Social Selling

Social Media Builds Trust at Scale

So many professionals in sales these days struggle with using social media as a part of their sales process. Everyone understands the potential reach of social media; however, few really understand how to utilize its potential.

I’ve had conversations with literally hundreds of salespeople who told me that they have tried social selling, or who actively utilize it and aren’t seeing any results. Stories of the hours of time in creating and posting content and the frustration of getting little engagement or tangible results.

When I take a closer look at the type of content they are posting, and the messaging they have utilized, there’s always one common denominator – it’s all about selling. Social selling is about connection, building interest, and educating people – not about pitching them.

They aren’t educating, informing, or sharing any experience or expertise. They’ve removed the social aspect entirely from the equation and treated it like a virtual elevator pitch for a cold call. That’s the exact opposite of what social selling is about.

Social media is a virtual networking event. It allows you to take the event stage, engage with almost anyone, and have a conversation. It’s up to you to be engaging and excited to start that conversation and build connections.

There’s an old saying in sales: “People buy from people.” That’s because there is an emotional connection. People buy because of relationships with other people that they know, like, and trust. This saying is absolute unless you are engaged in a one-time transactional type of everyday product sale.

This is where many professionals fail with social selling. They don’t take the time to build the relationship before going into their pitch. You need to be relatable, share experiences, knowledge, and stories about both successes and failures and ask a lot of questions.

This is how you build trust. People react to your content, engage in the discussion, and relate to your content. In doing this they begin to feel as if they know you, they express that they like (or dislike) what you shared, and the relatability of your content builds trust.

By doing this repeatedly and regularly, you build a following that becomes your lead base and, when nurtured correctly, your future sales. Two-way engagement leads to having a conversation that leads to a presentation that leads to a sale.

Being relatable begins with hooking your audience. You need to have a powerful opening statement to capture their attention immediately. There are many ways to accomplish this, but here are some of the most effective methods:

Begin by Asking a Question

• Do you want to know how to……..?
• When was the last time you…….?
• Has a customer ever told you……..?
• What do you do when…..?
• Are you ready for…….?

Make a Statement About Something That Happened

• The time I blew up the largest deal in my pipeline.
• How joining Toastmasters improved my public speaking skills.
• What I’ve learned in the last month will shock you.
• The economy is challenging right now, but here’s how I keep winning.
• My biggest deal came from the most unexpected source.

Take a Stance, Even Be Controversial. (this is my favorite)

• The problem with “X” today is that….
• Do you really know what’s going on in “X” industry right now?
• If you’re not doing this right now than…….
• Here’s what’s going to happen if…….
• Contrary to popular belief, the truth about “X” is…….

Now that you have their attention, tell the story. Allow your personality to show through. Be authentic and funny, or sarcastic (within reason), challenging, light-hearted, or even angry (but don’t rant too much). Use the words that will convey the feelings of excitement, frustration, confusion, or whatever emotions are tied to what you’re sharing. Let people in and have them feel it too.

Now, as you begin to wrap up the story, here’s where the real magic is. This is the time when you ask your audience to share their experiences with your story. You can ask for their thoughts, and if they have handled situations like that differently, what was their outcome? Lastly, you can ask for their advice or ideas on how you might have handled the situation better.

Now you’ve drawn them in. You captured their attention, shared a story that they can relate to, got them emotionally invested, and now they are going to interact with you.

Here’s where you are most vulnerable. It’s so tempting to jump right into a pitch because they seem interested – but hold off. Have some two-way dialogue and ask more questions. Then invite them to have a conversation about what you do and how you help people. Notice, I didn’t say how you can help them, it’s a conversation about how you help people.

Do this correctly, and they will invite you to give them a presentation about how you can help them. Now go do some real social selling, and let me know how it goes for you.

Chad is an award-winning senior sales leader, public speaker, and author with 25 years of experience managing client accounts in the digital technology, SaaS, automotive, advertising, and telecommunications industries. He has served in large multi-national public companies and smaller privately held organizations, modeling, building, and scaling high-performance sales teams throughout the U.S.

In 2022, Chad founded Best Life Ventures, LLC, utilizing his career experience to advise, train, develop, coach, and mentor sales leaders and their teams through fractional leadership and consulting. He also provides one-on-one coaching for sales leaders.

Contact Information

email: chadjohnson856@gmail.com

LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/in/Chad-Johnson

Header Image Credit: Taras Chuiko. Find it here.