Do you have any social network accounts—FaceBook, LinkedIn, Twitter, or others? Do you "tweet"? Selling by these channels is big business, and it pays to know how and where to be when it comes to hawking your wares.
If you're an agent or broker and are not leveraging social media for your sales, then you are so 20th Century. Not using social network sites to sell is like leaving money on the table. Someone is going to get it. Will it be you? Ignoring these sites is doing business in slow motion. If you wish to make a difference, then you need a presence online, and not just a website with a lame domain name like "Bob's Benefits."
According to InsideView, sales executives and B2B companies that "lack an established social media presence" are "far less capable of effectively gaining the attention of prospects who are already fully engaged on the social Web." Understanding and successfully using social selling is as important to today's sales organizations as understanding and using the telephone was in previous generations, and there are concrete results to be realized from proper implementation of proven social selling strategies.
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As the authors of the white paper put it: "The measure of social selling success is not in how quickly one can leave the old behind; it is in how well one can use existing sales principles to adapt to a new arena that offers a very powerful and efficient way to engage customers, shorten sales cycles, and increase revenue. But incorporating a social selling initiative in your own sales organization can seem like a daunting task. There are, after all, scores of possible channels and just so many hours in the day.
Before you jump in with both feet, read this list of five steps to get your team started with social selling today, according to Selling Power online:
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Evaluate what you're already doing. Many people on your team probably already use LinkedIn, Twitter, blogs, etc. Take stock of how you're currently connecting with and listening to customers, and see what seems to be working. Where are you successfully engaging and building relationships with prospects and customers? Do you have any existing relationships to leverage as well?
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Start by listening. Just as you wouldn't run into a cocktail party and start shoving your business card under everyone's noses, don't jump on Twitter and start jabbering about your business. Instead, listen to what your target market is saying. Get a sense for who the mouthpieces are for your customers, and their styles of communication and interaction. Actually, saying less is more when it comes to getting sales.
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Share information. Create a way for your team members to share information internally. There are a variety of CRM-compatible tools to facilitate the tracking and sharing of information, company-wide. So, if your marketing manager meets a prospect at a trade show who loves to ride horses, that information can be entered into a collaborative database and used to strengthen ties during follow up calls.
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Commit to the process. Building relationships online is not something you can do all at once. Realize you may not see the payoff right away, and commit to three to six months before you evaluate your efforts.
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Commit to evolution. Your team's social selling skills will need to evolve with the Web. Prepare to invest time and effort in updating your social selling strategy, learning about new tools, and keeping skills sharp.
Using social media opens new marketing channels that revolutionize your opportunity to drive new business and develop new options for your clients. Insurance social media is over 100 years old. Using insurance social media networking on the Internet to increase sales connections is a natural selling technique; it brings you into the 21st century. Some social networking websites have millions of members and a web page loaded with photos and personal information. Rarely is being a member to one of these popularity sites going to end up with you selling an insurance policy. The ultimate goal is to develop sales and not to find a rich new spouse. Be social, but sell!
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