Very frequently I come across businesses that seek to abandon traditional ways of marketing in favour of social selling. However, what most of us fail to realise is that it is not an entirely different concept from traditional selling. Rather, [bctt tweet=”Social Selling is an evolutionary step forward making the sales process more productive and meaningful.” via=”no”]
When it comes to using social selling for business collaboration, the good news is that you can leverage onto the same people’s skills that apply to face-to-face meetings and phone calls, with social media as well!
Surprised? Don’t be!
The truth is:
[bctt tweet=”As human beings we crave for the same socialising needs in real life, as online.” via=”no”]In one of my previous articles I explained why is it so important to LIKE a page or post that you find useful in order to nurture collaborative social selling. Today, I’ll be talking about some of the ways businesses can create better, stronger and long-lasting relationships with employees, partners, prospects and customers through social collaboration.
Here’s why I think the KEY to collaborative social selling lies in “Social” not in “Selling”:
Knowledge – If you want to change the world, you need to change yourself first!
Most business’ social selling efforts fail before they take off because their internal teams or employees are not on the same page! In other words there are huge knowledge gaps between what you preach and what you practice. In a way you can say that,
[bctt tweet=”Collaboration begins at office is the new Charity begins at home.” via=”no”]
To make sure you are leveraging social selling to its full potential, your internal folks need to understand what it means and why it matters to your business! As a business owner you need to fill the knowledge gaps and make people collaborate towards the same goal.
Engagement – Stop focusing on the company and start focusing on the audience!
All too often we come across businesses that are solely focused on bombarding their audience with brand information on social platforms, with little or no engagement at all.
Collaborative social selling is a two-way process and gives businesses the opportunity to learn more about their audience, their online behaviors, their likes, dislikes and so on.That’s exactly what I mean when I say you need to be C.R.A.P (Creative, Reactive, Active and Proactive) at social selling! The key is to get customer feedback, initiate a dialogue, answer problems or even re-engage with people who have previously done business with you!
Yield – Benefit from strategic business partnerships
Social listening can be a great way to identifying which brands complement your business or inspire your customers.
Once you have a list, be open and honest about what each party wants to achieve. This will help you build a strong relationship allowing your business and your collaborative partners reap mutual benefits.
Final Thoughts
Carefully sought out collaborative social selling helps your business get mentioned in tweets, blog posts, groups and forum. This in turn lets you build a richer social capital through likes, shares and followings. [bctt tweet=”The magic spell is to put an equal level of thoughtfulness in an online relationship as you would in a face to face interaction.” via=”no”]
Grab my Presentation on SlideShare:
Time to get the ball rolling!
Are you a small and medium enterprise seeking to leverage collaborative social selling but don’t know where to start? We can help develop an effective social selling strategy that will allow your business foster stronger and meaningful relationships with your customers, your employees and your strategic partners!
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