility doesn't mean hiring someone with tens of thousands of followers or paying an influencer to become your brand evangelist.
Instead, your sales or marketing staff can build their own unique credibility by addressing these four questions all prospects have:
- Integrity: Can I trust you?
- Intent: Are you a good person?
- Capabilities: Can you actually solve my problem?
- Results: Are you as good as you say you are?
The heart of credibility is in the integrity and intent pieces. Building trust shows your prospects that you have good intentions.
📊 Strategize outreach by tiering social profiles.
Here's how Morgan to tiers social profiles:
- Tier 1: Creators. These are the most active people on each platform. Accounting for only about 1% of social profiles, they're creating content in your industry or an industry you're trying to tap. The best way to engage with tier one profiles is to get into the comments section.
- Tier 2: Engagers. These are people who like, comment, and reshare content. Find a shared interest or something they'd find useful. Then, respond to a comment they offered or send a DM about the post.
- Tier 3: Lurkers. These people don't like or comment on things and are best nurtured through content. Create content on something they would find interesting. While these posts might not get a lot of engagement, they can still receive a lot of inbound leads.
Take advantage of tier one and tier two profiles to earn a credible referral or introduction to someone else in the company, ideally the buyer or stakeholder.
Episode Highlights
Inflection points from the show
[2:23] Two macro shifts affecting sales: The two macro shifts affecting sales the most right now are millennials reaching leadership and buying age and people only paying attention to trusted, credible voices.
[7:32] Optimizing for credibility: This is where everybody gets social selling wrong. Morgan explains why it's important to focus on credibility rather than attention.
[10:32] Buyers control the buying process: Buyers are doing more research on their own terms. Referred to as the "dark social" or "dark funnel", sellers are no longer in control of the buying process.
[13:52] Consistency is key: Showing up consistently and building credibility are the two key initiatives social sellers need to focus on. Morgan explains how to accomplish this.
[15:57] How to build credibility: Show prospects they can trust you, that you have positive intentions, that you're capable of solving their problem, and that you can deliver the results you're promising.
[20:08] Don't go direct: Unless you have someone who can introduce you to a prospect, have met the person in real life, or have already established an online dialogue with them, Nicholas recommends not reaching out to them directly.
[21:19] Tiering social profiles & outreach: Morgan breaks down how he tiers social profiles to optimize the most impactful way to engage with them and earn an introduction to your target prospect.
[26:43] LinkedIn's Sales Navigator: LinkedIn's Sales Navigator feature is huge for social selling. There are tons of ways to build out an intent data system by saving leads, lead lists, and account lists.
[32:09] Breaking out of social: Social selling isn't just about social — layer the ways you're reaching out to prospects to open up new channels. Take what started as a back-and-forth in a LinkedIn comments section and send an email now that the prospect is familiar with you.
[43:48] Why social selling works: When you do social selling right, you're breaking down the brick wall prospects have built up. Plus, every job title is capable of building the trust and credibility required for social selling.