Successful salespeople know how important trust is to closing the deal. It doesn't matter if you're selling telescopes to tourists or tax advisory services to business owners, without trust, the relationship is going to ultimately fail.
With social media, B2B sales professionals have a unique opportunity to build trust with cold prospects, referral sources, and existing clients by way of public endorsements and recommendations on LinkedIn.
But how does your COMPANY get involved with social media to support you?
The challenge that many business owners have is reconciling social media management pricing with tangible returns to offset the costs of their investment. It's a challenge, because their investment isn't always followed by a straight line to their returns. So, we've put together this list of 5 ways they can do their part, and quite frankly, 5 reasons why it's their responsibility to:
WHY Should they care? - Because it's their brand!
Supporting you by giving you the green light to "do your thing" is not enough.. They likely don't realize this, but you rcompany can actually do a lot to participate in your social media strategy:
Social media has helped transform the b2b sales landscape by empowering business development professionals like yourself to become your own brands. After all, it's your face that prospects see when they decide whether to answer the phone or even make the purchase, and it's your reputation they care about during that sales process.
But what happens when they attempt to transfer some of that relationship to your company and search for them on LinkedIn or Facebook? Is their social experience with your company's brand helping you or hurting you?
It's time for them to take an important step in truly supporting your sales efforts by doing their part with a complimentary social media management program.
1. Build Company Profiles on Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, & Google+
I know it seems simple and basic, but surprisingly, many of your employers are still absent on one or all of those channels. What does that say to your prospective clients when they look at your LinkedIn profile and don't see a legitimate company page tied to your current job? Being absent here says a lot about your company's interest in public perception.
In addition, they are making it very difficult to find them on the web without the use of paid search ads. The more profiles your company has, the more opportunities they have to surface and connect with prospective buyers through organic marketing search traffic.
2. Develop a Blog with Purpose
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Right now you're likely using social media in one of two ways:
1) From a two-dimensional perspective because it's about you and your background and promises. When you reach out to prospects you're reaching in cold, and although you've skipped over some of the more daunting challenges as a sales professional by positioning yourself directly in front of the buyer (as opposed to hiding behind a telephone or email), you're still in broadcast/"let's talk" mode
2) In addition to networking you also post and share articles, because you clearly understand that there are many more layers to social media than just connecting, but what you share very likely reeks of industry jargon and esoteric rhetoric that your audience probably has very little interest in seeing. (sorry)
Your company is leaving you high and dry and putting the responsibility of summarizing the powerful benefits these programs have on your shoulders. By sharing content that is too rich for your audience to absorb, you're actually alienating them.
But when your company publishes powerful blog topics often, you have the ability to deliver value above and beyond your actual product offering.
You can now show people that you AND your company understand what their businesses need, and that you may even be a good resource for solving what ails them.
3. Provide social media-enhanced marketing materials
If your company were to create memes or even provide daily lists of sharable content (original and otherwise) for you, they'll take the guesswork out of the type of message they want delivered. You'll be empowered to touch your audience more, drag a wider net, and create stronger emotional bonds with visitors.
Heck, this way you can even turn non-qualified prospects into promoters and sources for new lead generation.
4. Deploy a thoughtful and truly social posting strategy
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Having company profiles is the first step, but by no means where they should stop. They also don't want to make the mistake of using social media as a platform to broadcast the same advertisement being used everywhere else.
To become truly social, they need to be active, posting multiple times a day, and they need to be involved, sharing content from other publishers and interacting with those who like and follow them.
By deploying a thoughtful social media marketing strategy, your company develops a public personality that translates to sales teams, customer service, and the overall customer experience, ALL of which, enhance your ability to bring in more business.
NOW COMES THE HARD PART:
Convincing business owners to take that leap in embracing social media is a battle not easily won. However, there are plenty of resources available to ease troubled minds when positioning social media's importance in your overall strategy. We have compiled some of those ideas in free ebook you can download from our website:
Learn how Sales Enablement can change the game for your inbound selling:
