An Effective Content Marketing Strategy

Does your content marketing strategy find it challenging to create and publish content that engages with your target customers?


As digital becomes the dominant marketing channel, in order to
increase brand exposure and have effective lead generation online then a
strong content marketing strategy is required. Most social media plans
are dependent on one factor, the creation and delivery of relevant,
engaging content that will be of interest to your target audience.


Content marketing is a continuous process, and it is vital for
professionals to monitor their efforts and adapt their strategy to the
ever changing preferences and insights of their market.


Below are some greatly beneficial tips, explaining how to best implement your content marketing strategy





Gain Audience Insights

Knowledge is key, you need to research and discover where your target
audience hang out online. Ask yourself; what conversations and topics do
they contribute to? What type of content do they respond to? What
topics grab their attention?

This can be done through competitor and market analysis; study your
competitor posts, which topics have the most user responses? Analyze
your own posts for insights into what style or content your target
audience engage with most. Consider analyzing your audience through
surveys and Google Analytic. This will enable you to target them
directly, as you know their online behaviors and what platforms they use
to share and interact with online.


Set Clear Goals and Objectives

Prior to the group brainstorming session, you must visualize
the goals you want to achieve. Set out clear objectives to focus on,
this will help the team work towards something collectively as they are
all on the same page. For example; ‘Brand A seeks to provide delicious
foods suitable for people with coeliac disease, to give them more choice
and a varied diet. Isolating the factors in this statement can be done
easily, for example – Your target audience would be people with coeliac
disease, your content would be from recipes, and the coeliac society.
Your main objective would be to provide people suffering from coeliac
disease with more food options.



It is also important to plan and outline the type of content you will be creating:

• 40% recipes, advice, and interesting content to encourage user engagement
• 20% content curation from other sources
• 20% brand promotion (press release/mentions)
• 10% product focused ideas
• 10% promoting company culture, and recruiting of new talent

Content Research

The creation of relevant and engaging content necessitates
research. Google Alerts can save you time, in that Google will notify
you by email when it discovers fresh results on topics that you have
flagged would be of interest to you. This tool detects current,
real-time updates on web pages, blogs and articles. It can be used to
keep track of trends, interesting topics and insights within your
industry.


Google Alerts can also be used to tell you when your brand has been
mentioned online, so you could respond to a customer
review/query/complaint efficiently. This is an excellent avenue to
remain current/up to date on the latest news stories, videos and topics.
Enabling you to take inspiration from these findings to create relevant
and current blog posts which you know will be of interest to your
audience, as this is done in real-time.


Think Evergreen Content

The Evergreen process is slow and steady; results will be seen over
time, rather than a surge in traffic due to a ‘trending’ topic.
Evergreen content will not become obsolete any time soon; take ‘spin
selling’ – this was a very popular topic ten to fifteen years ago, it
was highly searched. Now very few people are talking about it, as this
model has since been overtaken.


Entrepreneur Syed Balkhi
states that Evergreen content is useful for long-term sustainability
and is SEO friendly. It will theoretically drive traffic for years and
will continue to be a popular search.

‘I like to write 20-30 evergreen titles that will rank well
over time. They should reflect the style and tone of your target
audience: If you’re catering to a market of entrepreneurs and creative
professionals, they should be more informative, with an approachable yet
cordial tone’.

Team members will know that the focus of their content should not be
self-promoting; instead it should be informative and educational for
their audience – focusing on solving their problems.





Choose Your Medium

Gather team members together for a brainstorming session,
everyone will have different ideas and opinions, but the mission
statement that you created earlier will keep everyone on track and
focused on the same goal. Through team brainstorming exercises, you can
define which medium should be used to communicate what content.


Blog posts are hugely beneficial for getting your point across, but
explaining how to use computer software for example would be best suited
to a demo video. Stats would be more engaging on an infographic rather
than a long list of bullet points. This could also help in targeting
more readers, through different platforms – you could use an infographic
on Instagram with a link to the full article in the bio.


Content Consistency Is Key

Once you have defined your content strategy, create an
editorial calendar. This will help you schedule posts, and articles.
Your resources, such as your team and budget will determine the
frequency of your content. Although it is inherent to be consistent with
your content – posting three quality and relevant blog posts a week
will get the attention of your audience. Your target is now accustomed
to seeing your helpful and insightful content, and they know of the
brand you represent. What happens if you become side-tracked by another
task and post only one blog the next week? You will appear flaky and
dis-interested to your target.


Having your calendar to reference will remind you that perhaps a blog
post is due in two days. If you do not have time in your schedule, give
your team the assignment of creating and sharing the blog. There needs
to be a concrete plan of action set out, so blog posts and interactions
are relevant, executed in real-time and followed up on accordingly.


Publish, Promote and Track Your Posts

While quality of content is paramount, there are still many other
factors to consider. Keep in mind that posts should be relevant,
engaging and informative. They should have an appropriate tone suited to
the reader, in a B2C setting for example – be careful not to speak
corporate and overload the customer with jargon. You must also be
cautious of the grammar police, double check, even triple check your
spelling and always ask a colleague to proof-read your post.


Enhancing your content for SEO purposes could improve your brand’s
page ranking on Google. Study the analytics from your posts, this will
guide you when creating new content, perhaps a certain topic or phrase
is more popular than others. You can then create similar content or a
modernized version, of how Social Selling has evolved in the past year.


Your bounce rate should also be considered, you must ask yourself why
users read a post and do not navigate elsewhere on your site. What can
you do to keep them on your site and looking around? Perhaps there is an
increase in referral traffic from another site, why not interact and
link with this website for a mutual benefit?


Be conscious of misleading headlines, you may get an influx of
traffic to your site with a misleading headline, but once the user
realizes the article is not relevant to the title, they will click back
straight away. You should bear in mind that Google will penalize you
based on your ‘click back’ rate.


Conclusion

While content marketing can be intimidating and does require resourcing,
the sooner companies adopt this process the sooner results will flow.
It is not only hugely beneficial in enhancing brand image, engaging with
potential customers and increasing inbound traffic to your site but
content marketing is now a core business activity.

Buyers and consumers want to engage with companies who demonstrate
industry knowledge and insights. Evergreen content marketing also
contributes heavily to building back links to your site, so it is
imperative to have a joined up content marketing strategy in place to
bring the pieces together.





An Effective Content Marketing Strategy | Instant Lead Generation For Social Selling

Content marketing is powering social selling – The Bitter Business

Content marketing is powering social selling – The Bitter Business



The creation and use of content marketing is key to getting social
selling activities right. In fact content marketing is now powering most
selling and sales activity as it is the smoothest route to build up a
relationship with prospects or buyers. It also gently reinforces a brand
without over ally interrupting people with sales messages. In today’s
digital aware environment, brochure selling is a big turn-off and no
longer cuts it with buyers.


The sales professional today knows that selling is now about genuine,
beneficial interaction with existing and potential customers which
builds trust over time. Content sharing also has the dual effect of
building brand awareness, a business may never actually sell anything
directly over social media but they will generate awareness.

What content is shared will impact the results.

To really make social selling work, the target audience has to be
interested in what the sales person has to say and, ultimately, the
customer believe in what they are saying.


 “Creating content your potential prospects will find useful or enjoyable is key to success”.


Quality, insightful and useful content brings a brand to life, giving
the business a personality and allowing it (if they work hard enough)
to eventually become an industry thought leader. Content can also help a
business differentiate them from the competition. .


As content marketing plays such a central role in enabling social
selling activity, here are some tips to help make a business brand stand
out from the crowd:


What does a business need to consider when developing a content marketing plan?


There is no “magic wand or instant success formula” to creating
effective and impactful content as each buyer grouping and seller is
unique, each with its own buyers journey and value proposition. While it
is helpful to review other content marketing strategies and competitor
approaches by doing some internet searches, ultimately any company’s
content marketing plan needs to be tailored to its customers and market
needs. However any content plan should include the sales team sharing
information that is of interest to their target audience (of which a
portion should be nothing to do with their brand). Information worth
sharing might include market insights, industry news, analyst reports or
independent market research.


They say people buy from people, and in the social network world
people follow people who share things that enlighten them or educate
them. Also a business should consider social selling training so sales
people develop their own style and not be a channel to spew out branded
sales updates.


A good starting point is maybe blogging about observations or
customer opinions about the industry in which a business operates which
can also be a handy means of kick-starting some social conversations.
“Maybe research shows some validated trends that all companies or
customers are embracing. Then create a nice content piece about it and
to add in your observations maybe with some independent quotes.


There is always LinkedIn group discussions, Twitter conversations or
any other forums in which the target audience can be found to share
insights. But don’t be a bull in a china shop, marketing and sales
people need to listen and understand what is going on in the social
world for their customers in order to get to grips with the relevant
topics to engage on.


The marketing department should ensure that everyone involved in
social selling has access to pertinent content as and when they need it
or as part of a schedule, this content can be developed internally,
aggregated from social media or taken from approved third party sources.


The content marketing strategy needs planning, production schedule,
promotion plan and a means to measure the effectiveness of the activity

• A business needs to define and set content marketing aims plus ensure they support business objectives.
• To identify the target audience and gather as much information about
  them to understand their characteristics and interests via social
  media.
• Clearly define what kind of content will help achieve the business goals.
• Develop a content marketing execution plan. Including a weekly or
  monthly content calendar so that the sales teams understand what content
  and marketing campaigns are in the pipeline.

Content marketing is about sales and marketing combining in order to share with customers the right content at the right time.”

Final suggestion on this tip is for sales and marketing teams to hold
a content meeting each month to decide which segments or messaging they
will focus on and then agree what content is necessary to create or
source.


How businesses can ensures it exploits its content plan effectively


The first step is social media training for all in sales to ensure
they maximize the content that will be made available to them. This
social selling training should cover how to/not to use the various
 social media platforms, what the company’s social guidelines are to
training on tone of voice and language on social media.


Business needs to make it easy for sales people to interact with
marketing in order to understand what content topics are working and
which are not, then repeat the things that do deliver results (make sure
results is defined to all) and stop any content production to those
topics not delivering. In this regard monitor and report on the
analytics whether it is leads generated, white paper downloads or social
followers etc. Monitoring the analytics from social activity in detail,
and drawing up a reporting pack will help the business stakeholders
what content drives what activity plus what the target audience has
read.


Other basic marketing activities such as monitoring click on URLs,
content/blog page views can provide a business with useful data to shape
the content marketing plan accordingly and tweak where necessary.


A crucial element in content success is ensuring that the business
(sales and marketing) have a daily plan to actively engage in social
conversations. This means taking the time to impart value-add comments,
liking or re-sharing content with less emphasis on broadcasting sales
messages.

“Buyers want to see that sales people are knowledgeable in their own right, not just conduits for branded marketing campaigns.”

Strike a balance so the target audience do not get bombarded with too
much content or feel like they are being stalked. Mix up different
types of content, whether is it informational, infographics, video,
white papers, case studies or images to make the social interactions
more meaningful.


The aim is to share quality content that people enjoy reading, also
in social selling sales people need to come across as being unbiased so
providing impartial advice works really well.”


Social selling is NOT plastering half-price offers on social media. A
business needs to be engaging and give audience food for thought.


What are the key challenges a business is likely to experience?


Delivering real business results using content marketing combined with social selling can be tricky and which some companies struggles with date due to a number of factors.


Content Quality! It can be challenging to create really engaging
content that cuts through the huge amount of social chatter. The volume
of content and information sharing on the social network is huge so it
requires any content marketing campaign to be “targeted and relevant” to
a clearly defined audience.


Don’t force it. Too many companies try to push the sales teams and
people to become a brand advocates with little choice. Start by
educating and tapping into the people are really interested in social
media where their passion can lead to other team members getting
involved. Forcing people to update their LinkedIn profile or Twitter
account every hour can lead to social fatigue. Think Smarketing. Where
sales and marketing work together to plan and put in place goals that
everyone will contribute to. Both teams and departments working in
unison can the difference between success and failure in running content
marketing campaigns. “If either sales or marketing try to push out this
activity alone, it probably will not work. Avoid headless activity
where people detach themselves from the brand values and focus on their
own goals which can be wasteful. Clearly defined goals, objectives and
constant feedback is what makes content marketing powering social
selling successful.

Lead Generation Software

The increased focus on ‘Lead Generation’ has resulted in companies
plugging tools and software which claim to automate the Lead Gen
process. Firstly, we should begin by explaining some misconceptions
surrounding Lead Generation software, as the term has been hijacked
somewhat. Marketing Automation and CRM Platforms are NOT Lead Generation Tools. These are in fact activities used to manage or nurture the leads – once they have been identified.

Lead Generation tools and software actually identify and pinpoint where
sales teams should focus their new customer acquisition efforts.





In a recent survey focused on “Lead Generation Challenges”, 35% of
sales managers stated that they lacked access to quality leads while 49%
stated they wanted the volume of leads to increase. Lead Gen software
should solve salespeople’s challenges in sourcing fresh leads, these
results should be tangible and results driven.

So how does this software work? Lead Generation or Social Prospecting,
as it is increasingly being known as involves defining who the target
audience is; their job title, industry, location, keywords. Today, most
lead generation is done through social media platforms.


These prospecting criteria are then inputted into the Lead Generation
Software, which crunches data from the social networks to provide sales
professionals with a list of leads they could pursue. Salespeople can
then Social Sell by creating relevant and helpful content in order to
engage with and nurture their lead (become a trusted advisor/problem
solver).


Below are some benefits of using Lead Generation Software:


Time Saver:

Gone are the days where salespeople would Google prospect companies,
search and search to find the decision makers name only for them to
reject the call as they are unfamiliar with your brand or service. Lead
Generation software saves time, in that salespeople are not searching
the web for hours, sometimes procrastinating to delay the inevitable
cold-call. Salespeople know exactly who requires their service; they
will not waste time being interruptive or invasive toward a prospect who
is not interested. This time can be better spent engaging with a
qualified lead, and solving their problems, rather than exhibiting
products that are not required.

Eliminating the pressures of Lead Generation will give salespeople the
time to concentrate on their primary role – which is selling. This would
in-turn increase morale, as it can be deflating to spend hours sourcing
leads only to fall at the first hurdle.


Reduced Cost Per Lead:

Lead Generation software can reduce the cost per lead plus it makes
sense that, if your sales reps are not selling; they are costing you
money. Many companies will calculate how much it costs to generate a
lead or prospect plus the cost of the sales professional on top of this.
There are also costs incurred when training sales teams to generate
leads, not to mention the costs of monitoring their efforts internally.

It is more cost effective to automate or outsource Lead Gen efforts, as a
business can have peace of mind that the volume and quality of leads is
ongoing. Automated lead generation is a 24/7 solution, allowing sales
people to focus on selling – not sourcing.


Continuous Lead Flow:

By using a Lead Generation tool, you will receive a continuous steady
flow of prospects every day resulting in a more efficient sales process.
Realistically, sales teams will suspend their prospecting efforts once
they have secured a qualified lead. When this deal is finally complete,
salespeople have to begin the lead generation process all over again,
starting from scratch.

The impact on revenue can result in peaks and dips, in turn making it
harder to forecast and budget. This see-saw effect can see a company
experience a spike in revenue once sales are made, but when the sales
professionals are busy prospecting; revenue can drop as they are not
selling. Using Lead Generation software will eliminate these
inconsistencies and provide a business with a regular flow of sales
leads.



 Continue reading the full article here

Lead Generation Software Tools | Instant Lead Generation For Social Selling

Social Media Marketing Plan

A social media marketing plan should not pose any major challenges to
a small business. As in any growing business with a great product or
service, the marketing team or person is most likely to be working on
different tasks at different times and these tasks can change rapidly
depending on the business needs. However, even with taking this into
consideration, social media is now so vital to business success there
are some tasks that need to be planned as part of the daily marketing
routine.





Set the social media goals and objectives.


Every article, news release, research or whitepaper are assets in a
social media strategy to serve the goals that have been set. As with any
business strategy you must know what you are working toward. Is it
drive brand awareness, customer acquisition, generate new sales drive
traffic, build up your network, reduce the cost per lead. Whatever of
any or all of these you need goals and associated objectives clearly
defined.


Work on the content strategy


When it comes to marketing the product or service, social media
marketing success depends on the content strategy a business decides
upon. Prior to writing, commissioning or publishing any content, a
business needs to understand, what audience(s) are going to be
 targeted?, What type of voice (expert, commentator, industry) will you
use to communicate? Who are you trying to influence? What specifically
do you want to achieve (leads, likes, traffic, views or authority)?
 Allot of strategy answers are to be found in questioning the content
strategy so everyone involved in the marketing and sales efforts need to
know the why, what and who, understand it and is always in their minds.
Content marketing strategy can then be tweaked and optimised as
necessary.


Make sure there is new quality content to post


Fresh, quality, informative and relevant content is at the core of
every social media campaign to reach target audiences and ensure
engagement. To be seen as an influencer and sector expert it is vital to
share new content consistently and regularly. New content when well
written (not self- promotional or product articles) and engaging can
propel a business forward. This is why the person in charge of the
social media plan needs to make sure there is always some new content
ready to be shared. There is no hiding the fact that writing content
does take time and continuous effort so it needs to be planned.


Set up a content sharing schedule


The social media plan needs to have a schedule when content will be
shared so all social media marketing activities tie back into other marketing
events or business plans. Also a schedule will take account for any
external events, key word targeting, launches, promotions or seasonal
trends that impacts your industry. This is why the content sharing
calendar is so important for deciding what social media activities are
in the pipeline. While not all content can be created and planned for
weeks in advance of sharing, the core, and keyword targeted content
pieces that demand more care and effort should be.





Sharing sector Expertise


Selling is not sharing. Share your sector expertise on a regular
basis in terms of marketing, insights, research, social stories and
commentary to establish your business, product or service as an
influencer. For every 1 self-promotional content pieces shared, share 4
quality “industry relevant” articles, also share insightful articles
from other authors, comment and add value (not plugging your own
business) on forums and groups.


Generate new content ideas


As stated above the value a great, insightful and quality piece of
content can bring to a social media campaign cannot be overstated. This
is why a business needs to spend the time brainstorming content and
article ideas. Every business should always allocate time for it on a
weekly basis. The reality is that without interesting ideas on content
your goals and results will suffer in the long run. Content needs to be
kept fresh, up-to-date and interesting in order to continue engaging an
audience. An easy way of generating content ideas is to track your
competitors and other influential blogs to see what content is working
for them.


Following news for current and relevant content


As with most companies, some of your content marketing will be
focused on industry news and events. This is why keeping informed of
relevant news and events means you will be able to react quickly and
creatively to opportunities which can boost your on-line exposure. Many
social media managers monitor several different keywords, hashtags,
social group and Twitter in order to keep up the date and in the know on
trending topics. When the opportunity presents itself, it is vital to
be ready to respond.


Include images, video and design


Social media is also a visual channel where images, video and good
design can give an added edge in the awareness stakes. Using nice
imagery or videos and a visually stimulating way of presenting content
is far more likely to reach and engage a large audience. As the volume
of content rises across social channel, great content should be
complimented with visual impact. A business should working with a
designer in order to produce visual elements like photos, infographics
and video.


Run social advertising


To add to organic reach on social networks, depending on your social
media goals and business then social advertising on Facebook, Twitter
and LinkedIn may be a consideration. Running a paid social campaign
might help get the content out to a wider audience and more relevant
readers.


Communicate with all stakeholders


Whether you are a social media manager working in an agency or
working directly for a company, you will need to work with all the
stakeholders (management, sales, product, marketing and service) in
order to agree on the content to be shared. This is why social media
marketers should be spending time with the all the stakeholders to plan
for the future as part of the marketing daily tasks. Meeting all
concerned can help gain more insights into deciding what type content to
create, what upcoming events are there in the pipeline, launches or
news that may be of interest and any other ideas to use content to
engage the target audiences.


Reporting


Finally but as important is the reporting on social media actions,
activities and results. Whether you work for a company or an agency, it
is vital to report on the social networks achievements and the upcoming
plans in place. This is done by setting up and agreeing on regular
reports that monitor the KPI’s or metrics you have agreed on with the
stakeholders.


For more social media marketing tips, read the marketing category on The Bitter Business.



 Republished from original article at : Social Media Marketing Plan – The Bitter Business

Using Social Data to Leverage Generation C

One of the ways to grow your brand on social media is to use the huge
amount of social data to target a new demographic. So, what about
Generation C? Contrary to popular belief, Generation C is not some
demographics in alphabetic order such as Y (people born 1980 to late
1990s) and Z (people born early 2000s and on), but it is composed of all
generations of connected consumers.


Actually, Generation C changes the demographic concept based on the
age gap to a psycho graphic mold. While it is composed mainly by people
under 35 years old, it is really defined by their way of thinking and
interaction in different social platforms and screens.


Creation, curation, connection and community are part of these
consumer lives that they live out daily on the social networks. They are
enthusiastic early adopters, have huge purchasing power regardless of
age, and have new demands to be fulfilled by you.


This generation can be reached with the use of inside sales and content marketing through social media, where you are able to integrate social data to help orchestrate your business decisions.


Whereas there is no magical wand to effectively improve sales levels to this generation, here are 4 ways you can use social data to make sure social selling happens more effectively.


USE REAL-TIME INSIGHTS ON THE SOCIAL NETWORKS

On Twitter for example you can reach people in a space where they are
spending their time and research in real time, interacting and finding
people that are talking about your brand.





TARGET PROSPECTS AND CUSTOMERS WITHIN GROUPS


On LinkedIn, you are able to target people in selected groups across
your industry and research what sales suspects talk about your brand or
sector within your area to convert them into prospects.





CHOOSE THE RIGHT BRAND AMBASSADORS


Use social data to find an influencer who
meets your idea of brand ambassador, checking if they cover the
demographics that meet the criteria of your marketing campaign, size of
their audience and especially, if they are open to engaging in a
long-term relationship.


Once you find them, feed your brand ambassador team with both general
and exclusive information, making their work easier and helping both
parts to decide how to promote your brand or where to share reviews of
your products or services.


The way you act partnering with the right brand ambassadors will put
you on the right track to improving people consideration levels and to
enhance your social media marketing.


PROVIDE ENGAGING CONTENT


Social Media provides unlimited information to understand which of
your consumer’s or buyers aspirations and interests are at. So, take
advantage of the data these networks can throw up by sharing substantial
information that matches the considerations of your consumers
motivations.


Today, people are time poor and just don’t have the patience or time
to concentrate on content for a long time, but according to Google, a
significant part of daily information needs on the web involves people
learning a broad topic, which sets a great way to nurture existing leads and attracting new prospects.


You can grab people’s attention with good headlines, but to make your
consumer really engage with your brand, strive to provide information
they can learn from, mix in long and short content while always giving
your public easy opportunities and ways to interact with you.


Social data now provides so many opportunities to
grow your brand on social media. Marketing departments now have all the
tools to use social data to target new demographics like generation C.



Originally published by Connectors Marketplace at Using Social Data to Leverage Generation C

Content Marketing Company in Ireland

This is a content marketing company based in Ireland. Good links and articles on how to use content marketing.





Content Marketing – The Bitter Business

Content Marketing

Content marketing forms part of a social
media strategy. Content marketing is the process of creating and sharing
valuable content to a a clearly defined target audience on a consistent
basis.


Content marketing is primarily about sharing great stories and as you
earn the audiences trust , they will engage with your brand so you can
begin selling your products. Real content marketing is about sharing
thought leadership or research, addressing problems or market trends
your customers or potential customers face. This stream of valuable
content acts like a seed, planting the ideas which overtime grows into
the realisation to prospects that they need your product or service.





The Bitter Business understands business, this is why we offer results driven content marketing solutions
which are tailored to each individual customers social media goals and
business objectives.  Feel free to contact me for a chat on your social
media challenges and goals.


Articles on Content Marketing.

Content Marketing Done Right

Content Marketing Tips

Content Marketing Plan

Social Selling Tips of the Month

The importance of social selling in lead generation and the sales
process continues to rise. For those new to social selling maybe this
explanation might help “Social Selling is a process whereby sales
professionals engage and build relationships with decision makers
through sharing of content and information”. This can be achieved by
subtle input into conversations and publishing articles on the various
social media channels. Creating relevant and engaging content which is
then shared will get you noticed as a knowledgeable ally and thought
leader. Buyers have adapted to using Social Media for vendor evaluation,
so business and sales must also adapt, or get left behind.





Here are this month’s Social Selling tips:


1. Social Selling Training:

Social selling training is as important as sales training.
It has been found that 93% of salespeople have not been formally coached
on the social selling process. Whilst another study has found that
LinkedIn is utilized at least once weekly for an average of 6 hours by
96% of salespeople. Considering 93% of sales professionals have not been
trained on social selling, therefore they do not understand how to
social sell – why are 96% of them spending roughly 6 hours per week on
the networking site?

To combat this, I would suggest specific training days lead by a social
selling expert. I believe the sales professionals will adapt better to
an industry expert relaying the information, rather than assuming it is
just a random strategy being pushed by the management team.

For social selling to be prosperous, it must be fully integrated into
the whole sales process and every sales person needs to know what is and
what is not social selling.

After the coaching, the sales team should engage in an exercise to test
their knowledge of social selling, and present their findings to confirm
they understand the process.


2. Create A Social Selling Policy:

The sales and marketing teams need to work together to
share information and KPI’s on social selling. Everyone in sales and
marketing needs to have a clear understanding of what exactly social
selling is, how it is measured and how they should approach it. This
strategy will not work unless everyone understands it. Social selling is
not smash and grab. Sales teams need to be aware that it is a gradual
and subtle process that will benefit them hugely in the longer term.
Ensure the rules on content sharing, social media profiles and
interactions are clearly defined as sales professionals who engage
potential buyers in a pushy manner will only damage the brand and
business reputation. At the beginning of this process, it is important
to set guidelines and assist the sales team in order to protect the
brand, by ensuring that only approved content and messages are
publically shared.


3. Build Credibility

Sales professionals are the face of the company, they
represent the brand and therefore must focus on enhancing the company’s
reputation as well as their own. Establishing a strong influencing
presence within a given industry can be done through regular engagement
on social media platforms; LinkedIn Groups, Twitter and Facebook.

Social networks can be utilized to display industry knowledge, focusing
on challenges prospects may have, and sharing solutions to these
problems. Genuine engagement and input into social conversations while
sharing great content will establish the “social seller” as a trusted
advisor. Others will notice input and contributions which may kick-start
a business discussion. Remember; select groups and conversations that
potential customers are interested in, then position yourself as a
thought leader within THEIR industry.

Everyone’s LinkedIn profiles should be professional, such as head shot
photos against a neutral background with the company logo in it, NOT a
cute photo from the weekend with strobe lights and lasers in the
background. Do not be afraid to ask for recommendations and endorsements
from colleagues or alumni. To improve credibility means striving to be
original and write engaging content to get noticed. Always remain
professional, genuine and credible

 Published from an original article at

Social Selling Tips of the Month | Instant Lead Generation For Social Selling

Sales Prospecting Guide

Even with the rapid growth in big data and social media – sales
prospecting or social prospecting is still a critical component in the
sales process. So what has changed when it comes to finding leads today?
Well sales prospecting has become “social prospecting” where sales
people research their prospects accessing data on the social media
channels. Prospecting does not stop at connection requests on LinkedIn,
or briefly looking at a buyers profile before making contact. Buyers are
evolving in how they source vendors, as should salespeople evolve in
how they source sales prospects.





Here is a guide and some tips to help improve sales prospecting.


Use A Tool To Save Time On Lead Generation:

In all industries, you must firstly generate leads. You
cannot make sales without first engaging with your prospects. But where
do you find a steady flow of prospects? This brings me to the dreaded
LinkedIn search – from my own experience (in recruitment) I know all too
well how much time and effort is spent sourcing leads. So after hours
spent creating a list of prospects now you have to go selling. You know
the story; you find the leads, quick Google search before the cold-call,
you are ecstatic to find the decision makers name somehow, now you can
call them and act casual like you know each other. Surprisingly, the
gatekeeper will not transfer you, they don’t know who you are, what
brand you represent and are highly skilled in finding out if this is in
fact – a sales call! You accept the rebuttal and follow up with a
friendly email, why? Because you spent so much time identifying them in
the first place that you need to hang on to them.

I know better than anyone how genuinely frustrating it is to spend so
much time generating leads, calling them, only to fall at the first
hurdle. We’ve all done the webinars and breakfast briefings teaching us
how to source leads. Think about how much time, money and effort you put
into sourcing leads. Wouldn’t this time be better off selling?
Salespeople are not source people! There are social media lead
generation tools you can use to eliminate the time, cost and

hard work in identifying prospects, freeing up your time to sell.


Cyber Stalking Is A Must:

Researching the company for clues on who they buy from and
existing vendor relationships is a must, but it is also imperative to
research the decision makers. Just researching the company’s strategy,
industry and challenges is not enough, in an ideal world you must try to
build a relationship with the decision maker before you do the sales
pitch. This can be done through social selling; basically you (the
salesperson) create awareness for your brand through engagement on
social media platforms. Become a thought leader and show how much you
know about their industry, engage with them on blog posts and
conversations. Be subtle, the idea here is to show a genuine interest in
the changes or developments within their industry and give advice, as
you are now on your way to becoming a trusted advisor and thought
leader. Learn to become a ninja in cyber stalking.


Relationship Building:

We all know that developing relationships plays an intrinsic role in
sales prospecting. As you can imagine, decision makers are extremely
busy, they receive on average 3,800 marketing messages daily. Let us
assume you now have your lead generation tool in place, giving you lists
of prospects, so what’s next? You need to engage right? How?

Well how about positioning yourself as a thought leader, one who is
highly knowledgeable in the prospects field. You see, as modern sales
people we must be of value to the prospects, this can be done by
offering advice, problem solving and demonstrating your expertise
through blog posts and whitepapers. Salespeople must acknowledge that
this is a gradual process, when you finally do speak with the prospect –
they should feel like they have met you before – you need to be that
familiar to them.


Befriend The Gate Keeper:

Many decision makers reach out to someone they trust for advice
and referrals, a large percentage of senior execs will turn down a
direct approach. However, if a mutual connection, influencer or
colleague were to make the introduction – 80% of senior execs would be
open to meeting.

As I mentioned earlier, many senior executives attempt to deter
salespeople by appointing gatekeepers. So what if you could engage with
the gatekeeper? And they could refer you to the decision maker? It is
important to be known within these circles, gaining a status within this
particular industry, ‘It is not who you know, but who knows you’, so an
introduction by a peer or colleague would be greatly beneficial. As I
mentioned in my previous point, genuine relationship building is an
inherent part of the process.





Find A Common Interest Or Connection:

From your cyber stalking – you should by now have a pretty good
sense of what your prospect really cares about. What are their
motivations, passions in life, involvement in clubs or societies – ask
yourself what really drives them? Count your lucky stars if you source
an article or press release stating whether a particular cause or
society is close to their heart!

This process is more about utilizing mutual interests, connections,
backgrounds, or causes. This is a great way to now develop the
relationship as you both have an interest in the same sports club,
charitable organization or society. Common interests or mutual links is a
great basis for relationship building as you can discuss what the cause
or society means to you both, thus gaining a mutual trust.



 Read the rest of this article as originally published on Connectors Marketplace

Sales Prospecting Guide | Instant Lead Generation For Social Selling

Social Selling | Instant Lead Generation For Social Selling

Articles on social selling,social data and lead generation from Connectors Marketplace.

Read all the articles here:



Social Selling | Instant Lead Generation For Social Selling

We are a group of leading data scientists, researchers, developers, designers and marketers, based in NovaUCD, Dublin, Ireland.


Our team hail from diverse corners of the globe,
including Ireland, UK, India, China, US and Brazil. We combine our
unique talents to bring you a cutting edge social media intelligence
platform that is second to none.

How to Improve Lead Nurturing with Social Media

Sales and selling is changing rapidly; to improve the vital “lead
nurturing” sales activity we have to learn the impact social media is
having on business today. Lead nurturing is an often undervalued or even
misunderstood sales activity in terms of time and effort. Social media
has now become the go to channel in lead generation so it is critical
that every sales person understands how to improve lead nurturing on the
social networks.


So what is lead nurturing? Lead Nurturing is a process of developing
relationships by utilizing various social media channels. This can be
done by supporting prospects with valuable, relevant and engaging
information so that the prospect will become more aware of you based on
your knowledge off the industry. The first goal of social selling for
any sales and marketing person in improving the lead nurturing process,
is to support and educate prospects with the goal that in future they
will convert to paying customers.


The second goal in improving the lead nurturing process is moving a
prospect from just been aware off your product and services to one where
they actually considering you as a viable vendor.

Tips To Improve Your Lead Nurturing Process :

• Map Out The Prospects In The Decision Making Process :

It is important to realize that numerous larger organization have
various partners involved in the general decision-making procedure, so
it’s really important to know which people we have to target from top to
bottom management and accordingly plan the right technique and content
to reach those people. When you map out how to reach prospects or
decision makers in the business, you’ll have improved your chances to
nurturing that lead.


The solution for a beneficial lead nurturing system is to make the
on-going communications (blogs, white papers, articles, case studies)
with your prospects as relevant to them as possible. This is your chance
to segment your prospect database and think about your social media
content which matters most to them, targeting their specific hot topics
by industry, geography and roles. Keep in mind, the more your messaging
is relevant to their buying criteria the more they should react
positively leading them to convert to a customer overtime.

• Be Consistent With Sharing Your Content :

It is vital to be constant on social media sites and continually
sharing your content with your prospects. Today emails blast are seen as
interruption marketing and will only lead to reduce message
reinforcement, this could lead to a poor view of your organization. As
you create your various content pieces such as white papers, case
studies, videos and webinars, make sure that the content is useful plus
select the correct channel (LinkedIn , Twitter , Blogs) to share that
correspondence.

• Focus On Quality Content Marketing :

The solution to achieve incredible success in lead nurturing lies in
creating quality content. It can be instructive, informative,
educational, humorous, entertaining, inspiring. Incredible content not
only achieves good response rates but also can lead on into more deeper
discussions with prospects. Quality content marketing is about thinking
from customer point of view. A strong rule in how to create quality
content is to out-educate your competitor. While other people are out
“Interruption Selling”, focusing on sharing your content through social
media platform which adds valuable knowledge generate more leads. The
greater part of lead nurturing can be repurposed to educate your
audience through messages, whitepapers, site content, webinars, blog
entries, and that’s only the tip of the iceberg.


Build your social media marketing machine to deliver quality content
as this has been proven to drive more leads and positioning yourself as a
thought leader in your field. In time this content sharing will see
transformations in your sales pipeline. The hard work pays off at the
point when clients are prepared to engage with you in a sales
discussion, and you are their first choice of contact.

• Buyer’s Buying Journey

The initial phase in developing lead nurturing procedure is to have a
reasonable understanding of the buyer’s buying cycle. You should have
the capacity to analyze your buyer’s buying cycle. It is the premise of
any great lead nurturing effort to develop your content and messaging to
match progression of the buying cycle. One of the best methods to
analyze your buyer’s buying cycle is to analyze social media
interactions around events or time of year.



 Finish reading original article here



How to Improve Lead Nurturing with Social Media | Instant Lead Generation For Social Selling

Social Data in The Sales Process

Big data and the use of social data in the sales process trumps
people. The reality is that due to changing buying cycles, more
educated buyers and the use of social media to source and inform, most
sales managers if given the choice between an exceptionally talented
sales person or a highly accurate database with deep social insights,
then data will trump people nearly every time.


This article is not suggesting for one minute that a sales manager
should stop searching or recruiting great sales talent to his or her
team. However no matter how good a sales person is, the benefits of
providing sales teams with the latest social data, detailed profiles,
social media insights and the most accurate information available are
telling. Because when it comes to sales performance, an average sales
person equipped with better data will outperform a talented sales person
who has little or poor data every time.





To sell successfully today, every piece of detail can matter to win
over customers, from social media activity to information management,
who is connected to whom, what articles do they read, what they talk
about on the social networks, who is the gatekeeper and what messaging
do the decision makers like. Each answer to these details relies on
having accurate data.


Here are more reasons why data and social data are important.

Data Provides Sales Focus

The instant access to data and social media insights saves sales
teams both time and hassle, saving hour after hour of a sales person’s
time in having to research information like LinkedIn profile, twitter
name, email addresses and phone numbers. The market is full of contact
databases that make it possible to start with good basic contact
details. But in a socially connected business world to generate sales
leads the sales teams now need a source for more social data like
LinkedIn connections, social conversations, social media insights,
articles, and news plus company information.


As the sales teams no longer need to spend thankless hours
researching prospects or leads, they can use this time to research the
best sales approach. This allows any sales person the opportunity and
time to develop a more educated approach when he starts the contact
phase in the sales process. Social selling and the use of social data is
all about the more relevant information a sales person has on things
the buyer or company cares about, the more specific they can be with the
sales message.


Social data empowers sales teams with the necessary level of insight
to lead nurture and interact with the right person, at the right time,
and to convert the lead into a demo, a trial or even a meeting. The use
of social insights means sales people will be able to identify the
problems that the potential buyers have, and already have a plan
formulated on how they will articulate the solution to their problems.
Remember buyers today do not buy features, they buy solutions, they buy
partners and thanks to social media they are better informed than ever
about what solutions they will consider.

Social Data Provides Guidance

In the old sales models, a direct line or phone number was gold as it
meant sales people could reach the decision-maker. And it is still a
valid sales activity as research shows a sales person is more than 46
percent more likely to be successful in selling when they reach a
director or VP. But what happens when sales people cannot get to talk to
a prospect on the phone to explain the company’s solution. Too many
sales teams still hope that a prospect will make a decision to engage
with a business based solely on some email communication and what
content is published on the website. This can work out from time to time
but often leads nowhere.


Still too few sales managers are changing mindsets by teaching their
sales teams to look deeper at social selling and using social data from
the likes of LinkedIn and Twitter to find prospects or to engage with
lead nurturing. No matter where you source your prospect or leads list
from, it is crucial the sales teams have the tools, content and data to
influence the decision makers. The more data, especially social data a
sales team has on the prospects or buyers, the greater the understanding
about the true issues the proposed solution they are selling will
solve.

Social Data Brings Speed

Social data is way more than some contact information. Today, social
selling and social media tools gives sales the ability to access
real-time data from the social networks, which helps create a more
consistent and sustainable sales process. Using social data allows a
business to identify and target specific prospects or accounts that are
more likely to buy, and buy sooner (based on social insights or
conversations). And because selling with social data returns a higher
level of success for the solution being offered, customer churn will
likely go down as well. We live in a fast paced sales environment,
finding leads and prospects is hard enough without them leaking at the
other end of the funnel due to wrong target selection, so social data
helps sales to target the right buyers to fill up the sales funnel.


The better trained and educated the sales teams are on social data
and social selling; the more a business can fine tune the customer
acquisition and development efforts. Companies using these methods
accelerate the sales forces ability to acquire new customers and to grow
existing clients.


In the digital sales era, social data is king. Investing in social
media tools and social selling solutions will only improve the health of
a sales organization plus they are much more cost-effective than having
your valuable sales resource spend hours trolling through websites and
social networks. Create a culture, mindset and the selling skills around
ensuring that your sales organization is using data to power the sales
engine and watch your sales grow. Social data combined with real sales
talent with drive revenue growth.





Social Data in Sales – The Bitter Business

Content Marketing Done Right

Content marketing when done right can deliver exceptional results yet
as many as 75% of marketing departments are doing content marketing the
wrong way. One big and critical difference between content marketing and
promotional marketing can be summed up in these two words: sharing
versus telling.


Today’s digital savvy buyers and educated consumers are ignoring
traditional advertising and sales tactics like never before. They have
become immune to brands telling them what to buy. Banner ads and online
advertising are also feeling the heat with ad blocking technologies like
AdBlock and AdDetctor helping consumers avoid advertising altogether.
As one marketing agency stated “Internet savvy people are more likely to
sign up for a trip to Mars than click on some banner ads.”


So, the logic would follow as buyers and consumers turn away from
interruption ads online and are even using tools to nullify them, then
marketing have responded to this challenge to ad weariness, right?


Ah no, this is unfortunately not always the case.

Marketing is contributing to “Content Blindness”

When developing content marketing strategies, over 75% of marketing
leaders report that product mentions are a regular tactic in their
content strategies. (The Economist Group). Marketing
departments have responded to the move away from online advertising or
“ad blindness”by viewers and implemented content marketing tactics to
counteract this decline in raising product awareness. However by
flooding the social media networks with promotional lead content, they
are in fact now encouraging “content blindness”.


The sharing of content has become a breeding ground for brand
plugging and promotional stuffing. The result is audiences are now
starting to see some content shared by brands as being deceiving,
missing out on the fact that when you strip away the advertising pitch
many of these brands have powerful stories to share.


Content marketing is primarily about sharing great stories and as you
earn the audiences trust you can begin selling your products. The hard
sales pitch tends to turn off potential customers, so rather going
straight into selling mode, start with building trust and credibility
through informative content that adds value.


Prior to publishing an article or blog post, ask the following questions:

• Does the content offer real insights on a market or interest OTHER than plugging how great a product or service is?
• Do the articles and blogs showcase the company’s expertise by providing actionable tips or research based analysis?

If the answer is, “Yes,” to these questions, your content is ready to publish.


Hold on I hear you say, so if we work diligently to create content
NOT to sell to our readers, then how do we use content marketing sell?”


Well research shows that less is more, the least sales pitch
orientated articles drive more sales when executed correctly. This is
because the content will drive awareness (inform, educate, amuse,
engage) and ultimately help prospects become qualified leads as they
consider you as a viable purchasing option.


Any business can create a content marketing journey for their
prospects and over time gently guide them to the solution to solve their
problems: considering your product or service. But the patience and
skill is you have to let them arrive at that conclusion at their own
pace.

Educate Through Content – Highlight Your Expertise

Real content marketing is about sharing thought leadership or
research, addressing problems or market trends your customers or
potential customers face. This stream of valuable content acts like a
seed, planting the ideas which overtime grows into the realisation to
prospects that they need your product or service.


The stark reality is that the press release route and publishing
in-depth product descriptions serves only to create a wall between you
and your audience. Audiences just tune out if they have not been primed
with educational content before you go for the sale with “sales
content”.


Also B2B buyers now use social media to research trends, reviews and
ways to improve their business. This presents a great opportunity for
marketers. But are B2B marketers missing the mark?


Well, the CMO Council studied how buyers viewed content published by
business-to-business marketers. This quote may help focus your content
strategy: “Business to business buyers and influencers are turned off by
self-serving, irrelevant, over-hyped, and overly technical content.”


Still lots of B2B marketers think that “content marketing” almost
like a Trojan horse, publishing product descriptions in the guise of
content. But buyers constantly remind us they are not ready to be sold
the moment they see some sales content. Their journey is about accessing
content that understands their problems first.


So when publishing content on forums, LinkedIn or on the company blog, keep these best practices in mind:

1. Hold the sell. As most readers are looking to learn
   more about a topic, do not start bombarding them with promotional
   jabber. Content sharing focuses on engaging them through quality
   articles packed with valuable insights to encourage them to learn more.
   Remember, in the sales process it takes anywhere between three and
   thirteen interactions for a prospect to turn into a qualified lead, so
   starting a “social conversation” with a sales pitch baked in will chase
   away potential customers, so the goal is to get them to stick around to
   learn something.
2. Think of your audience, not your product. When
   creating and sharing content, always prioritise an audience first
   approach. What would the readers want to learn more about? What
   obstacles are they encountering and how can you overcome those? When you
   tap into your prospects’ needs and issues, you can create content that
   they can align themselves to and encourages them to continue the
   education process.
3. Become a valuable information resource. Publish
   helpful content on a consistent basis will give readers a reason to
   visit your blog time after time. Becoming a go-to resource is critical
   to building up followers and readers. I also suggest that carefully
   offering a white paper, e-book or case study to visitors is a way to
   gain more in-depth information.

As your journey into content marketing
continues, remember that telling is not selling so put your audience’s
interests before your own. Content will only grow in quantity on the
web, and the way to avoid content blindness and do it right is never use
sales pitches disguised as articles. Instead focus on sharing your
expertise and insights. Always write to benefit the reader. As time
progresses readers will take note of your genuine approach to offering
solutions and then will be happy to engage with the sales process.


Content Marketing Done Right – The Bitter Business

How to Improve Sales Close Rates

To improve sales close rates and drive up return on
investment takes time, not to mention better use of sales resources. In
selling, the ratio of leads that do not convert to sales may suggest
that buyers are unconvinced that you are knowledgeable of the products
or services they require. So how can salespeople improve their sales
closing rates?





Here are some tips to assist salespeople in closing sales:

1. Know Your Product And Service: Even today one of
   the simplest ways to improve sales close rates is to learn and
   demonstrate your company’s USP’s. Learn what makes you and your product
   stand out from the competitors. What is your company’s value wedge? This
   alone will demonstrate your knowledge of the market and will show your
   understanding of what your prospect needs and what challenges they face.
   B2B selling requires in-depth knowledge of industries, people, products
   and trends. There is nothing worse than being unable to answer a simple
   sales question, because you have either not prepared or researched –
   resulting in you (the sales person) being caught off guard.

2. Create Awareness Prior To The Sales Pitch: A study
   has found that it takes salespeople 8 phone calls to get in contact with
   their prospect. Think about how long they have been on hold, time spent
   leaving voicemail, updating the database, doing follow-up emails,
   scheduling multiple follow-up calls, not to mention the resources and
   efforts to firstly source this lead. All of this time attempting to
   speak to the prospect – you finally get a hold of them, they don’t know
   who you are, what company you represent, they are busy and are probably
   not interested in talking to this stalker.
   However, if you have previously interacted and engaged over a period
   of time (sharing content, articles and information) with them on a
   social platform, your name may already be familiar to them, they may
   already know what company you represent and of your industry knowledge
   from blog posts and conversations on LinkedIn. Try to begin the
   conversation by sharing your social media insights on the prospect, ask
   questions and get feedback – find out what their problems and challenges
   are. Have a planned approach based on your social media insights to
   build a relationship, do not just blast your sales pitch. Your goal is
   to share your knowledge and demonstrate your understanding of the
   challenges within their industry.

3. Solve The Prospects Problem: Focus on the prospects
   problems and how your company or product can make life easier for them –
   think solving problems, saving time and money. Be careful not to
   promote your product or service outright, your goal is to assist the
   buyer in solving THEIR problems.

Asking questions enables you to diagnose the prospects pain and the
implications of this on their business – time to market, manpower and
costs. It is imperative to demonstrate what is at stake if this
challenge is not resolved, show the prospect your understanding of their
challenges and become a trusted advisor.

4. Customize Your Pitch: This feeds into my previous
   points, many salespeople believe a generic script will work for every
   prospect when in fact – no two sales are ever the same.

What issue is this specific prospect trying to solve? For example,
the salesperson will need to tailor a software package to a specific
customer, so why use a generic sales pitch for all of your leads? Adapt
your sales strategy to your prospects needs; delivering a customized
sales pitch will demonstrate your knowledge of what solution would best
suit them.

5. Qualify Sending The ‘Requested Information’ Email:
   If the prospect asks you to put everything you have just said in an
   email – Pause for a moment. Instead of accepting the outcome, inquire as
   to what specifically they would like to see in the email. This in-turn
   encourages the customer to open up to you about any questions or doubts
   they may have. If the prospect cannot outline what they would like in
   the email, you need to revisit your opening questions. By not just
   accepting the ‘requested information’ email, salespeople keep the
   process on track in a way that will come across as a more genuine and
   less robotic salesperson.

6. Time You’re Follow-Up: This could be scheduled
   while your brand is still fresh in the prospects mind, not too early
   though, as it is inherent not to pressurize the lead. Research has shown
   that 75% of marketers believe it is a combination of a knowledgeable
   salesperson and an acceptable time frame which results in a positive
   follow-up. Be aware that if you schedule an auto-response through a CRM
   platform, it must be customized and relevant to that particular
   prospect. This in turn encourages relationship building – whereas a
   generic response will actually hinder your efforts. Research has shown
   that all too many salespeople lack the discipline to follow-up with
   prospects in a timely manner.

How to Improve Sales Close Rates | Instant Lead Generation For Social Selling

Using Social Selling Tools to Improve Sales Pipeline

Using social selling tools are not only a fantastic way to build a
sales pipeline but they also play a big part in managing the pipeline
with insights and social updates to help improve win rates. Every sales
organization needs a constant stream of new opportunities along with
having social insights into existing opportunities in the pipeline.


In the past CRM tools have done a good job delivering much of this
data but now advanced social selling media tools are now coming on the
market which complement CRM systems while providing greater social
insights into the pipeline. These new ‘social media listening tools”
give sales team capabilities they never had before – vastly improved
lead generation success, insightful social listening to improve timely
follow-up and a better method to engage with prospects more successfully
through an ‘social selling’ approach.

Sales lead nurturing image

The use of social selling tools is giving sales people the sales
tools for increased visibility into the buyers journey plus customers’
interests and social activity.  This social knowledge about when and how
potential buyers engage with conversations on social networks (based on
keywords or activity) or read marketing content allows sales teams to
drive sales opportunities faster through the pipeline and hence reduce
the overall sales cycles. Social selling tools achieve this by:


What potential prospects are talking about what


How to lead nurture using content marketing


Who is giving out buying signals on the social networks


Are your prospects or customers talking or connecting with competitors


Connecting others that may be involved in the decision-making process


Uncovering social data on customer interests to keep opportunities moving forward

See how social selling can build sales pipeline

A study on Inside Sales Market Size conducted
by Inside Sales, shows that more than half (53%) of B2B sales people
sell remotely, and that inside sales is growing 15 times faster than
traditional field sales. With less customer facing contact, sales people
need to be up to-date and socially informed of where things stand with a
prospect or potential buyer. The old interruption sales model of
chasing a prospect with phone calls to fact find or to explore
opportunities is just is not an effective sales tactic anymore.


Sales automation and CRM will monitor the level of activity
surrounding a sales proposal.  However with social selling tools, sales
teams can see social activity that may help or hamper a deal, who are
they connecting to or with, what social conversations are they engaged
with, what they are sharing with others on social networks. All of this
gives greater understanding about where customers are in the sales
pipeline.


Also just as important, these social tools also reveal prospects who
are not engaging with your content or social activity. Social selling
helps to weed out the ‘nos’ faster so sales people can stop wasting time
chasing prospects going nowhere and instead focus their efforts on more
accessible prospects.

Connect to all influencers in the buyers journey

Social selling is a great way to get visibility and to connect with
influencers or decision makers across multiple departments with little
effort. Multiple social connections help manage the pipeline for more
complex deals and gives the sales teams varied points of contact for
lead nurturing.  Also to understand the sales pipeline, organizations
need insight into the social interests and connections to any
stakeholder in the sales process. Social knowledge is a powerful sales
weapon.

How can social media analytics help?

Social media analytics help to make it easier to identify anyone
potentially involved in a company’s buying process. Social selling
tools, such as Connectors Marketplace social prospecting platform, can
alert sales teams to new prospects and on that prospects social activity
from shares to like to group activities. Also it allows sales teams to
view how articles or content is being shared across the social networks
to identify interest levels, gaining insight into all the people who
interact , which works to deeper understanding about where a prospect
might be in the buying process.


Social insights into how much activity a prospect in the sales
pipeline spends looking for information or asking questions gives sales a
better path to match their needs. They can see what tweets,
blogs,articles, likes and comments a prospect is engaged in. Empowered
with this social data, sales teams can better generate and qualify
leads.

Uncover customer insights on the social networks

Social media has enabled buyers and consumers to learn more about
products and services than ever before. In fact the buyers journey has
changed the nature of selling due to what Forrester Research calls the
‘Age of the Customer’ ,  an era of educated buyers who have control over
the selling and buying process.


Due to the change in the buyers journey as a result of social media,
sales team need more insight into a customer’s social interests as
possible. Social selling tools shows sales teams what type of content
engages prospects  plus acts as an indicator to how and when to engage
with prospects.


Social selling tools
allows sales teams to tap into a myriad of social conversations, many
with buyer signals, buyers interests supported by access to social media
profiles. Social selling allows for very personalized sales
conversations and relevant information sharing. According to Aberdeen
Group, 45% of best-in-class companies make personalized sales  conversations a priority.


There is no doubt that social media has created a paradigm shift in
the way every business sells and transformed the way that they should
manage their sales pipeline. By showing how prospects engage with social
media and content, social selling tools are now an essential asset in
growing the sales pipeline of the future for any business whether B2C or
B2B.





Using Social Selling Tools to Improve Sales Pipeline | Instant Lead Generation For Social Selling

Social into Selling

Today social selling and using the power of social media is how sales
people do their networking, information sharing and in many cases the
initial customer interaction. For sales teams putting the social into
selling is paying rich dividends. The internet and growth of social
media channels are providing sales people with a multitude of new ways
in lead generation, to identifying prospects and improving awareness to
buyers. Social selling sounds simple but maybe it is time to ask
yourself – are you using these new sales avenues as much as you should
be?





First, let us look at some social selling statistics to help reinforce why this sales activity is proving so rewarding.


Social Selling Statistics

• 72% of B2B buyers used social media to research their purchase decision.

• 79% of sales people that use social media outsell their peers.
• 53% of buyers said they seek peer recommendations before they make a purchase.
• 65% of buyers feel the Company content (content marketing) had an impact on their final purchase decision.

Social selling is about moving sales people from old world selling
into the social selling world. To get sales team switch from the cold
calling world to the world of LinkedIn, Twitter and Social Networks.
Leaving behind “interruption sales” where sales people call prospects
indiscriminately to a sales model where the sales people share and
inform their prospects with relevant content to get there awareness.


Recent articles published in Forbes on social selling shows “78.6% of
sales reps using social media as part of their professional outreach
outperformed those that were not”. The same research shows how sales
people using social media as a tool were also more successful at
exceeding their sales targets. Sales teams using social media won more
often, and lost less. The top 3 social selling platforms were LinkedIn,
Twitter, and Facebook. However there are many more social networks and
forums where lead generation can thrive.


I often hear the line that “social selling does not apply to our business”
as the target segment does not use social media that much. The argument
is that not all businesses put a lot of time or effort into social
media marketing. They may not use social media but they DO consume it,
from articles on forums or LinkedIn, to white papers published online or
industry research shared. They read and are influenced by peer comments
which by default raise the awareness levels for brands or companies.
The above social selling statistics prove it. Business social networks
like LinkedIn is just one avenue as there are many industry specific
social platforms or forums that will work for most sales efforts
regardless of industry.


Social selling is about subtly directing buyers or
prospects to potential groups of interest to them, sharing quality and
relevant, and helping them expand their own social network use for
information. Putting the social into selling can go a long way in
increasing awareness, driving up the consideration levels for your
product, your company, and yourself as a valued connection.





Using the social networks to sell, requires sales people and content
marketers to stand out from the noise and low quality social
conversations. If your business segment is a vertical that is very
social (gaming, clothes, marketing, health, and recruitment) and you are
considering if it is worth trying to make an impression when there is
so much noise already? Why not take a different social approach and go
personal. Use a social media tool
to find contacts and decision makers at target companies that have
their own Twitter accounts or unique blog on Blogger, WordPress or
Medium. Maybe they are active participants on certain business forums.
Sharing relevant content, insights, useful information or replying to
questions on Quora, can make any sales person stand out from other
suppliers, and present you less as the “interruption” sales person of
the old world and more of a quality connection for the future
collaboration.


Putting the Social into Selling | Instant Lead Generation For Social Selling

Sales Success

Sales success is all about how to acquire more customers and grow the revenue or profit each customer brings into the business. One of the biggest challenges facing sales management is how to 
increase the sales selling time. Sales people need to be active in productive sales actions like lead generation, lead nurturing, social selling and closing deals and not dragged into time spent on status
updates to the sales process.


Sales management need to be crystal clear to ensure sales success and be clearly able to answer the number 1 sales question – what sales activities do you want me to do? as it not only defines what sales people are expected to do but also the recruitment process. Lets take a step back before trying to answering this question and ask yourself “what does selling activity mean in your business?”.  Is your primary sales activity definition time spent on lead generation, prospecting or maybe lead nurturing (if you supply leads via marketing activity) , is it sales, new customer acquisition or new deals closed. Real sales success tactics comes from a clearly defined definition and process for what sales activity you want the sales force to prioritize.





The world and activity of the sales person is changing rapidly. Now the main sales channel for lots of companies is via inside sales. Terms like social selling,inbound marketing automation, sales force
automation, customer success agent and the systems supporting the sales process have gotten increasingly more complex. Sales leadership have to ask the hard question, despite all the new sales tools has the actual selling time by the sales team become less important than the sales process?. Some research into selling techniques now show that sales people and sales management focus more time updating the sales process metrics than actual selling time. Maybe its time to go back to basics
and create more time to get the sales team selling!

Decide What Your Sales Tactics Are

In the era of big data and data driven sales models, the sales process in lots of companies has become complex and even less efficient in the quest for information. The outcome of this has seen downward
pressure on the rate sales forces can acquire customers, reduced sales productivity and as already stated shifting the sales thrust from selling time to sales process time.


Surely one of the aims of sales leadership is to maximize the core selling time, lead generation and relationship building activities of the sales team. This may sound rather obvious to any sales leader,
however the reality is that the drive for data insights and sales reports can be polar opposites to the rise of complexity in the sales process. Be ware the sales teams that can over time slip comfortable
into being great sales up-daters versus being great sales winners. Every business has to understand and clarify the scope of their sales team activities along with minimizing the various inefficiencies in the sales process.


As a great sales leader once stated “There are thousands of ways to
kill a sale but only a few ways to win one”. A few examples of ways to
kill a sale include not chasing up on calls, not following up on
customer requests, lack of needs understanding, not establishing a
customer connection, chasing the deal too early, not recognizing the
real decision makers etc. Most if not all of these can be identified by
sales management and addressed with sales training so with some practice
they can be solved.


However the true sales killers to sales success are the issues that
hide beneath the surface that all too many companies and sales managers
do not realize they exist.  We call these “sales weaknesses” in the
sales process which when combined with sales peoples own activity
preferences can act like heavy weights dragging down the sales efforts
and end results.


The work of aligning sales activities with the undoubted need for the
sales process takes effort. Due to the hunger for data and systems,
sales leadership or marketing can be reluctant to change existing sales
habits.  Sales managers, marketing and even CEO’s need to overcome the
common fear re-prioritizing the sales activities will somehow impact
sales revenue or data insights. All stake holders in the sales and
marketing process including finance must work together to prioritize the
expected sales activities from the sales force. Next, sales success
transformations means someone taking the lead to get the senior
management from across the company to sit down, share data, and discuss
what are the prioritizes for the sales process. The switch to sales
success tactics is about sales leadership es overriding any internal
concerns, seeing the bigger customer picture while ensure the focus is
shifted to the best solutions that will boost sales time with customers
regardless of the past.

Note of caution; moving the sales focus and sales teams activities may
mean having to change the roles people are expected to fulfill will
change.



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Sales Success Tactics | Instant Lead Generation For Social Selling