Transformation to Social Selling

Sales Solutions

“Transformation to Social Selling”

LinkedIn Confidential ©2013 All Rights Reserved


Agenda

Presenters: •Ralf VonSosen

• LinkedIn Sales Solutions, Head of Marketing

• Craig Rosenberg• Industry Expert & Leader, Focus Expert Network

Agenda:• Overview of Social Selling• Transformation to Social Selling• Making Social Selling Scalable• Q&A (send questions throughout)

LINKEDIN SALES SOLUTIONSLinkedIn Confidential ©2013 All Rights Reserved

What social selling is not.

How you doin?

LINKEDIN SALES SOLUTIONSLinkedIn Confidential ©2013 All Rights Reserved 4

What social selling is not.

Been out on the course lately?

Transformation to Social Selling

Craig Rosenberg

May 2011

Why social selling? Your buyers are there

175 million members in over 200 countries and territories.

As of June 30, 2012, business professionals are signing up to join LinkedIn at a rate of approximately two new members per second.

Why social selling? Your buyers are telling you who they areNever in the history of modern selling have we seen time where prospects and customers publicly post and update information

on their roles and responsibilities

Why social selling? Your buyers are telling you what they care aboutNever in the history of modern selling have we seen time where prospects and customers publicly post and update information

on their roles and responsibilitiesAND what they care about and are working on

Why social selling? Your buyers starting the buyer process online

75% of respondents to an IBM buyers survey said they were likely to use social media in the

future as part of their purchasing decision.

Buyers are buying by committee

“Decisions are not made by a single person in B2B models – they are made in a chain-of-command or committee model. “

Esteban Kolsky

http://estebankolsky.com/2012/07/question-why-are-you-in-social-channels/

Source: Marketing Sherpa B2B Marketing Benchmark Survey, August 2010

Buyer decisions are getting longer and more complex

time

leve

l of

bu

yer

act

ivit

y

“I’m just downloading

stuff”

“We have a project” “We’ve

made a decision”

“I’m just browsing”

“We’ve shortlisted vendors”

awareness consideration purchase

online

The first round of social selling: Chaos

Second round of social selling: Proven Productivity

1. We understand the goal of

social selling

2. Organizations are adopting

3. We now have a framework for

success

Social selling does not replace sales, it enhances it

“Many of the social selling tenets are selling best practices”

Andy Rudin, Outside Technologies

Social media allows sales to create meaningful, one-to-one business relationships

And you don’t need to pick up the phone every time

Social selling: not just for breakfast anymore

1. According to Richardson/McCord Social Media in sales 65% of businesses report using social media in their sales efforts.

2. 1,700 IBM North America inside reps have now been trained and enabled with tools for social selling, and the company is preparing to extend the initiative to overseas regions for some of its digital brands. The inside sales team now has a total of 50,000 LinkedIn connections and has posted 20,000 tweets..

3. The IBM program drove 4x orders for product during their pilot quarter of social selling than during the same time the year before.

Your social selling framework

1.Standardize 2.Self brand3.Listen and watch4.Deliver valuable insight5.Find6.Engage

Three questions for every sales manager

1.Where are our customers?*2.Where will my reps be most

comfortable? *3.Where will my sales reps get the

most value?

*From Successful Social Selling by Matt Heinz (www.heinzmarketing.com)

Main platform

Create a standardized social platform

Secondary platform

In most cases, Linkedin will be the base for social operations

• It is the place where the vast majority of social business activity happens• Unprecedented visibility into your customers and their organization

1. Designate one platform for sales reps to “live inside”

2. Monitor other platforms when appropriate

The self-brand

• Buyers need to trust you• Buyers need to know that you know the right people• Buyers want to know you have are an expert in your space• Buyers want the best sales person (believe it or not)• The most unique thing is not always the company or the product; but it is always you

Think like a marketer: Build a credible online presence•Complete profile including: photo, experience, skills, honors, and recommendations.•Stream of updates to relevant content•Membership in relevant groups•Connections

Always be connecting

•Create a core competency and process in your sales team around building their networks•Sales managers should monitor and reward network building

Sales Person PI: Watch and listen

1.Know your customer and their organization

2.Follow them3.Watch them interact

“Effective use of sales intelligence increases revenue productivity per sales rep by 17%” CSO Insights

Account planning has gone virtual

Old Days Today

Day long account planning sessions Minutes-long account planning

“Sell high” Triangulate

Manual account investigations to determine relevant decision makers

Real-time visibility into organizations

Cold calls Referrals

Listen and learn

1. Follow companies 2. Look for personal updates, profile changes, and updates 3. Watch them interact in groups and forums

"At the rep level, social media is less about tweeting than it is about listening, reading and knowing what people are talking about. That's what lets them better tailor their contributions to the discussion.” Douglas Hannan, IBM

http://chiefmarketer.com/social/ibms-social-selling-computer-giant-finds-b2b-leads-social-media?page=1

Deliver valuable insight

Answer the following question: Why would a buyer follow you?

The answer is NOT: “Because they can’t wait for you to hard-sell them”

Provide value to their day-to-day challenges

Five ways to deliver insight

1. Status updates with content2. Personal content deliveries via

Inmail (“Jim, I thought ofyou when I read this”)

3. Offer to make connections4. Group conversations5. Use the “like” feature

How to scale content with sales

1. Provide them with content• Marketing should provide content• Self-tools like RSS feeds

2. Allow them to and encourage adding their own spin3. Manage and optimize their insights

Four rules to sales insight

1. Don’t talk about yourself2. Don’t pitch3. Help and provide value4. If you build it, they will

come

“I really think of myself as that information concierge and really have become a content connoisseur in really understanding what is required from an education perspective to get that future advocate to purchase and to become an advocate of our company, our product and my personal brand as well.” Jill Rowley, Eloqua sales and social selling expert

http://www.heinzmarketing.com/2012/06/social-selling-in-action-qa-with-eloquas-top-salesperson-part-1-of-5/

Opportunity generation

Old Days Today

Purchased lists Ability to find the right people with the right role with the right challenges

Calling the admin and asking around Advanced search techniques allow you to find the people you want to talk to

“Columbo-style” interrogations of prospects

Unprecedented pre-call sales intelligence

Open with pitch about you Open with pitch about them

Seek and find people needing help Buyers publicly asking for help in Groups, Forums, and Q/A

"If we didn't do this kind of social listening, we wouldn't know about a lot of these opportunities until it was too late to get considered. Social media let us engage earlier with our clients—hopefully, earlier than our competition.“ Hannan, IBM


Engagement

“Delivering relevant, timely, and meaningful messages to prospects

and clients has NEVER been easier”

Pre-call research: How sales manager teach today’s social sales person

1. Study contacts and companies

2. Read their blogs, Linkedin updates, Twitter feeds

3. Search for business problems aka don’t ask them about the golf trip with their buddies

4. Use playbooks based on buying personas

“Someone you don’t know has a problem”

1. Via listening, the sales rep finds a person with a challenge

2. Deliver valuable content or help make a connection.

3. Content playbooks tell sales reps what internal content should be passed along

4. Two paths:• Early in sales cycle: connect and nurture• Late in sales cycle: engage directly

Social Selling 2.0

1. Institutionalize it2. Train sales3. Build for scale4. Share success stories5. Make it part of day-to-day sales life 6. OptimizeWe really wanted to make social selling part of the basic way we sell. We didn't want our reps spending five minutes a day tweeting and then going back to their 'real' job.“ Douglas Hannan, IBM



Thank You!

• Craig Rosenberg• Funnelholic.com• @Funnelholic• http://www.linkedin.com/craigrosenberg

• Ralf VonSosen • [email protected]• @rvonsosen• Linkedn Sales Solutions, Head of Marketing

• LinkedIn Sales Solutions• Website: http://sales.linkedin.com• Slideshare: http://www.slideshare.net/linkedin-sales-solutions• @LinkedInSelling• LinkedIn Group: LinkedIn Sales Solutions

http://www.linkedin.com/craigrosenberg

mailto:[email protected]

http://sales.linkedin.com/

http://www.slideshare.net/linkedin-sales-solutions

Sales Solutions

“Transformation to Social Selling”


Transformation to Social Selling

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