THE SOCIAL SELLING MATURITY MODEL (SSMM) The Social Selling Maturity Model (SSMM)

STAGE 5 Increase to Optimization 15% - 20% 0%

STAGE 4 Increase to Integration 10% - 15% 5%

Increase to STAGE 3 10% Training 7% - 8%

STAGE 2 1% - 2% 25% Policy (No Change to Lift)

STAGE 1 % of B2B 1% - 2% Companies 60% Random Acts of Social Lift

Social selling works.

The verdict is in: Social selling works.

Multiple studies have found that sales professionals who use LinkedIn, , and other social networks to sell consistently outperform their peers who don’t. For example, Aberdeen Group has found that 46% of social sellers make quota, compared to only 38% for reps who don’t practice social selling.

It’s easy to see why social selling works. Sales, especially B2B Sales, is all about relationships. The most successful salespeople build trusted, 1-to-1 relationships with buyers. They cultivate those relationships before and after the close, leveraging them to drive referrals, renewals, upsells, and follow-on opportunities.

Online social networks make it dramatically easier for sales professionals to cultivate the 1-to-1 relationships that drive sales. Tools like LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Google+ allow sales professionals to create compelling personal , to build networks with the people who matter, to share valuable content, and to listen for opportunities to engage in a meaningful way.

Page 1 The Social Selling Maturity Model| FRONTLINE Selling Social Selling requires behavior change.

Few sales teams are taking advantage of the social selling opportunity.

In FRONTLINE’s 2014 survey of B2B sales professionals, only 31% of respondents reported using social as part of their selling process. With just 26% of respondents feel they know how to use effectively for selling, it’s no wonder organizations struggle to unlock the social selling opportunity.

Fixing this problem isn’t easy for sales leaders. Social selling can’t be “turned on” simply by throwing a switch or even hiring a trainer. Implementing social selling requires sales professionals to change the way they do business every day. Changing the team’s selling behavior is one of the most difficult challenges a sales manager can tackle. The bigger the sales team, the bigger the challenge.

The Social Selling Maturity Model | FRONTLINE Selling Page 2 The Social Selling Maturity Model (SSMM)

Backed by extensive survey data and hands-on experience working with hundreds of sales organizations, FRONTLINE has developed the world’s first Enterprise Social Selling Maturity Model (SSMM).

The SSMM was developed with sales leadership in mind. While much has been written about social selling, most is geared towards the individual salesperson. The Maturity Model takes the perspective of the senior sales leader, who is responsible for the performance of an entire sales team. The SSMM describes stages through which sales teams pass on their way to social selling excellence.

FRONTLINE research found that the path to social selling excellence is fairly uniform across organizations, regardless of industry or price point. Teams go through five main steps, which we’ve named: Random Acts of Social, Policy, Training, Integration, and Optimization.

We’ll take each of these in turn.

Page 3 The Social Selling Maturity Model| FRONTLINE Selling Stage 1: Random Acts of Social

This is where every company and sales team starts its social selling journey. Individual sales professionals create accounts on social sites like LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and other social networks. Salespeople then use these networks as a new channel for their sales activity: building a , posting content, hunting for prospects, and sending messages.

Random acts of social are characterized by complete lack of coordination. At this stage, reps are on their own when it comes to social selling. Activity is driven by the innovation and resourcefulness of early adopters who see the potential of social selling and seize the DESCRIPTION initiative without asking for help or permission. There Individual exploration and is no organizational governance, coordination, or risk experimentation management. PROCESS Even at this stage, the benefits to the individual None salesperson can be significant. FRONTLINE survey data indicates that for “early adopter” sales reps who embrace ACCOUNTABILITY social selling attribute, nearly 15% of their closed business The individual salesperson is influenced by social. SALES LIFT ROI perspective. From an overall team standpoint, 1-2% the impact of social selling is limited. Without formal programs in place to help them, only 20-25% of sales professionals incorporate social networks into their selling process. The remaining 75-80% continue to sell without the benefit of social. As a result, Random Acts of Selling only delivers a 1-2% performance improvement to sales teams—a nice bump, but hardly transformative.

The Social Selling Maturity Model | FRONTLINE Selling Page 4 Stage 2: Policy

The Policy stage of the SSMM is marked by a desire mitigate the risks associated with Random Acts of Social.

As social selling starts to spread across an organization, management typically becomes concerned about potential risks associated with salespeople publishing content directly to the market. At this point (and Compliance for regulated industries) step in to bring discipline and consistency to the company’s branding and messaging on social networks.

At this stage, companies make important structural DESCRIPTION changes that clear the way for future social selling. They Corporate social media policies write and distribute a corporate social media policy. They and governance establish processes for monitoring employee use of social media. In regulated industries this often includes the PROCESS introduction of a social media compliance platform. Issue escalation protocols This is also the stage at which Marketing begins to assert ACCOUNTABILITY itself as the authoritative voice of the brand. Within the Legal / Compliance last 12-18 months, B2B marketers have begun to embrace in ways that rival their B2C peers. A 2014 SALES LIFT study by Content Marketing Institute found that 91% of 1-2% B2B marketers publish content on LinkedIn and 85% publish on Twitter. Even Facebook, the most consumer- oriented social network, is used as a publishing platform by 82% of B2B marketers.

ROI perspective. While Policy is an important step in a company’s social selling evolution, this is a defensive move without direct benefits for sales performance.

Page 5 The Social Selling Maturity Model| FRONTLINE Selling Stage 3: Training

Having established a marketing, legal, and compliance foundation, companies are now in a position to empower their sales teams with broad-based social selling initiatives.

At this stage, these initiatives take the form of training. Whether delivered via e-learning or classroom, outsourced or internally staffed, these trainings educate sales teams on the basics of selling with social. Curriculum covers selling techniques like , etiquette for making new contacts, social prospecting, and content sharing, as well as compliance policy around topics like endorsements, client confidentiality, and DESCRIPTION intellectual property. Live trainings for sales team members Social selling increases noticeably with this stage of the SSMM. Once limited to early adopter reps who naturally PROCESS embrace new technologies, social selling awareness is Ad-hoc training events spreading across the full team. Leadership signals a desire, perhaps even an expectation, that salespeople use ACCOUNTABILITY social networks to sell. Marketing supports the effort by Training (internal or external) supplying Sales with vetted, approved content to post and share online. SALES LIFT 7-8% ROI perspective. FRONTLINE survey data indicates that formal training programs expand social selling participation from 20-25% to 70-75%. Sales professionals whose companies offer formal training programs report greater than 2x the influence of social selling on revenue generation as compared with peers whose companies do not offer training. These forces combine to generate a 7-8% top-line lift when companies offer formal training on social.

The Social Selling Maturity Model | FRONTLINE Selling Page 6 Stage 4: Integration

Despite many benefits, impact achieved in the Training stage is limited by two factors: measurement and scalability. Managers can’t measure how employees are (or aren’t) acting on the information communicated in the training. And training is difficult to scale, especially in organizations with high employee turnover.

Selling teams overcome these limitations in the Integration stage of the SSMM. At this point companies advance beyond training as a one-off initiative and weave social into every aspect of their selling process. DESCRIPTION Social integrated into core sales CRM integration is the key to sales process integration. process and metrics Individual reps are given social tasks or “to-dos” based on their leads, pipeline, and account assignments in CRM. PROCESS Tracking and reporting on social activity becomes a core CRM integration, structured activity for Sales Ops, done manually or with support from reporting integrated systems.

ACCOUNTABILITY ROI perspective. FRONTLINE analysis indicates that Sales Ops CRM integration increases both the participation and effectiveness of social selling. This elevates the top-line SALES LIFT contribution of social selling to 10-15%. 10-15%

Page 7 The Social Selling Maturity Model| FRONTLINE Selling Stage 5: Optimization

In this highest stage of social selling maturity, sales organizations analyze empirical data on past success to guide future actions on social. These organizations move beyond generic best practice to “close the loop” on such strategic social selling questions as:

Which team members’ success comes from relationships, and why?

• Which types of content are most effective in influencing won opportunities? DESCRIPTION • Which target companies, roles, and/or geographies Sales process modified based on are underrepresented or oversaturated on the team’s social insights social graph? PROCESS • At what point in the deal cycle is it most effective for Structured feedback loops to the reps to connect with prospects on social networks? sales team members • Which social networks drive the greatest return ACCOUNTABILITY for your markets? Sales Leadership

ROI perspective. While it’s still early to have empirical data SALES LIFT on the ROI of the Optimization stage, FRONTLINE’s study of 15-20% traditional CRM and other enterprise process improvements suggests that this stage will deliver a total performance improvement of 15-20% for fully mature social selling teams.

The Social Selling Maturity Model | FRONTLINE Selling Page 8 (formerly PeopleLinx)

Conclusion

We predict that by 2020, social selling will be a firmly established sales practice. It will be as commonplace as quotas and pipeline reviews.

The benefits of social selling are significant. As the Social Selling Maturity Model (SSMM) shows, selling teams who fully embrace, integrate, and optimize their social selling activity can expect to see top-line improvement of 15-20%.

Sales leaders should approach social selling as an organizational journey. It is larger than any one tool, project, or initiative. Social selling requires sales professionals to change their behavior, which is always a challenge. The SSMM lays out the five stages through which teams progress in order to realize the social selling opportunity. For most organizations, making it through all five stages will be a multi-year effort.

While the journey may be long, the benefits are immediate. This is not an all-or-nothing value proposition. Sales leaders can and will unlock value in the early stages of the journey. Start small and calibrate the investment of time and money based on results.

The question for sales leaders is not whether to adopt social selling, but how—and how quickly—to integrate it into sales process.

Page 9 The Social Selling Maturity Model| FRONTLINE Selling