10 Signs Your Business Should Invest In Social Selling

Dan Westmoreland

Social selling is a hot topic right now. I think in someways it’s viewed as a buzzword. My VP of Sales, Ray Carroll, thinks it’s time to just drop the social prefix and call it “selling” because it’s now an integral part of the sales process. One thing is for sure though, not everyone is bought in. Especially at the executive level. A lot of Small businesses still have questions about what social selling is or the results it brings to the table. Notice I used the word “invest” in the title? I believe any new way of doing business or of practicing your profession with a different approach requires investment. Investment in your people, investment in yourself, an investment in time, maybe an investment in software, etc… With that said, it can be hard to know when the right time to invest is. If you were to ask me, I would say the time to make a change or invest is if you see the following 10 signs:

1. The value in utilizing sales reps as brand advocates does not elude you or you see the value in it after reading this.
   
2. You want leads coming from channels other than a feet on the street method, referrals or your website.
   
3. You want to add value to the buyer decision and beat the competition via avenues that are traditionally unused. (72% of B2B buyers used social media to research their purchase decision in 2014 -DemandGen)
   
4. You want your current sales team to add more to the bottom line. (79% of salespeople who use social media outsell their peers. -Forbes)
   
5. You as a business owner or your company have a LinkedIn profile. If you’re there, don’t you think your potential customers might be? (277% of LinkedIn traffic converts into leads. -Hubspot)
   
6. Your clients, customers, leads or prospects are not answering your cold calls, emails or direct mail. (82% of prospects are active on social media –source)
   
7. You want to get to leads or customers before they decide who they will buy from. (36% of buyers say they don’t engage with sales reps until a shortlist of preferred vendors is established -DemandGen)
   
8. It seems your competitors are winning deals you never known about. (See stat above)
   
9. Your business has been stagnant in growth for 3+ years.
   
10. You have done business the same way since the company was founded.

Always happy to chat about this in more depth and of course I can’t wait to hear some original thoughts in the comments!

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