Social Selling: 5 Ways to Identify and Engage New Prospects

Are you making the most of platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook to identify and engage new sales prospects?

If you're looking for ways to modernize your sales strategy and move away from outdated methods like cold calling, social selling could be the way to do it.

What is social selling?

Social selling is the practice of using social media platforms to identify, engage with and nurture sales prospects along their purchasing journey.

Seen by many as a viable alternative to cold calling, social selling focuses on developing relationships with customers and establishing your brand's authority and usefulness. You can achieve this by answering questions and making relevant, constructive contributions to discussions taking place in the social sphere.

Social selling might not lead to quick wins or instant sales, but it can help you make strong audience connections and lay the foundations for future loyalty.

Why should you care about social selling?

Social selling should be a part of your sales strategy simply because you need to have a clear strategy for connecting with customers in an environment where they spend a lot of their time, and where key buying decisions are being made all the time.

Furthermore, an increasing number of businesses are investing in this approach, so those that are unaware or dismissive of social selling are at risk of being left behind.

Statistics show there were 3.5 billion social media users worldwide in 2019. 40% of merchants use social media to generate sales while 87% of ecommerce buyers say social media helps them make purchasing decisions, and in 2018, 55% of online shoppers made a purchase through a social channel.

Most importantly of all, social selling delivers results. More than three-quarters (78%) of sales professionals who use this approach outsell their peers who don't use social media.

How to find and engage buyers with social selling

If you've decided to commit to social selling, you'll want to consider effective methods and best practices that will help you get results.

1. Be human

People are used to having casual, informal conversations on social media, which makes it the ideal environment for showing your human side and building meaningful, emotional connections with potential customers.

Your ultimate goal is to make sales, but that doesn't mean every discussion you have with leads and customers should be about them buying from you. Talking about other subjects related to your sector and area of business helps you strengthen relationships and earn loyalty.

2. Share valuable content

One of the key reasons why people spend so much time on social media is because it's a great place to find educational and interesting content that either entertains them or solves a problem they have.

Sharing relevant, valuable content with your followers and sales prospects can do wonders for your engagement and strengthen your relationships. This could be content you've created, but it's also a good idea to share third-party assets to show that you're genuinely interested in helping and informing your audience, rather than just promoting your own brand.

3. Take pride in your products

As the two previous steps show, social selling is partly about building relationships through conversation and sharing third-party materials. But social media also provides the space and freedom to mix up these methods with content that celebrates the quality of your product or service.

If you're proud of your product offering, show your customers why you love it so much and why you think they'll love it too.

4. Do your research

Careful research can be one of the most valuable and important parts of the social selling process, particularly if you're a B2B provider targeting other businesses on platforms like LinkedIn.

It will be instantly obvious if you're using a one-size-fits-all sales pitch for every prospect across all platforms, so it pays to do some preliminary research on each customer and their needs. This puts you in a better position to make the right impact with strong, targeted pitches that get right to the heart of what the customer wants.

5. Stay in touch

Identifying and earning initial engagement with new contacts on social media is just one step of what could be a long and highly productive journey for your brand.

To ensure your early efforts to connect with people aren't wasted, make sure you keep up with what your contacts are saying, the content they're posting and the questions they're asking. As well as maximizing your audience understanding, efforts to stay in touch will put you in a good position to respond when your customers need help - a key strength where sales and revenue generation are concerned.