Gerry MoranThe key to social selling success is fishing where the fish are. You might be fishing where the fish are, but you do know what to do when you get a nibble on the line?
Many sales meetings are full of fish tales about the one that got away. These fishing holes are filled with sellers, who did not use social selling techniques.
There are customers willing to engage, or bite on an intelligent insight, but many sales professionals do not understand the social selling signals. Their missed quotas, management excuses and intrusive and brand-centric emails are partly related to connecting with the customer at the wrong time with the wrong message!
Do you know an under-performing sales person who misunderstands what those ‘nibbles’ look like?
5 Reasons Why It’s Important To Pay Attention To Social Selling Triggers
- Get on their buyer’s journey radar
- Nurture a relationship with a prospect, who is not ready to make a decision
- Sustain your relationship with your customer
- Accelerate the sales process by adding value with content and insight
- Develop your reputation
Here’s Some Research To Hook You Into The Decision-Maker
- 84% of C-level/vice president (VP) executives use social media to make purchasing decisions. (Source: IDC)
- Social networks, like LinkedIn, are the #1 influencer in the final stage of the purchase process. (Source: IDC)
- The average B2B buyer, who uses social media for their purchase decision, is senior, has a larger budget and has a greater span of buying control than a decision maker who does not use social media. (Source: IDC)
- B2B buyers find the greatest benefit of social media is gaining greater confidence in and comfort with their decision (Source: IDC)
The big insight from this research is your customers use social media and expect to engage – either with you or your competition!
The big question is, do you know when and how to engage with your network? Do you understand the sales triggers giving you the permission to connect?
Here are the 30 social selling LinkedIn sales triggers to help you identify when to reach out a be a part of the customer conversation.
30 LinkedIn Sales Triggers To Help You Achieve Social Selling Success
- Your LinkedIn profile is viewed
- You receive an invitation to ‘LinkIn’
- Contact accepts your invitation to ‘LinkIn’
- Contact changes a job
- Contact gets a promotion
- Contact has a birthday
- Contact has a work anniversary
- Contact is mentioned in the news
- Contact updates something in their profile – photo, summary, etc.
- Your LinkedIn blog post is liked
- Your LinkedIn blog post is shared
- LinkedIn blog post is commented on
- Daily update is liked
- Daily update is shared
- Daily update is commented on
- Group post is liked
- Group post is shared
- Group post is commented on
- Group member makes a comment in a group
- You are endorsed for a skill
- You are recommended by a contact
- You have an opportunity to ask for a recommendation from a contact
- You are invited to join a LinkedIn group
- A shared group member reaches out to you
- You receive and InMail
- A contact’s contact likes a LinkedIn update post
- A contact’s contact comments on a LinkedIn update post
- A contact’s contact shares a LinkedIn update post
- Your contact writes a LinkedIn blog post
- LinkedIn’s People You May Know feature presents a contact which is connected to someone in your network
Do you have another social selling sales trigger to add? If so, please comment below or reach out to me at MarketingThink.com!
So, do you really understand how to use your expertise and reputation to hook into the buyer’s journey? Customers provide 30 ‘tugs on the fishing line’ on LinkedIn – or, in other words, social selling triggers. Pay attention to them to you know when you can begin to ‘reel in the fish!’
Oh, now the next thing you need to figure out is how to respond to every sales trigger!
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