Social Selling | A Basic Guide For Beginners

What is social selling and how can you integrate it into your sales strategy? Here are some resources to help you get started in learning all about this sales concept.

Social Selling 101

1. 10 Social Selling Books To Help You Close Deals in Digital

Social selling is a powerful weapon in the modern sales professional’s arsenal, and many are debating if digital prospecting beats old-school methods like cold calling. The truth is, social selling is a vital component of any digital sales strategy. Millennial customers, in particular, are on social media in droves, and stats show they are also the most likely generation to buy from brands they follow.

Modern sales professionals must be fluent in social media, but for this they need training. You can obviously look to social selling courses and training, but for your solo study sessions, we’ve made a list of the best social selling books to help you master the art of the tweet.

2. How Artificial Intelligence is Changing B2B Social Selling

Social selling in B2B is no longer a novel concept. LinkedIn statistics show that 78% of social sellers outsell professionals who don’t use this medium to engage with their prospects and have a higher chance of reaching their quota. However, new social selling technology has evolved and now has the potential to disrupt social selling strategy and techniques, as well as companies that are not quick to adapt to the digital sales environment.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is now penetrating every aspect of B2B sales, including social selling.

3. How to Fit Social Selling Into Your Cadence Strategy

Social selling is all the buzz right now, as consumers are moving more and more to social networks and sellers are following them right through. However, there’s a right way and a wrong way to introduce social selling into your sales cadence strategy. Too many IM’s, and your lead will block or report you. Give up too soon, and you’re bound to miss out on opportunities.

This is why I’ve come up with a game plan on how to fit social selling into your sales cadence strategy. It’s tricky, but not impossible.

4. On the Value and Future of Social Selling – With Koka Sexton @Hootsuite

Sales and Marketing departments have realized the massive potential of social networks – to connect with prospects and get a chance to make a meaningful connection. Some are better than others at using it in their sales strategy. But the future of social selling will depend solely on the value it provides to businesses – the Return on Investment (ROI). I’ve had an insightful conversation about this with Koka Sexton from Hootsuite, and here’s what he had to say about measuring social selling ROI and the future of social selling.

5. The Number One Thing That Drives Results With Social Selling

B2B companies increasingly use social selling to try and reach users on their preferred communication channels. But what are the social selling strategies that drive real results, and where should we meet users? Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter? We spoke to Cameron Brain, CEO and Founder of Everyone Social, on the Playmakers Podcast, to try and find out.

6. Social Selling Guide: Tips and Tricks to Opening Conversations Online

There’s much talk about social selling tactics these days, and although it’s not a new concept, the past two years it’s become somewhat of a buzzword. But how do great sales reps leverage social media to sell and reach the audience they wouldn’t otherwise? Larry Levine, sales expert and founder of the Social Sales Academy, gave us a social selling guide on the Playmakers podcast: “The Who, The What, and the Why of Social Selling w/Larry Levine.”

Social selling is a process where sales representatives leverage their social network to find the right prospects, build trusted relationships, and ultimately, achieve sales goals. Social media use in sales has become common practice, and the data shows it’s producing positive results for sales teams around the world.

7. The Who, The What, and the Why of Social Selling

Are you getting tired of social selling? We’ve decided to speak our mind about the truth of social selling and ask industry experts to explain the who, the what, and the why of social selling. In this episode, we debate the fundamentals of social selling with Larry Levine, founder of Social Sales Academy. We put Larry on the spot with tough questions such as, “Why is there so much data lacking about social selling results?”, “What should reps do to be successful when social selling?” and “What does social selling even mean?”

8. The Truth About Social Selling

We might have had a little fight, Koka and I. Fight might be too strong of a word, a gentleman’s disagreement is probably a better term. I started the debate with a post poking the bear, declaring that social selling was dead. I felt my argument had some merit. I debated that the word social selling is confusing and the data is lacking to prove the worth of social selling. Koka saw the article and wrote a strong rebuttal and made some strong points. Koka and I started to speak offline and we decided we’d continue the conversation on the #Playmaker podcast. Thankfully, Koka and I came to terms and realized we have more in common than we thought. It’s all captured here, check it out.

9. How to Integrate Social Selling into Your Traditional Sales Process w/Gabe Villamizar @Hirevue

Social selling can be misleading. Reps can’t just social sell. The best reps have learned to infuse social selling into their day-to-day sales process. In this episode, Gabe Villamizar talks about how he’s coached hundreds of companies to use traditional as well as new age social tactics to find, engage, and close more deals.

10. The 4-Step Social Selling Routine

As a sales leader, you know that social selling is an important part of your team’s sales process.

But one of the biggest challenges you may face is how are you going to explain social selling to your sales team from a tactical perspective?

How will you outline what social selling will look like? Check it out in this article.

11. 3 Simple Ways to Up Your Social Selling Game

A few weeks ago, our fearless leader, Dave Elkington, asked the leadership team to become more connected thought leaders in our online communities.

How does one become more connected? Wikipedia describes a thought leader as an individual who is recognized as an authority in a specialized field and whose expertise is sought and often rewarded.

Fortunately, our CEO anticipated this question and came prepared. He suggested these three ideas. As I listened to these suggestions, I looked internally to evaluate where I’m at with each. You might want to do the same.

12. Top Sales Experts Weigh In on Delivering Value Through Social Selling

Social selling is still establishing itself as a field. As a result, many sales professionals struggle to understand how it fits in the sales process and how best to maximize its efficiency.

To provide some clarity, Sales Hacker invited the top social selling experts to Sales Stack 2015. Participating on the panel were Ken Krogue, XANT founder and president, Koka Sexton, and Jill Rowley.

You can watch the entire video here and visit Sales Hacker for a summary of the panel discussion.

We hope this guide has helped you in understanding the basics of social selling. Be sure to bookmark these articles for your reading list. For more in-depth knowledge about this sales concept, keep on visiting our website, XANT!

What other social selling strategies do you know of? Share them with us in the comment section below!

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