How to do Social Selling

In the world of sales prospecting, finding new leads can be a daunting task. But for the savvy seller, there's a new tool in the arsenal and it’s called social selling.

In 2023, salespeople aren’t searching for “cold calling techniques that really work”. They’re searching for “social selling techniques that really work”. Why is that when cold calling has been the time-tested standard for prospecting? 

One clue lies in the name. Cold. Cold calling is cold. Social selling strategies on the other hand take a warmer approach by addressing the frustrations of the ideal customer profile before pitching a product.

The second clue lies in the data with 63% of sales people saying that cold calling is the most stressful part of their job, making social selling the ideal playground for salespeople who dread picking up the phone. They can still get their job done, without the added stress of “live rejection” yapping at their heels. 

Social selling is about developing relationships on social media in the prospecting stage of your sales process. These connections become valuable leads that will convert into buyers. It's never been more relevant than since COVID-19 has changed the way people network, according to LinkedIn.

Slack has proven the most effective social selling platform for Berner, outperforming others such as LinkedIn. Thanks to its robust communities and strict regulations against promotions, Slack is the ideal environment for developing a reputation as an expert willing to lend a helping hand.  

While LinkedIn is great for fueling discussion on Slack from members frequently sharing their LinkedIn content on the platform, this O.G. platform is still her go-to for researching prospective customers. It’s also great for finding additional posts to add valuable comments to. 

If you’re already following groups on LinkedIn, chances are you have already had invitations to their Slack communities. If you don’t yet follow LinkedIn groups in your area of interest, this is where the Slack community invites come from, so that’s the place to start.

Social selling platforms are at their heart, communities. Just like in high school, it pays to be apart of the right communities in order to reap the shared benefits according to Hubspot. In the case of Slack, the community rules work in the favor of sellers trying to get the attention of their ideal customer profiles (ICPs) because their rules result in less DM fatigue for members as compared to other social selling platforms. This is because new members need approval from existing members, which deters the volume of spam messages typically encountered on social channels.

If you don’t know what kind of groups to join, the key to success in these communities, according to Berner, is to choose channels that align with your interests and expertise. In other words, go after groups that you feel you would also get value out of. For instance, as a mother and salesperson, Pam is able to give and get value out of her “Mothers and Sales” group. 

It can be easy to get overwhelmed with the amount of channels and conversations to choose from. Pam recommends starting with only a couple at a time and sticking with them for a while. If one falls flat, that’s the time to move on to another channel. 

She also has a criteria for how she chooses channels:

• Sales
• make sales better 
• women and mothers. It's about growth

Her daily routine consists of taking some time in the morning to look through her slack channels to see what’s interesting enough to comment on or DM someone about. 

Her selling strategy consists of value giving interactions, a must do according to Hootsuite. For instance, If she sees someone who’s quite active in her channel, she will jump onto their LinkedIn profile and send them a DM saying that she just followed them on LinkedIn and is looking forward to what they post, in order to get a conversation started. She also likes to pay it forward by trying to help promote those in her circle, such as colleagues, or partners. 

When you’re interested in what is being talked about, Berner adds, it’s easier to jump into the conversations and engage authentically with potential leads who share similar interests and needs. She advises against jumping into conversations just to pitch a product, but rather to be genuine and helpful in order to build relationships. 

Her ultimate goal is to  establish herself as a trusted friend/mentor/advisor with an open door policy. This could also be referred to as an inbound strategy, but what sets it apart is Berner’s desire for truly wanting to have a positive impact on the world of sales. The more she interacts with and gives value in her communities through helpful comments, the more her impact spreads. Until, eventually, she starts getting referrals from people in the community. A fresh and welcoming, if not clever way to avoid pitch slapping people.

One of her most successful selling strategies has been to send a DM in Slack to someone about a piece of content she received from them on another platform. One such example was when she received a generic email about a software plugin. The kind of email most people delete. Instead, she looked at it with fresh eyes and saw a bit of humor there. She then went to Slack and sent the owner of the company a DM sharing her joke. He loved it and responded with “This is a great way to slide into someone’s DMs!”. This led to multiple meetings with her about her company's product.

Berner believes the best mindset to have is to be curious and helpful. The desire to learn from others is what endears you to communities. As an expert in your product you are also the guru, advisor and help center for your Ideal customer profile’s pain points. So another way to look at it, is showing up in the channel to answer people’s questions during your prospecting process. 

This makes it easier to engage in conversations naturally and without an agenda, focusing on building relationships first. 

Don't join a group just for the sake of pitching your product or service.  Look for signals that stand out as low hanging fruit. Such as someone asking for help or expressing frustration with one of the pain points of your ideal customer profile. 

“I don't promote Membrain If someone comes out and asks about a crm. I will either respond in the feed or DM them.”

This approach not only makes sales prospecting more engaging, but it can also be a creative alternative to traditional sales cold calling techniques.  

Sales has always been about building relationships, but usually the focus quickly gets shifted to how to sell more. By focusing on being genuinely helpful, social selling offers an opportunity for sellers to reshape the landscape around prospecting. This might seem counterintuitive to traditional selling strategies, but giving value to those that fit your ideal customer profile on social selling platforms is not only the smart way, but the right way to increase your quota in 2023.