Social Selling

By Kym Cousins
Sprout Enablement

When I say the words ‘cold calling’ – do you shake in fear?  Do your palms get all sweaty?  Do you feel nauseous?  If you said ‘yes’ to any of those, then you are not alone.

But have you heard of Social Selling? Do you know what it means, how to do it, or whether it would be useful in helping you grow your business? Put in simple terms, you could basically say that Social Selling replaces ‘cold calling’ as a means of finding, connecting, qualifying and nurturing prospects and sales leads. It’s the 21^st Century way of developing purposeful relationships with potential customers so that you are the first person or brand that a prospect thinks of when they are ready to buy.

So all that time you spend on social media – Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, Twitter etc. can be productively focused on purposefully putting yourself ‘out there’ to attract clients. People will buy from people they know, like and trust and so how you ‘show up’ is an important factor in whether your use of social media will result in clients being attracted to you/your brand.  The point of the word ‘social’ is to engage and be present – so be yourself, be authentic and present your unique value.  Your competitive differentiation will be enhanced by how you share insights and how you present your expertise and credibility as a thought leader in your industry.  Present yourself with the customer’s point of view in mind, so that they start to recognize you as a thought leader and a trusted advisor with whom they would like to do business.

Social Selling is NOT…spamming or bombarding strangers with unsolicited messages.  It’s not about being aggressive, or manipulating people into providing their credit card details and it’s not about saving time by letting robots like and comment on your behalf.  Yes, chatbots and social bots are creeping into marketing and customer service, but nothing beats a real, live human.

Linkedin is one of the most under-utilized social platforms, which in fact is now fast becoming the ‘go-to’ social platform for business growth.  It is the world’s largest online professional network and is not just a place to store your online CV for job hunting.  I tend to think of Linkedin as a ‘professional’ version of Facebook and so what I post on Linkedin is very different from what I post on Facebook or Instagram.  It’s tempting to post exactly the same on all your platforms, but you need to consider your target audience and on which platform they spend their time.  If you sell business to business, you would be well served to have a presence on Linkedin, whereas selling to a younger demographic can be very effective on Instagram and a personal approach lends itself to engaging on Facebook. Joining and becoming active in Groups on either Facebook or Linkedin is a very effective way to engage with likeminded people, nurture a group of potential clients, or connect with those who have similar problems to solve, or who have similar expertise.  It can also be a useful way to keep an eye on your competitors, learn from keeping abreast of industry directions, or following buying trends.

Sales has always been about building relationships, establishing rapport and credibility, understanding customers’ needs and solving their problems.  Social Selling doesn’t change that.  It provides you with a much more effective and efficient way of finding potential customers and a means for them to be attracted to you when they are ready to buy.  Much less confronting than ‘cold calling’!

Kym

Kym Cousins
Sprout Enablement

Kym is best known for her passion in enabling her clients’ personal and business success through developing their confidence and skills in the areas of: sales, marketing, communication and leadership.  She is the owner of ‘Sprout Enablement’ – a national Training and Coaching Consultancy and holds academic qualifications in marketing and management.

Kym is a professionally qualified coach and facilitator and a certified Myers Briggs and Emotional Intelligence practitioner. Throughout her corporate career as a senior leader with some of Australia’s most recognizable Global IT brands, Kym managed high performance sales teams and enabled partner and alliance organisations to build vendor brand presence.  Amongst Kym’s accomplishments of which she is most proud are the achievements, accolades and career growth her mentees. Many of these sales leaders and entrepreneurs have won various global Awards, have built successful businesses and have enjoyed immense personal success.