Selling with Social Media

Do you want to use Social Media to grow your business? Are you wondering how Social Media can help you sell more products and services?


Selling with Social Media

How the online world has changed the way we do business

The internet has given way to the fantastic feature of pre-purchase research. Buyers like the anonymity of not having to talk to a single sales person and having all the information they need at the touch of a button. Today’s buyer prefers this process, as it’s easier and more efficient. With this in mind, companies have to adjust. In the early days, the power was with the salesperson, it's easier to convince someone how great your product is if you speak to them in person, but with the knowledge available online today, the power is in the hands of the consumer.

You have to stop thinking about how you sell because you don’t really sell anymore. Instead you help buyers make a buying decision. When they make their decision, hopefully it will be in your favor. Although it won’t always be the case.

You’ll discover how your system needs to be set up properly and the approach you need to consider.

Why Social Agents are Important

a Social Agent is someone who doesn’t necessarily buy from you, but recommends you to a friend or colleague who might buy from you. A lot of the time, social agents can be your most valuable customers that you never do business with. They’re the best customers you’ll have.

You need to draw in your social agents through educational pieces. A relationship is formed with your brand or company when they see value in what you are doing.

In The Invisible Sale, Tom Martin discusses a process of how you can sell without cold-calling and advertising. He calls it "painless prospecting" The concept is a spin on inbound marketing. The core difference is that most content and inbound strategies leverage search and keyword optimization.

As more and more businesses discover and deploy keyword optimization and SEO strategies, Tom believes that only so many will win the battle. It’s going to get more competitive and much more difficult.

Whereas painless prospecting is built on the concept of propinquity.

Propinquity is a scientific theory that powers the formation of relationships. It says that if you bump into someone a lot, the higher the likelihood of you touching them more often, reading their content or meeting them in person, the more likely you are to like that person, providing you like them each time you meet.

If you pay attention to your industry or your prospects’ industry, you can usually sit down and list all the places that your prospective customers congregate online and offline. You’ll learn where these places might be. If you know your industry well enough, you will already know of 7-10 places without thinking. This is your first list.

Once you find these points, you can create more opportunities for people to stumble across you and your brand. It’s a great way to get a good positive impression.

What marketers should avoid when using content to try to get a sale

There are two things marketers should avoid. Most people produce content at the wrong level. It’s normally the same single unit of content across their blog and podcast. So most feel that one blog post a week is enough without writing for others.

First you have to think about content creation as an ecosystem. You should never create one piece of content once. You should look for ways to repurpose it or even rechannel it.

The first thing I would recommend is to make sure you listen to this particular podcast for some great ideas. Here are a few examples of what you could do with your business.

• Create time-lapse videos that showcase your processes
• Create educational pieces
• Become the conduit to prospects

When you put yourself in the position of the resource person rather than the salesperson, every time you communicate with prospects, it’s a way to stay top of mind. If, and when, they are ready to buy, they are more likely to come back to you or pass your details on to another prospect. You need to have regular touch points.

You’ll hear an example of what I received from people in the voice talent industry when I was a prospect and how my realtor markets his business using social media.

I hope you find this helpful.

    

2013-ITWWW-Odette Nieuwoudt