Be sure to register for the free training on “5 Keys to Double or Triple Sales in a Down Market: Web-Training” https://www.marcwayshak.com/lab-web-training-novid/

Social Selling Tip #1: Make sure your profile reflects what you want customers to see.

If you’re using LinkedIn or Facebook and your profile lists some multi-level marketing thing you used to do, or your profile photo shows you out drinking with your buddies, that’s not going to be very effective. Your profile is key to social selling.

Go through your profiles on whatever platforms you use and make sure each one reflects exactly what you want your customers to see. Anything else—remove it.

Tip #2: Only target your IPP.

Your IPP is your ideal prospect profile. The worst thing that can happen with social media outreach is that you actually get someone who’s interested in talking to you, but they weren’t a fit in the first place because you weren’t targeted about who you were actually reaching out to. That hurts.

Only target people that you actually want to have calls with. Only target people who will make good opportunities for you. Anyone else, don’t waste your time.

#3: Know what platforms your prospects hang out on.

If you’re in B2B sales, chances are that most of your outreach will be on LinkedIn. But if you’re in a B2C space, there could be other platforms where your prospects spend a lot of their time.

It could be Facebook. Facebook is a big one. It could be LinkedIn, but it could also be some other platforms like Twitter or Instagram. Make sure that you know the specific platforms where your prospects hang out.

Social Selling Tip #4: LinkedIn connections to personalized messages.

If you’re selling in the B2B space, then LinkedIn is an absolute gold mine. My own organization has made countless sales as a result of LinkedIn outreach.

It’s important to understand that we’re not just using a shotgun approach, blasting boilerplate messages to anyone who comes across our radar. Instead, we’re only targeting people that we really feel like we can offer value to.

The first thing to do when using LinkedIn is to search for people using the advanced search function, to make sure that they fit into your IPP. (LinkedIn Sales Navigator makes this a lot easier, but you can still do it on the free standard version of LinkedIn.)

So first, make sure that you’ve narrowed down your prospect list using the advanced search for your ideal prospect profile. Next, only make about 20 connection requests per day—and don’t automate them. LinkedIn automation was a big thing for many years. We have found, though, that many people’s LinkedIn accounts are actually getting shut down now as a result of using LinkedIn automation.

So, don’t automate connection requests or you might lose your LinkedIn account altogether. Just send out connection requests manually to about 20 people per day. It actually doesn’t take that much time. Or maybe you could have an assistant do some of that heavy lifting.

Tip #5: Facebook group friend requests to personalized messages.

This is similar to LinkedIn outreach, but it’s much more relevant for salespeople who are in the B2C space or maybe selling to business owners who are more active on Facebook, such as small business entrepreneurs.

The first thing you want to do is find groups on Facebook where your customers actually hang out. These could be industry-specific or they could be interest-based. Join all those groups, but don’t immediately start blasting everyone. Take your time to understand what’s going on and get a feel for the community.

Once you have a sense of the group, start to slowly make friend requests with group members that fit your IPP. Go to each person’s profile, and if they seem like someone who could be a fit, just make a friend request. Only make about 20 or so friend requests a day.

Social Selling Tip #6: Create cadences for outreach.

Whatever platform you’re using, be sure to create consistent cadences for your outreach. If you just do 20 LinkedIn outreaches today and then you don’t do any more in the future, it’s a huge waste of time. But if you do 20 a day over the course of an entire working year, that’s about 5,000 outreaches a year. That’s a lot. Consistency is key to social selling success.

Social Selling Tip #7: Don’t send spam.

I’ll say it again: The point of social selling is not to spam everyone. Don’t be a spammer. Instead, offer value to the people you’re connecting with on social media.

One of my good friends always says, “Social media is for connecting. It’s not really for selling.” So when you actually connect with someone, don’t immediately try to sell them. Instead, just try to offer value. Provide them with resources. Start a dialogue. Don’t just try to sell them on the platform. Typically, you want to move off the social media platform for the real sales conversation anyway.

source