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Social Selling is the process of developing relationships (most often on social media) as part of the sales process. It’s 2021, and if you’re still following the old school “always be the closing” model, your system might need a firmware update.
Social Selling is where it’s at these days. Especially if you’re selling a “commodity” product. People like to buy from people they know, like, and trust.
I’m Ben Albert, and in this episode, I will provide 5 mind-blowing stats on Social Selling. You’ll leave this episode with a refined knowledge of the power of incorporating “Social Selling” into your marketing strategy.
1) To begin, according to Screwpile, 78% of salespeople using social media perform better than their peers. Mind-blowing, right? What this means is that the very best salespeople are using Social Selling.
Are you branding yourself on Linkedin, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tik Tok, Clubhouse, or any other platforms? The very best business people are building a brand on at least one, if not multiple. You ought to be branding yourself! That means you! Yes, you! Not just your company or your products and services. Brand yourself as an expert, influencer, and person of interest, and watch people come to you asking for your help. I could say it a million times; people buy from people they know, like, and trust. That should be you.
To reduce overwhelm here.
Don’t feel like you have to be everything to everyone and post everywhere. Chose one platform and 10x your efforts to brand yourself there. Ask yourself, where does my target market spend the most time? And then spend as much time as possible socializing with them on that platform.
For me, my number one is Linkedin, by far! What’s yours?
2) Next, according to The Sales Benchmark Index, 98% of sales reps with 5,000+ Linkedin connections meet or surpass sales quotas. Now THAT is so powerful, I absolutely have to repeat it. 98% of sales reps with 5,000+ Linkedin connections meet or exceed sales quotas.
So 5,000 is a lot of connections. Do any of you have 5,000 or more? To be honest, I don’t yet. The specific tips for breaking this mark and properly crushing Linkedin will be a topic for an upcoming episode. The one main point I want to make right now is simple: Imagine you could crush your quota every single month? You’d want that, right? Or, as many of my listeners, maybe you aren’t a salesperson. Imagine getting a raise and moved up into a higher leadership role due to your impeccable value promoting your company, promoting your business, promoting yourself.
Very simply, those who put in the most time and effort into growing their network reap the highest benefits. It’s a fact.
3) Third stat of the day, McKinsey and Company noted that there at 1.5 billion social media users across the globe! Now that’s a lot, isn’t it!? Let’s look at that 5,000-mark again. Whether it’s 5,000 connections on Linkedin, Friends on Facebook, Followers on Instagram, Twitter, or anywhere else, there are millions and millions of great people out there that will help you hit your goals.
But, remember, use caution and treat people with respect. Humans are not just a number.
Connections need to be treated as friends as you build relationships with more and more of them. Imagine having 5,000 people that support you personally would recommend you and buy from your company. For many of us, we don’t even need 5,000 of those people; even 50 would do the trick! Start building your network now!
4) Stat four, according to Corporate Executive Board, 77% of B2B buyers won’t speak to a salesperson until they’ve done their own research.
Now this hammers down everything we’ve been talking about today. In the 2020s, the name of the game is buyer empowerment. Our buyers are informed. They’ve done their research. It’s less and less about “hard sells” these days and more about branding and relationship building. When your prospects do their research, what do they find? Do you have a crappy service and no presence online? Or are they impressed with the first impression you leave the moment their Google your name? Even if you’re not the cheapest, you’ll see your company grow if people know, like, and trust you.
5) Last up, number five… According to Keller Research Center, the outbound selling strategy of cold calling only has a 2.5% success rate. That’s right, your assumptions are correct; cold calling sucks. It’s not fun. It’s not practical. And it has a low success rate. I’m not saying the business you work for shouldn’t cold call at all. But I am saying that there is a low chance of effectiveness.
Nowadays, you don’t have to do the old fashion cold calling. You can do cold outreach on social media or, even better, continuously keep in touch with your current connections.
So go on, everyone, get out, and pump steroids into your social selling empire. As another reminder, email me ben@balbertmarketing.com, that’s Ben@BAlbertMarketing.com if you have a question or need some help.
I appreciate you engaging with me today, most weeks will have an expert guest; if you’d like to learn more about Balbert Marketing and our services, I encourage you to go to 585marketing.com.
Keep up the great work!
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