Business Book Summaries

The process of selling has transformed dramatically with the advent of social media, and customers are abandoning traditional purchasing influences in favor of online digital marketing stimuli. This means that businesses that want new customers will have to devote some skillful efforts to reaching them through social media channels. In The Art of Social Selling, Shannon Belew describes how to use social media to enhance marketing and sales success. She emphasizes that social selling success comes from building relationships via social networking sites, blogs, and online communities, as well as through the professional use of practical sales strategies tailored to the specifics of the different platforms.

 Success in social selling will come to those who understand the following:

• Social sellers need to maintain positive personae online. This means being genuine and sincere, listening carefully, and responding to customer or prospect concerns.
• Engaging with sales prospects will require increasing levels of mobility. The number of people using mobile devices to view information and interact on social networking sites is growing constantly, providing tremendous marketing and sales opportunities.
• Social selling is based on relationship building. This means establishing trust and offering value to develop mutually beneficial relationships.
• A salesperson on a social media site needs to be viewed as a go-to resource. This means that a salesperson who is active in a forum, group, or other community must contribute and engage frequently to become a trusted influencer.
• Social selling efforts should be targeted carefully. Indiscriminately spreading a message over all the top social networking sites is impractical. It is better to look to those few sites where prospects spend the most time and will be most likely to see the message.
• Social indicators are highly useful in identifying and reaching potential customers. These indicators are the items of information found on social networking channels, blogs, forums, and groups that give clear signs that a person needs a product or is curious about it.
• A valuable component of effective social selling strategy is the establishment of a schedule of social media posts that will invite conversations. This is best done by creating a calendar that sets out what, when, and where the user will post content or conversation starters.
• Social selling requires teamwork. This means that customer service, marketing, and sales teams must fully understand their responsibilities and work together.

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Related book summaries in the BBS library: Do It! Marketing, Content to Commerce, The Mobile Marketing Revolution