Where’s the best place to reach out to potential customers? The answer, of course, is the place where they have the best op­por­tun­ity to learn about products and services: online. And above all, on social networks, like the numerous popular social media platforms and in com­munit­ies where users search for advice, purchase re­com­mend­a­tions, and read reviews.

In today’s digital world, social selling is often used by companies when trying to build a re­la­tion­ship of trust with potential customers. Just like in social media marketing, this technique is less concerned with direct sales and public product displays on Facebook and Co. Instead, social selling focuses on the process that prepares the customer to make his/her decision to purchase. Where social media marketing involves com­mu­nic­at­ing with fans and followers over Facebook fan pages or Twitter accounts, social selling involves engaging in a personal con­ver­sa­tion with the customer in order to help their decision-making process.

What is social selling?

Social selling concerns the social com­pon­ents of making a sale – in other words, the social in­ter­ac­tion involved in the decision to buy a product. These social com­pon­ents have been in­flu­en­cing consumer behaviour and pur­chas­ing decisions long before social media networks were even in existence. If you think about it, re­com­mend­a­tions from our social en­vir­on­ment, like tips or reviews from friends, col­leagues, or relatives, are often a key factor in our decision to purchase something. We trust the advice of the people close to us, and unlike salespeople, they don’t even profit from a com­mis­sion when we follow their re­com­mend­a­tions.

W2yw5GEWwS0.jpg To display this video, third-party cookies are required. You can access and change your cookie settings here.

Why is social selling important for online marketing?

Today, our social in­ter­ac­tions with friends and loved ones often take place on social networks or messaging services. Social media has become a high priority in the lives of many users – and at the same time has become an important part of marketing plans. Your potential target audience and future customers are almost certainly active on the social web. As part of a community, they integrate them­selves with other users and offer in­form­a­tion about them­selves: their wants, their needs, and their concerns. And this in­form­a­tion is very valuable to companies. At the same time, social media offers the ideal interface for con­nect­ing with customers per­son­ally and for building a re­la­tion­ship of trust.

Social selling vs. social media marketing

Social selling and social media marketing have a lot of sim­il­ar­it­ies. In both dis­cip­lines, the company doesn’t behave as an ad­vert­iser, but instead tries to establish itself as an expert offering advice. Making a sale isn’t the main aim here, because there exists a more exciting op­por­tun­ity: the chance to get one step closer to an entire target group. Platforms like Facebook or Twitter offer the perfect en­vir­on­ment for getting to know the wishes and concerns of (potential) customers and for opening up a public dialog.

The main dif­fer­ence between social selling and social media marketing is in the means of com­mu­nic­a­tion. When writing on fan pages and other official company accounts on social networks, you’re operating a method known as one-to-many com­mu­nic­a­tion. This means that you’re sharing content and in­form­a­tion on channels aimed at a wide target group.

Social selling, on the other hand, consists of one-to-one dialog. By com­mu­nic­at­ing directly with a customer, you’re getting closer to the in­di­vidu­al, creating a point of contact, and building a re­la­tion­ship of trust. This offers a better chance of in­creas­ing in­di­vidu­al customer sat­is­fac­tion than classic online sales tech­niques. This personal and direct contact offered by social selling is also growing in im­port­ance in B2B com­mu­nic­a­tion.

Social selling: step by step

First step: Listen & identify

Your first step when it comes to social selling should be what’s known as social listening, because listening is the new selling. Instead of pushing ad­vert­ising messages and trying to force people to be in­ter­ested in your products, social selling requires you to listen actively to the needs and wants of your customers. In taking in and ap­pre­ci­at­ing what they say, products or services can be targeted ac­cord­ingly. Just listening isn’t good enough anymore either: you have to identify customers’ main concerns and act on this. Other marketing measures should follow this first step closely and be based on the findings you make.

Second step: Build a repu­ta­tion

If you want to build a re­la­tion­ship with customers that’s based on trust and respect, then you have to establish yourself as a reputable brand or company. In order to build a repu­ta­tion as an expert in your field, ensure that you offer con­sist­ently high-quality content that focuses on the needs and demands of the user as outlined in the social listening phase. Once you’ve created your own blog articles or guest posts, make sure you get it to the right people and in the right context, with in­tro­duct­ory copy­writ­ing to explain why you’re posting it in the first place. 

Third Step: Establish re­la­tion­ships

By this point, you’ve gained insight into who your target group is and what they’re after, and in the second step you’ve also offered them a reason to listen to what you have to say. Next comes the really decisive phase: it’s time to start building a strong re­la­tion­ship with in­di­vidu­al customers. This requires more than ‘likes’, ‘shares’, and ‘comments’ – you need to ap­pre­ci­ate proper in­ter­ac­tion with your customers. If you offer useful, re­searched in­form­a­tion, tell authentic stories, and generally discuss in­ter­est­ing topics, you’ll find it easier to open a relaxed and con­struct­ive dialog. Important: this phase is about talking directly to customers, one-to-one, not com­mu­nic­at­ing at a group of customers in a one-to-many situation.

Fourth Step: Mon­it­or­ing & analysis

Social selling is also an important source of in­form­a­tion for Big Data. Eval­u­at­ing activ­it­ies and in­di­vidu­al channels on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other social networks can be very useful for future strategies and planning. You can use this to find out which customers are your most loyal and therefore valuable, and which customer group is re­spons­ible for the majority of your turnover through social selling. You can see trends and patterns with this in­form­a­tion, helping you to determine the sig­ni­fic­ance of demo­graph­ic or geo­graph­ic­al factors. Mon­it­or­ing isn’t just important for con­nect­ing with existing customers – it can be a useful tool in acquiring new customers, too.

Contact points in social selling

Social selling functions in many different ways: including B2C com­mu­nic­a­tion over Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram, and B2B contact via platforms like LinkedIn and XING. Depending on the channel you’re using, there might be a wide variety of different points of contact available. Now, sales and marketing teams have the difficult task of identi­fy­ing the contact points that are most suitable for entering into dis­cus­sions with potential customers. Here, you shouldn’t shy away from seeking out negative con­ver­sa­tions. Criticism and concerns offer an excellent op­por­tun­ity for making contact with dis­gruntled customers, and to help rectify their issues politely in front of a whole community of potential customers.

Of course, a pre­requis­ite to all this is that your company is already active and engaged on all relevant social media platforms. Once you’re in this position, you’ll have the full range of possible contact points available, including:

  • Positive reactions, such as ‘likes’ and positive comments
  • General mentions of a product or a company/brand
  • Queries or cri­ti­cisms about products or service
  • Reviews
  • Discounts and con­ver­sa­tions about similar products

Com­mu­nic­a­tion is a two-way street

Social selling is only suc­cess­ful if a company re­cog­nises the needs, wants, and concerns of a potential customer, un­der­stands and ap­pre­ci­ates these, and then reacts to them in a positive way. Unlike social media marketing, social selling isn’t concerned with building a fan base and regularly checking in on them with new product ranges and marketing content. Instead, social selling is the process of building real, long-lasting re­la­tion­ships with in­di­vidu­als in your target market, by opening up a dialog with them and talking to them at eye level. By behaving as a point of contact, confidant, and expert con­sult­ant for your potential customers, you can create a re­la­tion­ship where both sides profit: the customer receives high-quality, valuable content and in­form­a­tion, and you receive important insight into the interests and desires of your target group.

Go to Main Menu