About This Episode

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Over the past six years, one of the biggest things that’s changed is the way we communicate as people.

Six years and prior we communicated primarily through our phones. But now, we have so many other options, like video, chat, text, and voice.

It’s changed a lot and it’s still changing.

The landscape now is that we have different pockets of people who prefer to communicate in different ways.

Some people still like using the phone while others only want to communicate via message.

As a salesperson, you need to be tapping into all of those pockets to reach your true potential.

One of the newer channels through which you can reach people is social. So, on a recent episode of The Sales Engagement podcast, I interviewed social selling expert, Daniel Disney. He’s built an incredible presence on LinkedIn, and he’s also the Founder and CEO of The Daily Sales. And yes, that’s his real last name.

Daniel gave us his best advice on how to use social selling to increase engagement with your customers.

So, What Exactly Is Social Selling?

Social selling tends to be vastly misunderstood by a lot of salespeople.

So, just to make sure we start off on the same page, let’s recap what social selling really is.

Social selling is when salespeople use social media to sell and to generate inbound and outbound opportunities.

Everyone appreciates that social selling is about inbound. But people tend to get confused when it comes to outbound social selling.

So many sales professionals miss the opportunity social selling presents as a communication channel.

We all have those prospects that won’t answer our calls or emails. But, by sending them a LinkedIn message, we might be able to actually get a foot in the door.

Remember how there’s different pockets of people that prefer communicating in different ways?

Using social makes sure you’re really reaching every pocket.

Isn’t Social Selling Just About Vanity Metrics?

Sure there’s a lot of people out there doing it for the vanity metrics — the likes, comments, and all of that.

People always say that likes and followers don’t pay the bills.

That’s a fair comment to make.

But the equal reality is that neither do cold calls.

You don’t sell off of a cold call. You use cold calling to create an opportunity to start a conversation.

That’s what likes, comments, and vanity metrics do.

They are an essential part of the process that allows you to start a conversation to then create the sales opportunity.

It’s what you do with the likes and comments that actually matters.

A lot of sales people create good content which earns them a lot of likes and comments. But they don’t use that to effectively start conversations with prospects — and that’s a missed opportunity.

The great salespeople and social sellers will see the likes, comments, and followers as an opportunity.

Are the Results Really There?

Like anything, you get out of social selling what you put into it.

But for those putting in the effort, yes, the results are there in increased pipeline.

And there’s two additional benefits to using social — other than widening your reach.

First, it allows you to create your own demand.

Instead of depending on marketing for leads, social selling gives you a bit more autonomy and control.

Second, by putting forth a little bit of effort to create a great brand and great content, you’ll always have something in the background that’s working for you.

While it takes a small investment to create a video or a post, once you put them out there they will be at work for you while you’re taking care of other things.

A lot of us salespeople have that hunter mentality — social selling allows you to really gather your own opportunities.

So, Where Do You Start?

Your profile is the number one place to start.

You want fill your profile out completely. Make sure you’ve got all the basics — like a great picture.

Then, make sure it’s customer focused.

A lot of us use LinkedIn as a resume or CV. We build it out portraying ourselves in a way that will enable to us to become employed. But we never think about how to build it in way that makes it easy for people to buy from us.

A profile that boasts about all of your sales achievement is not appealing to a customer.

Instead, highlight how you can help people, what you’re passionate about, and your knowledge and experience — that’s going to go a long way.

So, if your prospects aren’t returning your calls or your emails, maybe it’s time to meet them where they are.

Think about how you can use social to engage with your customers and start those sales conversations.

This post is based on a podcast interview with Daniel Disney from The Daily Sales. To hear this episode, and many more like it, you can subscribe to The Sales Engagement Podcast.

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