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Is Your Sales Team Adjusting to the New Normal?
COVID-19 is accelerating digital sales trends. According to recent McKinsey research, digital sales interactions are now 2-to-3 times more important to customers than traditional sales interactions, and more than half of sales leaders believe that virtual selling models (i.e. videoconferencing, phone, web) are equally or more effective than traditional sales models.
B2B Sales Reps Struggle with Social Selling
We define B2B social selling as the ongoing process of leveraging digital channels to find, engage, and connect with ideal target clients. High performing B2B social sellers build relationships on digital platforms and turn online connections into offline sales conversations and long-term customer relationships.
Why Social Selling Matters
LinkedIn’s recent State of Sales report found that 62% of B2B decision makers look for an informative LinkedIn profile when considering talking with a sales rep. They also tout that modern selling leaders are:
- 51% more likely to achieve quota
- 80% more productive
- 3X more likely to go to be a top performer
There is no doubt that modern buyers are more savvy in their approach to identifying potential suppliers. Salespeople who effectively apply social selling techniques outperform their peers. The digital selling process requires a mindset shift to use online channels to provide value, develop trust, and build relationships with target buyers.
The Profile of Successful Social Sellers
Successful digital sellers have a purposeful LinkedIn profile that uses customer-centric messaging; consistently leverages valuable digital assets such as videos, case studies, research reports, articles, testimonials, and podcasts; and establishes a regular sales cadence to engage modern buyers and to initiate more meaningful sales conversations.
The Top 10 Reasons your Sales Reps Struggle with Social Selling
1. Goals and Success Metrics Are Unclear or Misaligned
Our organizational alignment research found that strategic clarity accounts for 31% of the difference between high and low performing sales teams. Prior to launching a digital selling initiative, the first step should be to identify the overall sales goals, priorities, and success metrics.
In digital selling, goals are typically geared toward creating more sales conversations with more qualified buyers using tools such as InsideView, Outreach, LinkedIn, and SalesNavigator.
2. Buyer Types and Personas Are Unclear
To stand apart from the pack and to best serve your target market, it is important to identify target buyers by persona, vertical, and sales role.
From a social selling perspective, clear buyer types and personas help determine the content production plan, define what clients are searching for online, and provide a framework for deciding the types of additional filters to use when developing search strings for prospecting on LinkedIn.
3. Sales Content Strategies Are Unclear
Effective sales content should create and sustain meaningful conversations with target buyers. In order to connect and engage target buyers on their terms in a way that matters, it is vital to develop a thoughtful online sales content strategy.
Effective online sales content strategies map to each unique stage of the buying process, answer key questions, provoke critical thinking, provide useful tips to avoid mistakes, address priorities, and give buyers a reason to want to consume your content and to keep you front of mind.
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