Just as occurred some years ago with global warming, there are people both scared and dismissive of B2B social selling.
The reasons why executives are scared of social selling are well documented. That being said, there are some hugely successful global business leaders using social selling tactics incredibly well, some of which even admit they could not operate without it!
Increasingly though, there is a mounting case of statistical evidence to point to the success that social media can provide if successfully mixed into the sales process. We thought we'd share some of the most compelling statistics with you.
Consider the following:
- Some 72.6% of sales people using social media outperformed their sales peers, and exceeded quota 23% more often
- Social selling increases total team attainment of sales quota, improves customer retention rate, increases sales forecast accuracy and increases the percentage of sales reps making target
- Some 3 in 4 IT purchasing committees are ready to have a conversation with a new vendor on social media
- Some 68% of IT buyers are open to connecdting with vendors via social media and 76% are ready to have a conversation via social media
We could list countless more statistics - but the case is inarguable.
So - why aren't more sales teams getting on board?
In our view, the problem lies in the training strategy. The emphasis is usually placed on training sales teams on individual platforms ("Come on everyone - let's attend this course on how to use Facebook to sell") rather than on selling techniques that happen to include (relevant) social platforms.
We need to constantly remind ourselves that we need to learn about selling - not about social media!
At Carpe Diem we've had great success training sales teams on sales workflows that include social media, even though these workflows might span a number of social media platforms. We concentrate on teaching about how to sell more effectively and only focus on platforms relevant to the business we're training.
What are these workflows?
- Finding new opportunities
- Finding new prospects
- Being introduced to new prospects
- Tracking competitor activity
- Maintaining thought leadership and "top of mind" with customers
- And so on.
See how your organisation's social media adoption is faring against others in it's space by participating in our annual "social media trends in B2B organisations" survey.
If you want your sales teams to start winning more deals, we're holding a bootcamp "Leveraging social media for sales success" on October 24 in Sydney (also 21 November in Brisbane) in response to the hundreds of people who come though our doors armed with the stats that prove social selling is having traction.
The bootcamp will introduce and build on the key new concepts and skills required to create and implement a successful social media strategy for B2B sales. You will walk away with an action plan that will be followed up by the instructor after the session to ensure you are implementing what you have learnt.
