If you want to start performing like a top social seller, either make a self-improvement project out of learning social media, or start pressing your company to bring in some social media training.
3) They do their homework.
“Sales is a numbers game.” I’m sure you’ve heard that before. And while just dialing like a banshee will indeed improve your odds, please think quality over quantity. Don’t blast the same follow-up to everyone.
I realize it’s hard to find the time for customized messages. You’ve got to make a certain number of touches per day. But how long does it really take to look at a website or learn even a little bit about someone by looking at their LinkedIn profile? Two minutes, max.
If you’re worried about getting sucked into doing too much research, set a timer to restrict your research time to two to three minutes per lead. Then write an email or leave a voicemail (or a LinkedIn invitation to connect) that shows you know at least a bit about the company beyond what the contact form included.
Want a tool to help speed this up? Consider Riffle, one of Jack Kosakowski’s favorite social selling tools.
We know that personalized messages get significantly higher conversion rates. A bit of research also says to your prospect:
- You understand their unique situation
- You are the type of person who takes extra care and treats people well
- You’re more engaged than 90% of the other sales people who are going to contact them today
Still skeptical? Okay. Figure something out for me: How many fewer contacts will you be able to make if you did those two minutes of research for each lead? Now, if you got 20% more sales to close from those personalized contacts, would it be worth the extra time?
4) They leverage more than one medium and more than one social media platform.
Top social sellers are active on more than one social media channel. They are equally adept via–
- Phone
- Text message
- LinkedIn InMail
- Skype call
- Twitter direct messages
- Google+
- And more
They know tricks like how to record a short personalized video (less than 30 seconds) on their phone and then send it to someone via Twitter. They use visuals to educate their prospects, not just whitepapers and text-based content.
All this gives them far more channels to reach people through. It means that if they’ve got a visual learner, they won’t turn them off with a wonky whitepaper. And if they do have a quant on hand, they’ll have the charts and graphs and technical specs to keep them happy, too.
This can be a stretch for new social sellers. If you’re still on Twitter baby steps, sending a video message might seem out of reach. And that’s okay. Try to learn even one new format every month, and you’ll be going multichannel with the best of them in no time.
5) They use industry tools and sync them up.
If you’re going to have all those channels to communicate through, why not integrate them? That’s what top social sellers do.
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