How to make social selling work for your sales team – Nikk Smit’s pointers

Smit describes himself as a social selling evangelist, spreading the word online and offline about this new and enhanced way of selling.

At the digital marketing agency WSI, Smit fills the role of not only sales and marketing manager, but also content strategist and content distribution planner. He has also worked as a social media specialist, with previous experience as a senior training facilitator.

media update’s Nikita Geldenhuys asked Smit about the basics of social selling and what South African companies are getting right in this practice.

What is social selling and why do you think it is such a powerful tool for South African businesses?

The best definition for social selling I found is from HubSpot: Social selling is “a crucial way for successful sales teams to communicate with their prospects. Social selling is when salespeople use social media to interact directly with their prospects.”

In a nutshell, social selling is about helping buyers decide and establishing yourself as the go-to-guru in that product or service space.

The main goal of social selling is to become a trusted advisor to buyers. A sales professional’s social selling oxygen is content. Sales pros must publish content that drives conversations and we should not just be pumping ‘unasked’ for brochures into the channels.

Research has shown that close to 60% of a buying decision is made online. This holds very true in the B2B sales space. So, then logic dictates that, as a sales person, I should provide content that could assist buyers in their discovery phase.

Do you think South African businesses are harnessing social selling to its full potential?

We see an upward curve in the adoption of social selling practices. More companies in South Africa are training their sales teams in the art and science of social selling.

However, more needs to be done in helping sales teams build and execute specific campaigns over specific periods in the sales cycles. Marketing departments could, and should, help sales teams succeed in this space and help close the traditional gap between sales and marketing.

I would advise South African businesses using social selling to avoid using social media channels as mere mailboxes for brochures. I would like to see sales professionals posting more point-of-view content about their industry to help establish them as thought leaders.

Always look for a reason to start a conversation with your prospects.

What advice do you have for marketers who want to pitch social selling as a marketing tool to their managers or executive team?

Marketers should lead the conversations around social selling initiatives around three major points. The three points that could help management take up social selling are cost-effectiveness, control, and relevance.

Regarding cost effectiveness, social media is free and only advanced functionality costs money. In terms of control, teams can run their own campaigns that are relevant to their specific market, without stepping outside corporate guidelines. Looking at relevance, social selling can reach a bespoke and relevant, geotargeted audience in a region. The segmentation capacity of social media is a huge adoption driver.

How can companies get started with social selling?

It is important for companies to realise that social selling is the long game and not a flash-in-the-pan exercise. Social selling requires capacity as it carries extra tasks. Before a company considers social selling, they should have the buy-in from management for the work required and the commitment from the sales teams to execute campaigns.

A very important factor to consider is the objective. What is it that we need to achieve? Do we need to raise brand awareness, do we need to increase sales, do we need to grow market share, do we need to launch new products or services?

Once objectives are defined, they should consider the social channels to use, as this is where their audience resides or hangs out. LinkedIn and Twitter are the foremost choice for B2B campaigns as Facebook and Pinterest works way better for consumer brands.

Once the decision for social selling is made, companies should consult with digital marketing experts to train their staff and help teams understand the dynamics of the social media landscape.

For more information, get in touch with Smit on Twitter or LinkedIn.

Want to make social media work for your business? Read advice from Nick Bedford, business director for Social@Ogilvy, in our article, Why brands desperately need social media in marketing strategies.