There are three things you need for social selling if you want to be effective: the key word being effective. That’s what I discuss with my guest, Tim Hughes, in this episode of 8 Unedited Minutes. Tim is universally recognized as the world leading pioneer and innovator of Social Selling. He is currently ranked number one by Onalytica as the most influential social selling person in the world.
Don’t be “That Guy”
Anybody that sends a message and is immediately trying to pitch people is a spammer, not a successful social seller. If you do that, you’ll get a very low response rate because you’re going through your network pissing people off. You want to have conversations with people like you would at a live networking event. You wouldn’t walk up to people and immediately ask them to buy your product or service. You’d walk up to people and ask them how they’re doing, talk about their interests and other types of proper conversations.
The same is true of social media, it’s in the name: Social media. Those are the types of interactions people want to have online, and they’ll respect you more for having meaningful conversations.
Don’t Walk Away from Conversations on Your Profile
When it comes to content first many people think they’re going to post something on LinkedIn, virtually walk away, and still get results without responding to anyone. Say 10 people like what you posted enough to comment on your post. That means 10 people are interested in what you have to say. Ignoring them is like someone introducing themselves to you at a live networking event and you turn and walk away without responding.
Their comments create the opportunity to reach out and say, “Thanks for commenting on my post, can we connect?” if you don’t know them yet, or “Thanks for commenting on my post, what’s new with you these days?” if you’re already connecting. It’s not a reason to say, “Thanks for liking my post, do you want to buy something?” regardless of whether or not you know them.
What are the effective ways to get better at social selling?
Start with Your Profile
First and foremost, you must have a “buyer-centric profile”. There are countless people on LinkedIn that could (virtually) walk past your profile. When they see your profile, you want them to think “that person looks interesting, I think that person could help me”.
When people view your profile they need to see that you are active on LinkedIn. Most profiles show no recent activity. It’s the activity, posting and commenting that creates meaningful conversations. Eventually you want to influence the people you interact with to buy something. The key thing is that you’re not spamming them and asking them to buy your product or service. You do this by initially having conversations, because it’s conversations that drive sales, not sales that drive conversations.
Watch the video and read the rest of the article to learn the other two principles.
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You can get my book here: “Idea Climbing: How to Create a Support System for Your Next Big Idea”
About the Guest
Tim Hughes is universally recognized as the world leading pioneer and innovator of Social Selling. He is currently ranked Number 1 by Onalytica as the most influential social selling person in the world. In 2021, LinkedIn said he was one of the top 8 sales experts globally to follow and Brand 24 announced recently he was the 16th most influential person in marketing globally, based on measured social media influence.
He is also Co-Founder and CEO of DLA Ignite and co-author of the bestselling books “Social Selling – Techniques to Influence Buyers and Changemakers – 2nd edition” and “Smarketing – How To Achieve Competitive Advantage through blended Sales and Marketing”. He has recently launched a second edition of “social selling – techniques to influence buyers and change makers” which has been fully updated. All three books published by Kogan Page.
Company Website: DLAIgnite.com
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timothyhughessocialselling/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Timothy_Hughes
You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/c/TimothyHughes1
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TimHughesSocialSelling/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tim_hughes1/
Clubhouse: @timothy_hughes
Tik Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@timothy_hughes
Want to learn more about successful selling? Check out this 8 Unedited Minutes interview: “How to Develop Confidence in the Sales World”
