Ultimate guide to social selling [part 2]: How to create social selling sales strategy [+examples]
You chose your path and decided to walk towards Social Selling, a valley of flourishing prospecting fields, meaningful connections, and better conversion opportunities. Now we welcome you to the camp - The Ultimate Guide Part 2, where we will be discussing how to create a tailor-made Sales Strategy for your business.
If you haven’t checked out Part 1 yet, be sure to do so here, where we’ve covered:
- What is social selling
- How to measure social selling success
- 10 tips to boost your sales using social selling
Let’s jump to the sequel of our shared storyline and prepare you for the mountain climb.
Benefits of Social Selling
Firstly, let's distinguish why we are all doing this. Social selling is the most effective sales strategy in recent years. Thus, there are many statistics to prove how vast its potential can be:
76% of buyers are ready to have a social media conversation with potential providers.
Social sellers are 51% more likely to achieve sales quotas.
39% of B2B professionals said social selling reduced the amount of time they had to spend researching potential leads.
84% of C-Level executives use social media to make purchasing choices.
To name a few. So what does this mean, and how can your company benefit from it? Well…
1. Social Selling increases brand visibility.
When a sales team shares content and optimizes their social profiles, their networks grow and engage even more. Besides, these actions are free and organic, meaning you do not need to PPC the hell out of them.
2. Attracts more high-quality leads.
As brand visibility improves, so shall the quality of leads. When you have a team of social sellers armed with good quality content, they are educating their network. So, let's take LinkedIn as an example. Firstly, people on this social network are far more interested in education from their field of expertise. Secondly, the more you post valuable and specific content, the more interest you will trigger, and your niche network will grow, aka you will have the opportunity to reach more qualified leads.
3. Improves website traffic.
The more you share content from your company’s website, the more people will click on the link. On the other side, they will also search for more information on the web about your company.
4. Gaining respect as an individual and the company.
If you show you know what you are talking about and constantly offer value to your network, you will gain their respect. In addition, prospects aren’t easily swayed with any content. You need to provide them with what they do not know - constantly. The more you do, the more respect you will have “on the streets”. Consequently, more people will trust you.
5. Building relationships and gaining trust.
Would you rather talk to a real person or a logo? Of course, the real person. That is why social selling works as you get the chance to build relationships with people. We as a human race wish to feel the connection with the people first and foremost. That is why, apart from posting, you should focus on mingling and chatting with other people. The good-quality relationships you have, the more people will trust you, and that is the true benefit of it all. Do not forget to be honest, genuine, and authentic in the process, otherwise, it will not work.
6. Skyrockets conversion.
Due to gaining respect and building relationships, social selling is also a fantastic way to increase the number of meetings per month - meaning more chances to close the deal and more income to the company.
How to create a sales strategy for Social Selling
A sales strategy is a documented plan with activities and metrics for the sales team to follow and enables them to generate income for the company more efficiently. In other words, if you wish to do social selling, you cannot be sloppy - you must be detailed and organized as your main goal is to convert prospects into customers. In short, here are the steps to tailor-make your social selling strategy.
1# Determine which social media platforms are right for you
Most companies use different social media platforms to raise awareness and their presence. When it comes to social selling, you need to do the same. It might be overwhelming, but know this - you do not have to do everything on every platform possible, as you might do with your company’s presence. Think about what platform your prospects use the most and start from there. Once you establish your presence, you can use other platforms to connect with the prospects. For instance, here is what social media networks proved to be the most effective, according to DataBox.
2# Determine your goals and metrics
Social selling doesn't work unless you set goals. Without clear goals and metrics (which we mentioned in Part 1 of the Ultimate Guide), your random acts of social selling will produce uneven results. Hence, to prevent this and prepare a field for the most accurate social selling describe goals using specific words and KPIs.
Social Selling goal examples:
| Goal | KPI Metrics |
| Increase revenue by 20% | - Number of conversions, CLTV |
| Expand network by 350 connections | - Number of invitations sent; Number of connections accepted |
| Nurturing existing customers | - Number of conversations with existing customers |
| Build closer relationships with leads | - Number of warmed-up leads |
| Improve brand awareness by improving website traffic | - Number of webpages visits (UTM them when posting it) |
3# Determine the right ICP
We already mentioned in Part one the importance of the right ideal customer profile. So, be selective of who you interact with. In other words, you cannot expect that just everyone will buy your product or service. When prospecting on LinkedIn, find your niche ideal customer profile and build a relationship with them.
On this mission, you will find out that many tools can help you find who to reach out to.
4# Determine tools to support your sales strategy
Many tools can help out your social selling activities. Some might save you time when you do outreach, such as Skylead, some will help you filter your niche ICP like LinkedIn Sales Navigator, or you simply need to keep all your prospects organized, such as Pipedrive.
5# Determine your unique content strategy and product key benefits
To keep things clean, organized, and as simple as possible, you can create a separate document to join your sales strategy - a Content Strategy. For example, this can be a document that contains:
- Type of content you will be posting
- Posting frequency by days
- Content format
- Content distribution groups or channels
In addition, be careful about the type of content you post, as according to Social Spout, 46% of people may unfollow you if your content is too promotional.
6# Determine Social Selling activities
There are only a handful of social selling main activities you need to perform. You can decide which ones you will use, but you must know that this sales strategy works best if you combine them.
Post
Post your original, educational content, and do it frequently. Consequently, prospects will love it and follow you more.
Share
Sharing other people’s content for a change will eliminate the potential prospect’s perception that you’re self-centered.
Reactions
This is a useful social selling activity for the moments when you are short on time or if you do not have anything to contribute. It shows that you are following the prospect even though you are not engaging more actively.
Comment
Your comment must not be just a sales pitch. Instead, offer your educational 2-cents on the topic in discussion, and link your content or website page ONLY if it can be applied. In addition, comments are a nifty indicator of your genuine interest, as it shows that you are not solely the “distributor” of your own content, but rather a social being. Speaking of nifty - comments are also free publicity on other people’s posts.
Message
Engage with the prospect on a more personal level with DMs. Example:
Hey Bethany,
I’ve just noticed you reached your 2nd anniversary at SaleChart. Just wanted to congratulate you on that. How are things going at SaleChart?
Connection request or a Follow
Social experts say that it is best to wait to make a connection with someone until you’ve had an appropriate reason to. In order to create this “reason” you need to go personal. Therefore, reference their blog post, the content they shared, or mutual connection.
Example of the LinkedIn connection request that will stand out:
Hi Jessie,
Your comment about a couple of sales techniques on Michael's post was quite insightful. So I wanted to add you as my connection. If you are interested, I would like to discuss it further.
Once you determine the activities, you need to keep in mind that they should always be honest, relevant, and hyper-personalized.
7# Determine sales communication funnel
When you create a sales strategy, every activity has to belong to a certain part of the sales funnel. This applies to social selling, as well.
In other words, you need to establish a valid sales communication funnel to know how to engage and warm up the leads, apart from engaging with their content. As people are naturally different and there is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to social selling, we cannot give you the precise sales communication funnel. However, what we can do is to provide you with a basis to start with.
| Stage | Communication type |
| First contact | - Research, - Introduction |
| Interaction (Warm-up) | - Commenting - Liking - Sharing - Experience exchange |
| Interest | - Value 1 - Value 2 |
| Question | - Listening to customers pain points, how they handle the situation |
| Discussion | - Tailor-Made Value 1 - Tailor-Made Value 2 - Educational material |
| Conversion | - Ask for review or referral |
| Nurture | - Communication about product effects - Providing help |
8# Finishing up sales strategy: Activity checklist
Phew! That was a lot, wasn’t it? we’re almost done. Now that you’ve determined this sales strategy, create an activity checklist you need to do daily. Social selling can take a lot of time during the day, especially since sales reps already have a lot on their plate. Trust us because this sheet will help any salesperson organize daily activities and save a lot of time.
Social selling activities will depend on previous steps defined. Since this is the Ultimate Guide, here is an ultimate checklist, which you can use for any platform.
- Firstly, post a content
- Secondly, share relevant content
- Like or comment your prospect’s content
- Take a look at who viewed your profile (if available)
- Send a connection requests to those who did and personalize your approach if they are ICP
- Check out who interacted with your content. Additionally, interact with them
- If people who interacted with your content are not in your network, connect with them
- Review social media notifications for any birthdays, job change etc and act accordingly
- Add new leads to your CRM
- Check on your leads status in CRM and interact with them on social media
- Respond to any messages
- Initiate casual conversation with the leads
- Initiate the connections
- Engage in existing groups
- Find new groups and join
- Lastly, attend events
Once you start doing social selling, you must constantly provide valuable contributions (unless you are on vacation :). Uneven or infrequent social selling can backfire. Every action matters as long as you do not vanish and appear in a month or two.
Sales strategy examples for Social Selling
How does the theory above manifest into reality? Let’s take a look at short-form sales strategy examples.
1# Sales strategy: The one when you become a thought leader
Let’s start with the statistics. According to Hubspot, 92% of buyers are willing to engage with an industry thought leader. For instance, if you learn fast, write faster, and like to mingle, this is a perfect social selling strategy for you.
Thought leaders often use social media to share their experiences. Firstly, their posts are always straight to the point and educational - never promotional. Secondly, they act as a kind of influencer in their niche field.
Scenario: For example, let's say you have B2B software Budgetfy that scans companies' spending and suggests budget optimization.
Goals for 3 months
- Increase revenue by 10% (Metric: Percentage of revenue, profit rate)
- Expand network by 400 connections (Metric: Number of invitations sent, Number of connections accepted)
- Reach 60.000 website visits (Metric: Number of webpages visits)
- Publish a minimum of 36 posts
Social media platform
LinkedIn, Slack groups
ICPs
Chief financial officers, Accountants
Tools to use
- Pipedrive for managing leads
- Sales Navigator for lead search
- Skylead LinkedIn Automation & Cold Email Software to speed up outreach process (outreach campaign, lead discovery, connection requests, view and follow, hyper-personalized cold LinkedIn messaging)
Content strategy and product benefits
- Content format: Text, video, documents, image, link to website, LinkedIn poll
- Content type: content about budget optimization strategy, metrics to follow, business process optimization, finance trends, liquidity management, financial challenges, budget allocation, financial risk management, finance department digitalization…
- Distribution channels: LinkedIn profile, Slack channels, Website communities
- Posting frequency: posting approximately 5 times a week
- Key software benefits: easy control over company’s spending, all invoices in one place, budget optimization recommendations, all-in-one tool, data-driven decisions
Sales communication funnel
| Stage | Communication type |
| First contact | - Discovering the content that prospect shared, events attended, company, - Personalized outreach based on previous findings |
| Interaction (Warm-up) | - Commenting, Liking, Sharing, their content- Asking about the experience with the budgeting |
| Interest | - Budget optimization recommendation- All invoices in one place- Data-driven decisions |
| Question | - Asking Listening to customers pain points, how they handle the budget spendings (Example: they do not focus on finding the most cost-effective purchasing because they do not have time) |
| Discussion | - Offering value in the form of a solution and educational material: Budgetfy can recommend the most cost-effective purchasing options - Offering a call to talk more about their business and provide free trial |
| Conversion | - Communication about product effects and providing help |
| Nurture | - Ask for review or referral |
Social selling activities outside of direct messaging
- Post content
- Share relevant content
- Like or comment your prospect’s content
- Take a look at who viewed your LinkedIn profile
- Send a connection requests to those who did and personalize your approach if they are ICP
- Check out who interacted with your content and interact with them
- If people who interacted with your content are not in your network, connect with them
- Review social media notifications for any birthdays, job change etc and act accordingly
- Add new leads to Pipedrive
- Use LinkedIn Sales Navigator to find prospects
- Create Skylead outreach campaign to extend the network
- Check on your leads status in Pipedrive and send them a message
- Respond to any messages
- Initiate casual conversation with the leads that responded to cold outreach
2# Sales strategy: The one with the questions, groups and events
It is completely alright if you are not a content writer type. What you can do instead is to be active on other levels. Joining groups, asking thought-provoking questions, and starting conversations with the right people is also a nice way to go. What's more, well-thought-out questions in groups, you will attract ideal prospects and start a conversation with them.
Scenario
For example, let's say you have a marketing agency, specialized for generating leads.
Goals for 5 months
- Gain 5 new clients
- Expand network by 1000 connections (Metric: Number of invitations sent, Number of connections accepted)
- Build closer relationships with 100 leads (Metric: Number of warmed-up leads)
Social media platform
LinkedIn, Slack, Facebook, Quora
ICPs
Marketing managers, Chief Marketing Officers, CEOs
Tools to use
- Sales Navigator for lead search
- Skylead LinkedIn Automation & Cold Email Software to speed up outreach process (outreach campaign, lead discovery and generation, connection requests, view and follow, hyper-personalized cold LinkedIn messaging, Whitelabel for clients)
Content strategy and product benefits
- Content format: Text, documents, image
- Content type: questions, polls about latest LinkedIn lead generation strategies, asking how people generate leads in specific industries, what they find to be hardest, leads lists etc.
- Distribution channels: Slack channels, Facebook groups, Website communities
- Posting frequency: Approximately 2 times a week
- Key agency benefits: Extension of the company’s team, easy communication, creativity, data transparency, offering tailor-made, unique lead generation strategies, good quality leads
Sales communication funnel
| Stage | Communication type |
| First contact | - Discovering the content that prospect share - Attend the same events - Personalized outreach based on previous findings |
| Interaction (Warm-up) | - Commenting, Liking, Sharing, their content - Asking about the experience with generating leads |
| Interest | - Data transparency, good quality leads- easy communication - Good quality leads |
| Question | - Asking and listening to prospect’s pain points, how they handle lead generation (Example: they have though time to find good quality leads; listings do not work for them) |
| Discussion | - Offering value. For example, marketing agency owns a unique lead generation strategy creation process. Consequently, they gather good quality leads. - Offering a call to talk more about their business |
| Conversion | - Work in progress |
| Nurture | - Talking about results and asking for a referral |
Social selling activities outside of direct messaging
- Post questions
- Share relevant content
- Like or comment your prospect’s content
- Send LinkedIn connections, follow or add prospects
- Review social media notifications for any birthdays, job change etc and act accordingly
- Organize and document warmed-up leads
- Use LinkedIn Sales Navigator to find prospects
- Create Skylead outreach campaign to outreach the prospects
Summary
As seen from our examples, sales strategy can help you a great deal with your results, especially if we are talking about social selling. However, keep in mind that we’ve shortened our sales strategy examples, and you need to be as detailed as possible.
Repeating is the mother of learning, therefore here is what you need to determine for your social selling strategy:
- Which Social Media Platforms Are Right For You
- Your Goals And Metrics
- The Right ICP
- Tools To Support Your Sales Strategy
- Your Personal Content Strategy And Product Key Benefits
- Social Selling Activities
- Sales Communication Funnel
- Activity Checklist
Remember, social selling takes a lot of time. Once you see the first results, you will fall in love with them.
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