17 TIPS TO START THE SOCIAL SELLING TRANSFORMATION TABLE OF CONTENTS STARTING THE SOCIAL SELLING TRANSFORMATION JOURNEY ..........................................3 STEP 1: CREATE A PROFESSIONAL BRAND ........................................................................4 STEP 2: FIND THE RIGHT PEOPLE ......................................................................................6 STEP 3: BUILD YOUR PIPELINE ............................................................................................... 8 STEP 4: STRATEGICALLY EXPAND YOUR NETWORK ...........................................................10 STEP 5: ENGAGE WITH INSIGHTS .....................................................................................11 STEP 6: BUILD STRONG RELATIONSHIPS .........................................................................13 STEP 7: MEASURE HOW WELL YOU’VE ADOPTED SOCIAL SELLING .................................15 PUTTING THE SOCIAL WHEELS IN MOTION ......................................................................17 ABOUT LINKEDIN AND DEMAND GEN REPORT ................................................................19 02 STARTING THE SOCIAL SELLING TRANSFORMATION JOURNEY In our earlier piece 7 Ways Sales Professionals Drive Revenue With Social Selling, we provided a high-level overview of the concept Social Selling Defined: and principles of Social Selling. Since the publication of that E-book, social media has become even more central to the way businesses of Social Selling leverages your professional brand to all kinds drive new prospects and clients. fill your pipeline with the right people, insights and relationships. One of the reasons for this development is that social media platforms have added features and functions that make them more flexible and With that in mind, let’s dig into the details. easier to use. Even more important, however, is that both customers This E-book will give you concrete tips drawn from the experience and salespeople have by-and-large become social media natives. In of some of the world’s foremost experts on Social Selling about the other words, instead of simply using social media as a high-tech way actions you can take to gain more opportunities, close more deals to connect and prospect, people are now more likely to view it as the and drive more revenue. most visible representation of a person or company’s professional brand. As such, Social Selling is the most effective way to Follow these seven steps to begin building a profitable Social Selling leverage that brand to fill your pipeline with the right people, campaign today. insights and relationships. 3 Janet Zen STEP 1: Passionate Client Advocate * Specialist in Providing Solutions to Complex Challenges CREATE A PROFESSIONAL BRAND Greater Chicago Area | Digital Media Current Awesome Media Company Previous All-Star Sales Group Many salespeople treat their social media profiles as an afterthought, Education Indiana University 500 including no more than the bare minimum of identifying information. Send a message Endorse connections This is the 21st century equivalent of showing up to a meeting with a Contact Info rumpled suit and muddy shoes. Relationship Connected 1 year ago Your profile — especially your LinkedIn profile — is your professional Posts online brand. Instead of viewing your profile as your resume, look Published by Janet 6,075 See more followers at it as the place to demonstrate your value to clients, partners and prospects. THE RPM READINESS GUIDE Insights To Determine Whether Your Organization Is Prepared For Revenue Performance Management And Best Practices In addition to contact information, include robust calls-to-action To Start You On The Right Path To A Successful Journey ➡ DOES AN ORGANIZATION NEED TO BE BIG TO BE READY FOR RPM? ➡ THE PEOPLE POWER BEHIND RPM SUCCESS that guide prospects on how to move further down the relationship ➡ THE POTENTIAL PAYOFFS OF AN RPM JOURNEY Presented by Sponsored by funnel with you. Use the Headline, Summary and Interests sections to REPORT 7 Ways Sales Professionals Drive The RPM Readiness Guide Benchmarking Marketing Revenue with Social Selling April 2, 2014 Automation convey various elements of your experience, personality and skill set May 20, 2014 March 26, 2014 that highlight your ability to solve problems and make things happen. Background Summary Social Selling Transformation Tip #1 Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm. - Winston Churchill “The work you do on your profile is going to Thanks for visiting my profile. I have included many items you may find informative. set the stage with the biggest impact. You Sales Professionals: Learn how to use LinkedIn http://linkd.in/1odaWW6 I’m an open networker. My connection philosophy is easy “Can I add value to you or can you add want to go from an aesthetic profile to creating value to me” if any of those are met, we can connect. If you would like to connect, please customize something that is more interactive by adding your message. I rarely accept generic connection requests. *********** Rich Media, links, and valuable content.” I am honored to be one of the most recognized social experts in the technology industry. With 10+ years of sales experience and a passion for social media, I have become an evangelist for social – Koka Sexton, selling, a topic that I promote through global speaking engagements and customer trainings. My expertise extends beyond my knowledge of social networks like LinkedIn, Twitter and social Sr. Social Marketing Manager, LinkedIn applications into my skill at employing them to drive lead generation, create new opportunities, and engage customers. 4 Click to share! Background Summary Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm. - Winston Churchill Thanks for visiting my profile. I have included many items you may find informative. Sales Professionals: Learn how to use LinkedIn http://linkd.in/1odaWW6 I’m an open networker. My connection philosophy is easy “Can I add value to you or can you add Leaders in the sales engagement space are now stressing that it is value to me” if any of those are met, we can connect. If you would like to connect please customize your message. I rarely accept generic connection requests. critical for today’s sales professionals to connect with their customers *********** and prospects on a personal level. I am honored to be one of the most recognized social experts in the technology industry. With ten+ years of sales experience and a passion for social media, I have become an evangelist for social selling, a topic that I promote through global speaking engagements and customer trainings. It is also important that you optimize your profile for the LinkedIn My expertise extends beyond my knowledge of social networks like LinkedIn, Twitter and Social applications into my skill at employing them to drive lead generation, create new opportunities, and search engines by including keywords that prospects are most likely engage customers. to use when searching for services your company provides. Take Specialties: advantage of video and other interactive features to highlight the best *********** features of your brand — both organizational and personal. » Social Media Strategy » Social Media Channels » Content Marketing » Marketing » Sales 2.0 » Social Selling Training Social Selling Transformation Tip #2 » Social Selling Best Practices » Community Manager “Unless you are looking for a job, your profile » Social Media Tools isn’t about you, it’s about them. What value » LinkedIn for Marketing do you bring? Start with your headline — just » LinkedIn for Sales having your company name and title is not » Social Media Marketing engaging. What does your prospect or client » Customer Engagement care about? The whole point is to get them to continue looking through your profile, eventually Skills & Endorsements to reach out.” – Brynne Tillman, Top Skills Click to share! President & CEO, Social Sales Link 5 STEP 2: FIND THE RIGHT PEOPLE LinkedIn has one of the most powerful search engines in existence, and it’s specifically designed for professional networking and Social Selling Transformation Tip #3 business development. If you aren’t proactively searching for new “Most influential people use at least one social people to interact with, you are missing out on a big part of social monitoring tool to be notified when something media’s potential to be a growth driver for your business. is written about them on the web. I know of sales teams that engage with prospects by With Social Selling, you have access to a web of connections that commenting on their blog posts (or comments includes not only the people you know directly, but all the people they make on other people’s blog posts), re- they know, and so on. LinkedIn gives you the ability to tap into a vast tweeting something they say, or mentioning something about ecosystem of these potential prospects, all of whom can be traced them in a LinkedIn status update. This allows the sales person to directly back to your core professional circle. be known by the prospect so when that sales person calls they Salespeople who do a high quantity of LinkedIn searches substantially are not a complete unknown and they have a reference point to outperform those who neglect this feature. And those who use the full engage the prospect in a conversation.” suite of tools designed to maximize social search perform best of all. – Craig Elias, Chief Catalyst, Shift Selling