“Yes, social selling, we want that too.” The rise of social media marketing has created a hype within the business community. Managers and salespeople hear terms such as 'blogging', 'vlogging' and 'tweeting' mentioned at many events. Once back at the office, they also want to get started with social selling. Selling via social media. But social selling does not only consist of blogging. It is a profession in itself, with multiple facets. In this blog we describe the core of the concept of social selling, and what you can do with it as a sales professional.

What is social selling?

Social selling is much more than just social media marketing, which it is often confused with. We have often discussed the future of sales as a profession in our blogs. Points that always recur are that our profession is developing more and more into a consultant role. You are no longer purely a salesperson who can discuss the offer, but support your relationship with advice, engagement and solutions. It is precisely in this combination of facets that you can place social selling. It concerns, as it were, the interplay between education, interaction and technology. Education stands for providing substantive information to your network, interaction for maintaining contact on a regular basis, and technology for the use of social networks, apps and other ways to get and stay in touch with your network.

What are the benefits of social selling?

Social selling is therefore more than just posting content on social media. However, the technological possibilities offered, with Linkedin at the forefront, offer sellers in 2019 a unique opportunity to get in touch, but above all to stay in touch, with customers and relations. In the past, the number of people with whom you could maintain an effective relationship was relatively limited. Especially if you really wanted to go for personal interaction. After all, you can only schedule a limited number of physical appointments. With the rise of digital (social) media, the world is your oyster in that respect. Coming into contact with relevant people and digitally building a relationship based on knowledge and interaction has never been so tangible and close. This offers wonderful opportunities to expand your network on a qualitative basis.

It's about quality, not quantity

Unfortunately, social media such as Linkedin are also often misused under the guise of social selling. Yes, as mentioned, it is a wonderful way to further expand your network. However, that is no excuse to invite one person after another that you only know halfway or not at all. This often happens in an impersonal way. This goes against everything social selling stands for. It is precisely about building a valuable relationship based on content and interaction. LinkedIn is not a channel to get in touch with people with whom you have not yet built a relationship, whereas it is for recruiters, for example. It is a channel to maintain contact with your network and to further strengthen that contact digitally.

No 'walk in the park'

Social selling, whether properly executed for the right reasons, can bring you as a seller and your organization a lot of pleasure. But, it is definitely not a walk in the parc. It requires structural attention and expertise. Maintaining your network is a daily task. Scrolling through your Linkedin feed every day to see where you can interact with your network is absolutely part of this. We often adhere to the unwritten rule that you must invest at least 30 minutes per day on your digital network in order to use it optimally. In addition, it is also necessary to share your expertise and knowledge with your network on a regular basis. For example, try to make a substantive contribution weekly or biweekly.