To flourish in sales today sales pros need to create more relevant outreach with personalized messaging. Prospects need information from not just marketing, but sales professionals that answer their questions at every stage.
Building out this content and messaging strategy starts with research. The best place to conduct that research is on the social channels where your buyers are actually looking.
The first step is to share great content whilst listening, and while marketing is listening to your organization’s broad audience, you, the sales professionals, have an unprecedented opportunity to listen to the individuals.
For many, this might be the most vexing piece of the sales process when it comes to content. But you don’t have to be a marketer to create compelling content. When you’ve done the research by listening, the rest is easy.
Whether you’re creating the content yourself for an email or social post, ask yourself whether you’re addressing relevant buyer problems, inspiring interactions, educating, and appealing to the buyer’s emotions. Content fails when it is all about your company.
A Million Dollar Influencer frames value by regularly sharing insights in whatever form they’re most comfortable with.
For sales professionals, content isn’t necessarily an email blast, website content, or case studies. In all likelihood these responsibilities lie in the hands of the marketing team. Your job is the content of the conversation.
A Million Dollar Influencer knows that buyers nowadays reviews an average of three to five pieces of content before engaging with sales professionals. If they’re talking to you, it’s likely the content they consumed inspired interest.
To flourish in sales your conversation should have some of the following content:
- messaging about why they should choose you or why they should change;
- a strong connection to the prospects business needs;
- and personalized commentary and insights that align with distinctive marketing messages.
As sales organizations move towards a social selling model, the lines between marketing and sales efforts and metrics blur. This cohesion doesn’t have to cause discomfort. Instead, both sales and marketing should make an effort to adopt the best strategies offered by the expertise of the respective teams.
In this case, content marketing skills should be added to the seller’s toolbox quickly and effectively. Leading sales organizations that flourish in sales prove this time and again.
Working to break down the silos between marketing and sales is nothing new. Still, you may not have considered how to bring some of the most successful components of content marketing strategy into social selling.
Some of the most heralded advice and incentives for social selling:
1. The way sales professionals open and develop relationships with prospects has shifted from a cold calling model to one focused on shared connections and social outreach.
2. Due to the increasing amount of content that prospects consume before engaging with sales professionals, sales messaging must be even more relevant, timely, and personalized than ever.
3. Sales professionals are expected to be influencers and experts, providing relevant insights into their prospects’ interests and needs.
To be a Million Dollar Influencer in sales you need to understand social selling inside and out.,
