Social selling e-book: integrating social media into your sales strategy

Social selling is relevant, mainly because customers have been buying socially for some time now, both in B2C and B2B. Purchasing decisions are backed up by research online, especially social media channels. While social commerce is on everyone’s lips in B2C and e-commerce (currently more so due to the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, of course), social selling is what companies are talking about in a B2B context, and for good reason: the sales strategy promises amazing sales figures without even having direct contact with customers. Companies who successfully apply social selling do in fact achieve significantly higher sales. But is it just a buzzword being uttered as part of a short-lived trend? Or is social selling here to stay?

However, for a while now, the strategy hasn’t just been relevant from a B2B perspective, but can also be effectively applied for B2C sales. Here, companies have to suitably adapt their communication channels, strategy, and success measurement methods based on predefined goals and KPIs. For two weeks now, we have been exploring the topic from a whole range of different angles as part of our social selling series. Our social selling e-book brings everything together in a compact format and provides you with valuable additional content to help you actually put these insights into practice.

Social selling e-book: what is the success formula all about?

Naturally, we first examine what social selling actually is. After all, there’s no universally accepted definition of the term. Above all, a clear distinction has to be made between social selling and social media marketing as well as any form of social media advertising. However, the lines are frequently blurred and not clearly definable when it comes to social commerce, especially in the B2C segment.

On a different note, B2B social selling is often misinterpreted as merely sending connection requests on LinkedIn or Xing, although it is much more than that in reality. It’s about conveying authenticity and credibility, building trust, and positioning yourself as an expert in your subject area. Our free e-book tells you how to achieve all that and includes statements from

• Manuel König, Co-Founder & Managing Director, cmmrcl.ly GmbH,
• Hannes Beierlein, CCO and Founder of the Evernine Group, and
• an interview with Robin Heintze, Founderand Managing Partner of the online marketing agency morefire.

Implementing social selling: a strategy and objective are a must!

Social sellers move across different areas of expertise and departmental boundaries. They are sales professionals, but switch between sales and marketing (specifically content marketing, social media marketing, and even influencer marketing) as well as product development and customer service. To implement social selling, suitable personnel therefore first need to be identified and, if necessary, trained.

Implementing the necessary workflows and best practices may require an extensive change process depending on the company’s size. It necessitates a shift in thinking, an abolishment of established departmental boundaries, a departure from the traditional sales funnel, and active participation from all employees. In our free social selling e-book, we have compiled detailed information to help you develop an effective and efficient social selling strategy.

Social selling strategy, KPIs, tools, and channels

It doesn’t all just come down to suitable personnel, though. Defining your social selling strategy is a must to get you started, but it is in no way set in stone. You’ll gradually adapt it as you gain more experience and learn how to modify and further develop

• methods,
• techniques,
• KPIs,
• channels,
• tools, and
• resources

for social selling. If you want to know what factors to consider here, how to get the ball rolling, which channels are suitable for which goals, what KPIs are relevant, and which tools enable cost-effective social selling in the first place, don’t miss out on our social selling e-book.