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STEP 3: BUILD YOUR PIPELINEThe declining effectiveness of cold calling has already beenwell documented. Less well known is the declining impact of“cold networking.”“Cold networking” is the practice of connecting with someone basedon a weak link and then almost immediately asking them to give youbusiness. But just because someone gave you a business card orpermitted you to add them as a social media “friend,” “connection,”or “contact,” doesn’t mean you should consider them part ofyour pipeline.Social Selling Transformation Tip #5“With a LinkedIn network in place that has beennurtured with targeted insights for potentialbuyers, the rep has the foundation to sell muchearlier in the buyer’s journey than those thatdon’t invest in their network. The investmentpays off for the rep with an improved personalbrand necessary to get callbacks and set thebuyer’s vision.”Click to share! – Craig Nelson,Cold networking is the practice of connecting withsomeone based on a weak link and then almostimmediately asking them to give you business.8Groups28Skills & Expertise4CompaniesPresident, Sales Enablement GroupLocation8

How You’re ConnectedFocus first on relationship-building activities. Use LinkedIn early on tofind out what’s especially relevant to a new connection or potentialprospect. Then feed that prospect targeted content based on whatyou’ve uncovered.In doing so, you’ll quickly establish yourself as the resource best ableto solve their problems if and when they come up. And at the root,that’s what good sales is all about.YouClaire SmithEd JamesJimmy Barbaand 3 more connections incommonSocial Selling Transformation Tip #6Click to share!“Your job as a sales professional is to build yourpipeline, so how are you going to get to thatend goal? By leading with insights. What kindof groups are they interested in and who elseare they following? What kind of news are theyinterested in? It could be completely unrelatedto what you need to talk about business-wisebut you can find little insights that you canbuild the relationship from.”– Koka Sexton,Sr. Social Marketing Manager, LinkedInGet introducedMonica MayerIn Common with Sue28Skills & Expertise9

STEP 4: STRATEGICALLY EXPAND YOUR NETWORKOnce you’ve cemented your social image, pinpointed the kind ofpeople you want to meet, developed your search strategy and carvedout your area of expertise, you need to think about your connectionphilosophy and how to substantially expand your network.People vary widely in regards to how aggressively they choose togrow their base of social media connections, especially on LinkedIn.Some feel they should only add people to their networks that theyknow extremely well and turn down all new requests outside of theirclosest professional circles, and others are more open as to whothey accept. As a social salesperson, you can certainly use somediscretion as to who you choose to add and invite. That said, ingeneral, the more opportunities you expose yourself to, the moreopportunities you’ll have.Social Selling Transformation Tip #7“Monitor your social ecosystem to look forsignals. Maybe someone in your extendednetwork has just taken a job or maybe they’vejust been promoted. Maybe you or one of yourconnections has a relationship with an individualwho leaves an organization. You can use thoseinsights you gleaned from social media.”Click to share!You have little to lose when it comes to seeking out and embracingnewcomers to your network, and when it comes to sales you have awhole lot to potentially gain.– Dario Priolo,Chief Strategy Officer,Richardson Sales TrainingSocial Selling Transformation Tip #8“My philosophy has been, for a long time now,really straightforward. If I can add value to you orif you can add value to me, let’s get connected.It doesn’t matter to me if you are in your firstyear of sales working at a small company or ifyou are an executive working for a Fortune 500.”– Koka Sexton,Sr. Social Marketing Manager, LinkedInClick to share!10

STEP 5: ENGAGE WITH INSIGHTSThe best social salespeople don’t stop sharing insights once they’vesecured a connection or uncovered an ideal prospect. Depending onthe product or service, a prospect may not be in the position to buywhat you’re selling for months — or years — after you’ve connected.That’s one of the reasons it’s so important to continue to engage themembers of your social network on an ongoing basis.Traditionally, salespeople would call prospects every few months to“just check in.” But in a world where anyone can find whatever theywant with a few mouse clicks, this method has become ineffectiveand even off-putting. Salespeople who don’t educate, enlighten andinform, now blend into the crowd.LinkedIn is currently in the midst of releasing a new publishingplatform that will supplement and enhance the posting andmessaging capabilities currently available.Social Selling Transformation Tip #9Click to share!“Change management research has shown usthat people must SEE and FEEL the need tochange because the part of the brain that makesthe decision to change does not contain thecapacity for language or rational thought. Thus,engaging with insights requires new messages,tools and skills to execute these visual, emotionalconversations. You can’t do it with the same oldPowerPoint presentations.”– Tim Riesterer,Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer,Corporate VisionsCreate a PostShare an update.11

Social salespeople should take advantage of this, as well as thepublishing capabilities of other social media platforms to consistentlydeliver knowledge that will enhance the lives and careers of thevarious people in their network.The sorting functionality of LinkedIn makes it simple to both deliveruniversal information to your entire contact base, as well as ultrarelevant articles, blog posts, videos and so on to different members ofyour pipeline.By being the person that prospects think of first when it comes togaining the latest and greatest information about the field, the dangerthat they will perceive you as a “pushy salesperson” will virtuallydisappear. Instead, they will come to view you as a trusted problemsolver. And, people buy from trusted problem solvers.Social Selling Transformation Tip #10Click to share!“A significant buyer behavior trend is buyerstoday have become very active learners andknowledge seekers. Attempting to understandchallenges and problems from many angles. Itis important for social sellers to be in tune withhelping connections learn. Taking care to notturn off connections with sales pitches disguisedas insights and truly offering insights enablingearning and knowledge building.”– Tony Zambito,Author of Buyer Persona blogHomeProfileNetworkJobsInterestsBusiness ServicesUpgradeYour DraftsTitleJune, 2, 2014Write your thoughtsThe Importance of Customer SatisfactionJune 2, 201410 Fool-Proof Tips to Social SellingJune 2, 2014The Evolution of Sales: The Survival GuideMay 28, 201450 Sales and Social Business Quotes YouSHOW MOREYour Recent PostsThe Most Inspired Sales Professionalsin the WorldMay 29, 2014Cold Calling is Dead, Thanks to LinkedInMay 28, 2014See your posts and statsTips to get startedThe sorting functionality of LinkedIn makesit simple to both deliver universal informationto your entire contact base, as well as ultrarelevant articles, blog posts, videos and so onto different members of your pipeline.12

STEP 6: BUILD STRONG RELATIONSHIPSWhile growing your social network is vital, it’s important to keep inmind that customers are first and foremost individual human beings.The best social salespeople treat them this way while working touncover the unique needs that their products may be able to fulfill.Relationships are not built between “Connections;” they are builtbetween people. In the long run, people are much more likely tobuy from someone they have a relationship with than from a semianonymous name and profile.The information and insights you choose to share should not onlystake your claim as the expert in your niche, but should also establishyou as someone your prospects feel they actually know.People Also ViewedClaire SmithRelationship ManagerEd JamesClient ServicesJimmy BarbaSocial Selling Transformation Tip #11“Check out the ‘Viewers of this Profile AlsoViewed’ section. That’s where you’ll find thenames of other potential decision makers withinthe account – including their boss, co-workersand direct reports. Having these additionalnames gives you more ways to get your foot inthe door.”Click to share!– Jill Konrath,Bestselling Author “SNAP Selling”Sales DevelopmentMonica MayerAccount ExecutiveJohn SmithRepresentative Manager13

Sprinkle in a smattering of posts that are amusing, entertaining, orinformative for their own sake. Share elements of your true personality— observations, tidbits, even fun updates about your friends andfamily. If someone lives in your geographic area, set up some time tohave coffee simply to get to know them. The time you spend to createbonds with members of your social network will certainly pay youback in kind.Koka SextonSr. Social Marketing Manager LinkedIn Social Selling Transforming the way sales organizations do businessSocial Selling Transformation Tip #12“Take advantage of LinkedIn’s saved searchfeature to learn of decision makers who are newin their jobs. Once you set up the saved search,LinkedIn will send you an email every weektelling you who recently updated their LinkedInprofile and now meets the criteria used whenyou created the saved search. Decision makers who are newin their jobs are up to 10x more likely to switch vendors. Don’twait too long after they get the job because research shows thatabout 50% of them will make a decision on who to switch towithin the first 90 days of getting the job.”San Francisco Bay Area Computer , Inc. Paragon Software, AcronisSocial Selling UniversitySend a messageRelationship500 EndorseconnectionsContact InfoClick to share!– Craig Elias,Chief Catalyst, Shift Selling Inc.(and author of “Shift!: Turn ProspectsInto Customers”)Connected 1 year agoPosts6,073Published by KokaSee moreIf I were 22: Lessons from BasicTrainingMay 21, 2014followersHow Not to Sell like Gill from theSimpsonsMay 20 , 2014It’s all about the HustleApril 17, 201414

STEP 7: MEASURE HOW WELL YOU’VE ADOPTED SOCIAL SELLINGThe best Social Selling tools and techniques are useless if thesuccesses they facilitate cannot be replicated or improved. That’swhat effective measurement makes happen.Social Selling Transformation Tip #13LinkedIn has built-in functionality to help salespeople, sales teamsand sales managers determine how successfully they are engagingin Social Selling. One of the most powerful of these is an index scorecalled the Social Selling Index or SSI.The SSI takes into account many of the elements of successful SocialSelling discussed above, including how effectively a salesperson hascreated their personal brand, found the right people, engaged withinsights and built strong relationships. The SSI has been shown tobe an accurate indicator of how likely salespeople who use thesemethods will be to hit their sales goals and how often they willfall short.Click to share!“All too often, sales leadership relies on theirgut to diagnose problem areas in the salesfunnel and across the team. Unfortunately,that gut instinct is often inaccurate. In a worldof Big Data and Sales 2.0, mounds of data isavailable to the leadership team. Top performingorganizations are translating this data intospecific diagnoses and customizing strategicinitiatives to address these problem areas.”– Mark Roberge,Chief Revenue Officer, HubspotOverall, SSI measures your social selling performance based on thesefour activities on LinkedIn: create a professional brand, find the rightpeople, engage with insights and build strong relationships. Eachactivity is measured on a 0-25 scale, then summed into an SSI score.Your ScoreClick view thefull in fographic!82Social Selling Index15

According to a survey of 5,000 salespeople 45SSI high-scorers get% more salesopportunities than others; andSSI high-scorers arehit quota than others.51% more likely toAnother way to track the impact of Social Selling is to use thereporting functions within third-party sales enablement tools. BecauseLinkedIn has become such an important vehicle for generating leadsand sales, CRM tools like Saleforce.com have built-in capabilitiesfor tracking which leads came from LinkedIn during the prospectingphase. Social salespeople should take full advantage of thisfunctionality.Social Selling Transformation Tip #14“The most important question to ask aboutmeasuring social media ROI is what will youget for this effort. The insights generatedshould shape your marketing strategies andboost performance. It is not necessary to seekperfection in ROI measures, but continuallymove forward in expanding capabilities. Even basic measuresor ROI projections have an incredible effect on credibility withsenior executives.”Click to share!– Jim Lenskold,President, Lenskold Group (author of“Marketing ROI: The Path to Campaign,Customer, and Corporate Profitability”)By establishing a measurement strategy from the earliest phasesof a sales campaign, social salespeople can continually build onthe successes made possible by following the advice given in theprevious six steps.16

PUTTING THE SOCIAL WHEELS IN MOTIONIt’s not too often that the entire mechanism that powers a worldeconomy flips upside down. Yet that is exactly what has happenedwith the rise of social media. For decades, if not centuries, the bestsalespeople were those who were comfortable engaging people on alllevels and finding a mutual connection or shared need.Social Selling Transformation Tip #15“Recognize that not every insight is going to berelevant to every individual. Do your researchand really take the time to personalize theinsight to resonate most strongly with eachperson. Don’t just go out and start blanketingthe world with content. Really be thoughtfulabout what the content means for the prospectyou’re pursuing.”However, when everyone has a virtual universe of connections theycan tap into at any moment, the old way of doing things no longerworks.The good news is that those who have a handle on the ancienthuman art of building relationships have a big advantage. SocialSelling is nothing more than a way to make those relationshipsprofitable for you on an immense scale.Click to share! – Dario Priolo,Chief Strategy Officer,Richardson Sales TrainingWhen everyone has a virtual universe of connectionsthey can tap into at any moment, the old way ofdoing things no longer works.17

By applying these seven steps to your own sales strategy or acrossyour team, you will reduce inefficient cold calling, identify morequalified opportunities, and ultimately improve your sales andrevenue goals.Who’s viewed your profileHow you rank for profile viewsSocial Selling Transformation Tip #16“You need to look at ‘Who’s Viewed YourProfile’ on LinkedIn every single solitary day.This is who’s looking at you. So when youlook at who’s reviewed your profile, you needto engage with them. My analogy with ‘Who’sViewed Your Profile’ is that it’s as if someonecalled your cell phone and they come up on caller ID but theydidn’t leave a message. If this is someone that you’d return thephone call to, reach out and connect with them. I’ve gotten somuch business through engaging the people that have checkedme out that were my second degree connections.”– Brynne Tillman,President & CEO, Social Sales Link82Profile viewsLast 90 days1Viewer who works at 1233Viewers with the title MarketingSpecialist3Viewers who searched for LastnameClick to share!Social Selling Transformation Tip #17PublisherData AnalystBob McGee 2ndChief Content Officer1Jane Doe 2ndMarketing Strategist1Jimmy Barba 2nd“Check out recommendations. Who did yourprospect recommend? Who recommended her?The people you uncover here might be goodcontacts for you as well.”1B2B Content MarketingStrategy SpecialistClick to share!– Jill Konrath,Bestselling Author “SNAP Selling”18

ABOUTDemand Gen Report is a targeted e-media publication spotlighting the strategies and solutions that help companies better align theirsales and marketing organizations, and, ultimately, drive growth. A key component of our coverage focuses on the sales and marketingautomation tools that enable companies to better measure and manage their multi-channel demand generation efforts. For more information,visit www.demandgenreport.com.411 State RT 17 SSuite 410Hasbrouck Heights, NJ 076041.888.603.3626ABOUTLinkedIn Sales Solutions empowers sales professionals to fill their pipelines proactively. Find the right people, know what to say by uncoveringkey insights, and get warm introductions by extending your LinkedIn network. For more information visit sales.linkedin.com.19

Social Selling, we provided a high-level overview of the concept and principles of Social Selling. Since the publication of that E-book, social media has become even more central to the way businesses of all kinds drive new prospects and clients. One of the reasons for this de