Top tips for selling on social media
LinkedIn has released some interesting data concerning the success of UAE salespeople who use the social media platform.
According to its research, the top sales people in the UAE spend just under five hours a week using social media for business purposes. And around 89 percent of those interviewed agreed that social selling - leveraging your social network to ultimately achieve sales goals - connects them with the right prospects, while 83 percent agreed that social selling is important as a strategy for closing more deals at their company.
Dylan Sharkey, Head of Sales Solutions, LinkedIn MENA, commented: “The typical business buying process now involves more than five decision makers. Success in today’s social world relies on sales professionals being able to navigate complex social structures within the companies they want to work with. Luckily, social media helps to shed light on the key connections salespeople need to make, and makes it easier to build trusted relationships more quickly.”
LinkedIn's top tips for successful social selling
Relationships matter: Successful social sellers make use of all the connections within their own organisations to build relationships with their customers and prospects, whether through an old contact of the CEO or a family friend of the office intern.
Be relevant: Social media has put more power into the hands of the buyer. Today business decision makers can be up to 60 percent along their decision-making journey before engaging a vendor. This makes it critical for salespeople and brands to engage their target audience within that initial part of the process. Having a well-established online professional brand and sharing relevant content are two quick and simple ways to grab the attention of the right decision makers.
Pick your moment: Good relationships take time. Don’t just jump in cold with a big ask in business without investing in learning more about your prospect first. Social media has made this much easier by enabling you to keep track of the relevant decision makers within companies, take note of the articles and updates they share in a professional context, and look for opportunities to engage them with relevant content of your own.
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Read the May 2016 issue of Business Review Middle East magazine
