Social selling is the latest trend to hit the sales world in years. Or maybe it’s just a new term for how the best salespeople have been selling all along. Or it might even be the hook that finally aligns marketing and sales at B2B companies. Before you can consider implementing it at your organization, you have to understand what it is.
It is no secret that the buyer’s process is changing. Many techniques that used to work no longer do. Let’s look at some statistics that show how it has changed.
1. 8-10 people are now involved in the average B2B buying decision (Source)
Selling is no longer about making that connection with one decision maker and ignoring the rest of the committee. While there still may be one final decision maker, from a budget perspective, the recommenders have more power than they ever did. Each stakeholder has unique needs and can scuttle a deal if it doesn’t meet them.
Takeaway: Focus on the right people at the right companies and their needs.
2. 75% of B2B buyers use social media to be more informed about vendors (Source)
Buyers used to come to salespeople for product details and basic education about your offerings. They are now finding that information, and more, online. Companies now need to create the right content to answer buyers’ most pertinent research questions, but you also should be familiar with review sites that cover your industry. Buyers will put more stock in peer recommendations than anything the company produces.
Takeaway: Just as buyers use social media to learn about you, use the same tools to keep up with them.
3. 90% of decision makers never respond to cold calls (Source)
When was the last time that you responded to a salesperson? It’s very easy to ignore email, and if a buyer marks your email as spam, they will never hear from you again. Still trying to make phone calls to prospects? You’ve heard of callerID, right? If they don’t know who it is, they are not answering.
Takeaway: Make connections online and gradually build trust.
Learn How to Operationalize Social Selling in our upcoming webinar as Oracle Marketing Cloud's Lauren Harper joins Kevin Krantz,
Global Sales Director from LinkedIn on Tuesday, August 18 at 1pm Eastern Time (10am Pacific).
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