Social media to boost sales for b2b

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An overview of best practices for integrating social media into the sales function within B2B organizations

Transcript of Social media to boost sales for b2b

Social Selling B2B

February 18, 2014

The companyFounded in 1995

Employs 32 people in Toronto & Ottawa

Insight, creativity, connection

www.thornleyfallis.com

Me!

• 20 years in PR• Social media specialist since 2006• Former newspaper columnist & active

conference speaker• Vice president of content marketing• IABC Ottawa, United Way Ottawa• Married, 2 kids, 1 grandkid

Why social selling?

• People are tuning out traditional advertising and marketing.

• Customers and prospects are using social media all the time (fish where the fish are).

Using social selling boosts performance

What do successful social sellers do?

• Social collaboration– Internal use of social media to share knowledge

• Listening– Learning about customers; what they share, who

with

• Participating– Providing value, not sales messages

How do they do it?

• Expand lead generation through social media• Provide training to sales staff members• Implement customer support via social• Use data (analytics) to support marketing &

messaging

Effective social sales processes

• Identification of influencers• Support sales team with compelling social

content• Rapid response planning & implementation• Turning likes into leads

IBM Public Cloud: From social to sales

• Key strategy: Listen and respond– Prospect questions, complaints and pain points

• Key strategy: Publish valuable content– Research and develop content that responds to

questions and issues raised online

• Key Strategy: From social to sales– Sales professionals drive prospects towards IBM

web pages for sales conversations

IBM Public Cloud results

• 19% of sales leads originate from social media• 11% of these leads clicked through to

ecommerce web pages

Questions?