How to use social selling to supercharge your B2B marketing

Publisher:
Telstra Wholesale
Name:
How to use social selling to supercharge your B2B marketing
Copyright Date:
03/03/2024
Copyrighted By:
Telstra Wholesale
Family Friendly:
Yes
Language:
English
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How to use social selling to supercharge your B2B marketing


Business man writing a post


Social networks offer huge potential for businesses to generate leads and long-term relationships with customers. But there’s an art to doing it well. We spoke to Tom Skotidas, General Manager, B2B of iCumulus and social selling expert, to find out more.


What is social selling?

“The term ‘social selling’ has had many definitions over the past five years but it refers to the practice of using digital platforms to accelerate sales conversations. Employees use their personal brand to create leads and convert sales more efficiently through their connections” Tom says.

Efficiency is an important distinction for social selling. If social selling is thought of as the online approach to the best of traditional sales generation techniques - networking - then it is hard to reach the same number of people if you are not using sites such as LinkedIn or Twitter. “Unfortunately, many people in sales roles don’t have the attributes or capacity to reach the same audience in the traditional way,” Tom explains.

 

B2B social selling graphic

 

Why is social selling important for business?

In an era when the majority of the adult population is active on social media, Tom says that “social selling is vital for brand-building, demand generation and lead generation”.

In fact, research shows social selling benefits brand perception right through to sales conversations. Forrester found that only 32 per cent of participants in their research said they trust information on company or brand web sites, while brand messages distributed by employees are re-shared 24 times more often than if the brand distributes the messages. And leads generated by employees through social media activities are seven times more likely to convert than other leads (IBM).

Tom identifies three reasons for social selling’s impact.

“First, it enables sales people to create thousands of new connections and keep in touch with them. These connections last a long time because we don’t tend to delete our contacts on social media.

“Second, social platforms provide the tools for organic growth through distribution and sharing of content.

“And third, good sales people can use their contacts to connect the dots within and between businesses to find new opportunities. Their existing contact base is also a good place to find referrals.”


How can leaders encourage their teams to do more social selling?

Tom thinks that cultivating social selling practices, like many cultural behaviours, takes effort and direction from senior leadership.

“Companies might tick the box for digital sales training but they often lack the consistent training and incentives to be successful. You need the CEO or head of sales to drive the behaviour and change the way their teams sell,” he says.

Business leaders should encourage their employees to build their professional social network profile to assist their company’s goals. “One way to encourage it is to put in new incentives and different ways of measuring success. Metrics for B2B sales and marketing are usually measured on a quarterly basis. That can create pressure to focus on things that are going to deliver short term gain. The downside is that kind of mindset doesn’t recognise that long-term relationship building will take a long time to come to fruition. Organisations should instead think about including targets for referrals. This helps to incentivise your team to be out there socially selling.”



How to do social selling well

As someone who has used social selling to build his own business, Tom has lots of insights about what it takes to do it well, and what not to do.

“Like anything in life, you learn from doing it and making mistakes. For example, if your profile picture on LinkedIn looks informal, then people will treat you as such. I also see people sharing content indiscriminately. Not everyone in your professional networks wants to see your holiday snaps, so you wouldn’t put them on LinkedIn.”

Tom’s advice is to think about how you want to use the platform - for example is it for business or personal connections - and then make sure everything you post is relevant to your target market. Profiles are a key feature of most professional networks and need to be crafted with care.

“Write your profile as if you are talking to one of your targets over a coffee,” Tom says. “Then read it back out loud. If it is stiff and awkward then you have used too much ‘marketing language’ and made it sound unnatural.”

When it comes to choosing what content to share, and how to avoid spamming your audience, Tom says that we should think back to the fundamentals of marketing best practice.

“It comes down to knowing your target audience really well, understanding what they find valuable, and then focusing on that,” he explains.

“Don’t try to be too broad in your appeal; that simply turns off a lot of your audience. Focus on who and what matters most and serve their needs.”
 

Social selling, and the changed mindsets and incentives it requires, is another indicator of how successful companies are evolving their business-to-business sales practices in the digital era. The imperative to change is why Telstra Wholesale introduced the Business Partnership Program (BPP) in conjunction with AGSM @ UNSW Business School. It is a tailored program to help our customers gain the insights they need to power their growth. If you want more information about the BPP, contact your service manager or account manager.

 


 

About Tom Skotidas

Tom is General Manager, Business Development of iCumulus. iCumulus helps B2B and B2C brands identify, engage, and convert prospects into qualified sales leads, using social and digital channels.

Connect with Tom on LinkedIn

Warwick Burton
The Author Warwick Burton

Warwick is a Senior Marketing Specialist at Telstra Wholesale. He likes pizza and sailing and dislikes mowing lawns too frequently.

See all of Warwick Burton's posts


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