Why social selling is important for a B2B sales rep
- a. A response to changing customer behavior. Speaking of the sales funnel, B2B customers nowadays no longer move in a linear fashion from top to bottom of the funnel.
- b. A way to address new challenges for B2B customers. ...
- c. An improvement on traditional selling. ...
Full Answer
Is social selling the future of B2B sales?
In fact, Gartner predicts that by 2025, 80% of B2B sales communications will occur on digital channels. As a result, top brands have introduced social selling into their sales processes.
How important is social content to B2B buyers?
In addition, more than three-quarters (82%) of the B2B buyers said the winning vendor’s social content had a significant impact on their buying decision. A LinkedIn survey found that B2B buyers are five times more likely to engage with a sales rep who provides new insights about their business or industry.
What is social selling and how does it work?
But with social selling, the goal is for the rep to form a relationship with each prospect, providing suggestions and answering questions rather than building an affinity for the organization’s brand. Social selling makes sense for achieving quota and revenue objectives for multiple reasons.
Will B2B salespeople lose their jobs to self-service e-commerce by 2020?
If organizations don’t change their outdated thinking and create effective sales models for today’s digital era, Forrester warns that 1 million B2B salespeople will lose their jobs to self-service e-commerce by 2020.
What kind of benefits has been found from using social selling?
Increased brand visibility. Shortened sales cycles. Exponentially more decision-makers see content. Improved relationship and rapport building between the buyer and seller.
What is social selling in B2B?
What is social selling for B2B businesses? Social selling for B2B businesses means using social media to generate leads and feed your sales funnel. This doesn't mean pasting cold email templates into LinkedIn and blasting them out to contacts. That resembles spammy selling, which drops your chances of closing to zero.
What role does social media play in B2B selling process?
Sales people use social media to provide value to prospects by answering open-ended questions, responding to comments and by sharing content throughout the buying process – from awareness to consideration, until a prospect is ready to buy. Social selling is the new sales model or sales 2.0.
How does a buyer benefit from social selling?
Ultimately, social selling is a strategy used to help you achieve your sales goals by answering questions for prospects and potential buyers through meaningful content and thoughtful social interactions.
Is social selling the future?
While this figure isn't staggering, it proves that social selling is just getting started. Salespeople who adopt social selling now will increase their odds of engaging with high-quality prospects and push ahead of the competition. Social selling uses social media to engage with and nurture leads.
What are the benefits of social media marketing in B2B business?
8 Benefits of B2B Social Media MarketingCost-effective content promotion. ... Driving referral traffic. ... Expanding your brand reach. ... Building valuable connections with your customers. ... Understanding your audience through social listening. ... Providing better customer support. ... Retargeting a highly relevant audience.More items...•
How social media marketing is better for B2B businesses?
'Social media now comes out as the most powerfully effective channel across a wide range of objectives. 79% of the 115 senior level B2B marketers who responded claim that social media is effective in meeting their objectives, from building thought leadership to deepening customer relationships. '
Is social media marketing important in the B2B segment?
Social media in B2B marketing is just as important for your brand as it is for B2C. Social media marketing builds trust, boosts your reputation, and can help you increase sales and share of voice in your industry.
Why is social selling important to the business?
Social selling enables you to find and connect with prospects more effectively than traditional sales. Over 76% of buyers feel ready to have a social media conversation and identifying prospects that meet your established criteria – such as role, function, or industry - with LinkedIn has never been easier.
What are some positive impacts of social media?
The Positive Effects of Social MediaBuilding Relationships and Staying Connected. Social media can make it easy to find groups of like-minded people or make new friends. ... Finding Your Voice. ... Showing Empathy and Kindness. ... Offering Support. ... Better Communication. ... Spreading News. ... Building a Business. ... Establishing Authority.More items...•
How does social media increase sales?
Social media platforms have made it very easy for large companies to introduce products and services to their followers directly. Taking a direct sales approach only works when the business has a large number of followers, as it's more likely they will get some amount of buy-in for their posts.
It shortens the B2B sales cycle
B2B sales cycles are notoriously long, with the average opportunity taking around 102 days to close.
It works
Perhaps the most important reason your company should be using social selling is because — it works!
What is social selling Hubspot?
Hubspot defines social selling as “when salespeople use social media to interact directly with their prospects”, with a focus on providing value. We live in an age where human connections are becoming more digital and our sales tactics need to conform as our customers journeys change.
Do media salespeople use LinkedIn?
The 2019 Media Sales Report found that 7 2% of media salespeople rarely use LinkedIn (0-5%) to connect with prospects , and out of these, roughly 1 out of 3 (32%), do not use LinkedIn at all. 40% of salespeople say they never use other types of social media to connect with prospects and clients. And, more than 3 out of 4 (78%) use it rarely or never, from 0-5% of the time.
A shift in buying behavior
We’ve hit another major inflection point in sales history, stemming from an ongoing digital transformation. Although digital adoption was already making its way through organizations, the COVID-19 pandemic greatly accelerated the demand for virtual customer interactions. And that trend isn’t waning any time soon.
The monetary benefits of social selling
Social selling is a powerful tool that can help sales representatives build a pipeline and meet quotas. By leveraging customer information harmonized by AI technology, social selling doesn’t just focus on generating more leads, it focuses on generating the right leads.
Top social selling platform features
A Unified-CXM platform with AI-powered listening helps sellers better understand their audience so that they can establish and nurture authentic relationships.
What is B2B Social Selling?
B2B social selling is a term that is often used interchangeably with social media marketing. However, the two are very different in practice. Social media marketing focuses solely on building brand awareness and building relationships with your audience. B2B social selling focuses on generating leads and converting those leads into customers.
How Can B2B Sales Benefit from Social Selling?
The potential for using social media to generate leads is high. And salespeople have the ability to engage with prospects in a way that was never possible before. Research shows that businesses that have partaken in social selling have reported:
Which Social Media Platforms are Best for B2B Selling?
Each social media platform offers unique benefits when it comes to B2B social selling. It is vital that you choose the platform that best fits your business goals and your target audience.
