Social media has become a crucial part of the sales world, especially considering that high-performing salespeople are 12% more likely to use social media when selling.
As social selling skills are becoming a need-to-have, we asked sales experts for their best social selling tips you can apply to better leverage your social media presence to connect with prospects and make hard sales.
Here are FIVE of the Top Social Selling Tips…
1. Optimize your profiles – Your social media profiles are useless to leads and potential customers if they don’t contain the information they need to learn more about you, what you offer, and how you can help them.
Because of this, optimizing your social media profiles and keeping them up-to-date with all of your and your business’s relevant information is crucial
2. Diversify your platforms – Make sure you are optimizing multiple platforms to make it easy for people to find you and reinforce your brand.
So, which platforms should you use? Sales reps who use social media for prospecting say that Facebook is the most effective, followed by Instagram and LinkedIn.
3. Be an influencer and share helpful content -The role of a salesperson is changing in 2024 as buyers are researching products and services on their own and building their knowledge before ever reaching out to a sales rep.
This shift allows salespeople to become influencers on social media by sharing the helpful content buyers look for when doing their research. Because social media is critical to finding potential solutions in the attract-phase, publishing helpful information is a big differentiator.
4. Be yourself, and be sincere – Sales reps must stay true to themselves through their social selling efforts. When you affirm how you genuinely feel about a client or a product, you build authenticity as a helpful resource. Once that trust is established, the conversations can really begin! If you want to build trust (which you can’t sell without), authenticity is the only path.
5. Stay consistent – Building relationships with prospects takes time. This is why consistency is a key ingredient for any sales strategy — online or not.
For instance, I recommend sales reps post at least weekly on LinkedIn, along with individual follow-ups with prospects who engage with your content.
The key is to have three or four interactions within 10-12 days, which shows professional persistence without overwhelming your prospect.