How to Get Social Selling Right

As discussed in earlier posts, we know that the best sales reps are shaping the nature of customer demand by delivering disruptive insight where customers learn, effectively reframing how customers think about their business. Such a strategy has become a necessity for successful selling in the current era of sales as today’s empowered customers have access to more information than ever before and are, on average, 57% of the way through their purchase decision before they need to reach out to a supplier for the first time—meaning they have already likely determined their needs, identified a solution, shopped suppliers, and have arrived at a price they are willing to pay on their own.

So it’s clear that successful reps are engaging with customers at the learning phase of the purchasing funnel and are sharing disruptive insights that customers would not have discovered on their own. That said, determining where your customers are learning, and actually getting your reps to engage them effectively in that space is no easy task. Though where customers learn varies greatly from company to company, by industry, etc., there is one common space that we all seem to be learning in to some degree or another these days—social networks and through social media.

In fact, CEB Sales research shows that the best sellers earnpermission to be influencers within their customers’ social networks. Through influence, reps teach customers into the funnel, gather information to more easily identify commercial opportunities, and generally gain more access to customers.

Using social networking and social media channels like LinkedIn, Twitter, etc., enables reps to connect more effectively with prospects as well as existing customers, and also recognize opportunities open to disruption that they would not have been aware of otherwise. Reps who embrace social selling and are able to establish credibility online can position themselves as connectors and information curators who are able to deliver insight in small doses to wide (and scoped) audiences, ultimately creating new opportunities for delivering commercial insight farther down the pipeline.

CEB Sales Members, to learn more about Social Selling, make sure to check out our new resource center, and listen to the webinar replay on Social Selling: Gaining Credibility and Influence in B2B Social Media Networks.