5 Ways My Social Selling Process Has Changed Over Time

One of my first articles that I ever wrote was called "5 Rules I Used To Crush My Quota and Fill My Social Funnel." It got a lot of traction and the feedback was pretty amazing. I was reading through it again and realized that some of my processes have changed since I wrote it 6 months ago. I figured it would be fun and educational to write this again with my new simplified processes.

Social Selling -- They Laughed At Me

My motivation for all the blood, sweat, and tears that I have put into social selling over the last year and a half is fueled by laughter. It has been a long road, and a majority of people have laughed during the ride. My mission has always been to prove the doubters wrong because I knew that I was pioneering change. The only way I was going to get everyone to understand the value of social selling, was by crushing my revenue goals. Of course, just like I had suspected...I crushed the heck out of all my numbers, and people started listening.

The Evolution and Journey

My social selling approach has certainly evolved over the last 6-12 months through hard work, trial and error, content consumption, and hours of mentorship from others who are living it! I've had the opportunity to build relationships and learn from some of the most knowledgeable influencers on social media. It has been a powerful experience and has helped me understand the power of digital networking and the value in creating digital relationships. You would be shocked to see how many of these relationships have created a sale, both directly and indirectly, or are evolving into a relationship of value -- on both sides. Online community has become very important to me from an online and offline perspective.

Personal Brand

In the first LinkedIn article I wrote, it didn't occur to me that I was actually helping build my personal brand. I figured out how valuable building my personal brand was through engagement with others who had built thought leadership. It just so happens that I've had a “voice” my whole career, but I hadn't built a network of people that could listen! Personal brand is your identity and paves the way for opportunity in your future. Don't make the mistake of letting other people or a brand decide your identity. You aren't going to have one job doing the same thing the rest of your life... Are you?

New Perspective/New Process

If you are serious about getting into social selling, please understand that it only works with patience and passion. If you are only about the dollars and cents, I'd stick to dialing for dollars and hard selling. If you have a genuine passion for connecting and building relationships that aren't all about you or your product... Let's get cracking! Make sure you understand that everyone you connect with or offer to help is not going to reciprocate, and that is OK! Also, keep in mind that there will be a time and place to present your product once you have gained trust and uncovered a need. The good news is, your discovery process will begin as a genuine relationship and not the first five awkward minutes of a cold call.

Social Selling Tip #1 - Share

When you start working to build your network on all social media channels, it's all about sharing other people's content! The only way to fight the noise on all social channels and get people to notice you is through sharing! Believe it or not, sharing is a very rare thing on social media these days. That is a good thing for the people that understand the value of being an advocate from day one. Start off by finding articles by people you think are putting out good, quality content. Next, share their posts and tag them in your share, which gives them credit and shows them you care.

Social Selling Tip #2 - Listen

Once you’ve started sharing, then you have to start listening. Who is re-sharing your content across the different social channels? Who is talking about your industry? I leverage hashtags on a basic level to monitor all of this so that I can fight the noise and get a quick scan of what is being talked about. I'm constantly educating myself on “who's who”...and what is what in my industry.

"You must leverage listening to educate yourself about who it is that you are going to engage with and what is important to them."

Listening is the most important part of social selling, in my opinion. The reason I say this is because it is where I catch key conversations that are important, leverage details from those conversations, and then get engaged into conversation as naturally as possible. You must leverage listening to educate yourself about who it is that you are going to engage with and what is important to them. I know that my competitors aren't spending the time to "listen" effectively, and it gives me a competitive advantage to engage with the right people, at the right time, with the right message that I know is of value to them.

Social Selling Tip #3 - Engage

Now, I did say listening was the most important part of the social selling process, and I mean that. Engagement is the second most important part because this is where you start the conversation and start building the relationship. Nine out of ten people fail in this area of social selling because they didn't do the proper "listening" or research in order to engage properly. This is the part where most sales professionals don't understand the value of “serving vs selling.” Serving is to understand who you are engaging with and what is important to them. Once you know that, then you can figure out what type of value that you could add for them. Now, I'm not talking about value as in your "product," I mean the value you can bring to a conversation that would make it worth their time to engage with you. I interpret value as in, how can I "help" them in some way or another. For example, their product integrates into the CRM that mine does... We have products that complement each other, and I have customers that might need what they have to offer! This is one of many examples, but you have to leverage creativity and figure out what type of help you bring to the table. If you don't bring any value to engagement other than your product... Stick to DIALING FOR DOLLARS, and you might want to think about a career in another field... Just saying!

Social Selling Tip #4 - Help

I look at social media as a 24/7 global networking group of millions of people who are looking to share their message and consume other's messages. Now, we all have different things we want to share and, more importantly, we all have different things that are important to us. This is where it is important to build the right networking circle and find people that share and care about the same things that are important to you. If you are on social media to blast your product and selfishly hope that someone will give you something without any intentions to help others or be of value to others... Not to repeat myself, but go back to DIALING FOR DOLLARS and hard selling! Your first job on social media is to be of value to your network on a human level and not a product level. Of course, I gave one example of how to be of "help" on social media above but that is just one of many. Helping is as simple as sharing another person's message on social. I'm not going to give you tips on what you need to do to help others, if you need that... Then you have bigger problems than "social selling."

Social Selling Tip #5 - Go Offline

You have now spent some time prospecting, researching, listening, engaging, and working on building relationships. Now what??? Well, it's time to move from online mode to offline mode! This is where human interaction and the power of conversation comes in!

You have now done the proper job of showing someone that you know what is important to them, you know how you can be of value to them, and now it's time to follow through! Just like anything else, always STAY TRUE TO YOUR WORD. Make sure you are the same person online as you are offline because you will always lose in the end if you aren't. You have to decide how to handle the conversation just like you would in real life. I always keep my product and my ego out of the first call and make it all about the other person and how I can make their life or career easier. We can worry about what I have to say on the second call, once our conversation has gained energy. Trust me, if you have done all of this properly, you won’t have to ask to get their help... They will want to help you!

Conclusion

In conclusion, this should all be very simple. You aren't really doing anything differently than you do in real life. Be a genuinely confident person that understands the value of what you have to offer to others on all levels. Take pride in the fact that you are out to help first and sell second. The idea of serving vs selling really isn't rocket science. The best sales people know that they aren't selling their product; they are selling themselves, and their product is just an added bonus of reciprocity. People love to reciprocate once they have been helped... It's human nature!

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