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