Some things never change: sales excellence has always been about building relationships. While this hasn’t changed, the way we start new relationships and develop our existing ones has evolved.
Sales and marketing leaders have recognized opportunities in social selling for relationship building, going so far as to change their teams’ KPIs to reflect and encourage the importance of the personal network. It comes down to how the number and sincerity of your relationships will help you improve as a sales professional.
As further encouragement, we’ve pulled together five quotes from sales and marketing leaders who have beautifully articulated this change and found a way to uniquely emphasize how important it is for you to adapt.
Take a look at what these influencers have to say about the brave new world of relationship building for new and burgeoning social sellers:
1. Take the Time To Do It Right
“When it’s time to find someone to work with or even recommend to a colleague, people are far more likely to choose their favorite industry expert that they’ve taken the time to get to know. The quality of that relationship is the most long lasting - patience is key. Building influence and an authentic community in any social space takes time, work and commitment; but then again, doesn’t everything worth having in life?
Andrea Lindal, Digital Marketing Strategist at Lexabi
2. Harness the Power of Personality
“Relationships are basically everything you’re working for with social selling. Every status you post, every article, every blog you point to should be ripe with personality. To grow socially, you need to be (surprise, surprise) SOCIAL. When you’re absolutely genuine in your tactics, people take notice. They’re not looking for someone to sell them shoes. They’re looking for a friend. People want to feel like they’re connected to you. And they are.”
Marge Bieler, CEO & Founder, RareAgent
3. Build Trust From the Start
“People buy from people they know, like and trust. At the start of building a relationship with your buyer the only thing you can shoot for is ’Trust’. Building trust has to be very obvious from the very first contact you make with your buyer or you kill any chance of starting a dialogue.”
Michael de Groot, Founder of Staying Alive UK
4. Get to Know Your Prospects
“I’m here to tell you that social selling isn’t difficult, it’s just different. No kissing on the first date: let’s get to know our prospects better first!”
Amar Sheth, VP of Customer Success, Sales for Life
5. Succeed with Warm Introductions
“Going in “cold” is no longer a viable solution for sales professionals. Leveraging connections and existing relationships to get introduced to decision makers has proven to have a much higher success rate.”
Koka Sexton, Senior Social Marketing Manager, LinkedIn
Inspired yet? The common thread between these ideas is what an amazing opportunity social sellers have to create meaningful relationships with prospects by building trust and taking the time to understand their needs.
With a bit of patience and the right tools, developing relationships is easier and more rewarding than ever.
Read more about connecting with today’s B2B buyer in our eBook, How Personalized Selling Unlocks Competitive Advantage.
Topics: Sales strategy
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