Are you looking to up your social selling game at Dreamforce '14? We've got you covered.
Today, successful sales people adhere to the four pillars of social selling:
Create a professional brand
Find the right people
Engage with insights
Build strong relationships
Here's how you can become stronger in each of these areas before, during, and after your trip to Dreamforce:
Create a professional brand
You'll be meeting a lot of new prospects, potential partners, and peers. So before heading out, take a few minutes to tighten up your LinkedIn profile:
- Does your tagline accurately represent how you help buyers in your industry?
- Optimize your profile to make it more customer-centric and less like a resume
- Upload and showcase compelling content, including case studies, white papers, and presentations
Session to Attend: Building a Personal Brand on Social Media
Find the right people
Are there specific people you'd like to meet at Dreamforce? Don't hope to meet them, make it happen. Before attending, make a list of the people you'd most like to meet. Check out their LinkedIn profile and use the "How You're Connected" tool to see if there are any connections in your network who can introduce you via the "Get Introduced" feature. If you have access to TeamLink, you'll automatically see if this person is connected with anyone in your organization.
Session to attend: Drive Quality Leads and Pipeline with LinkedIn
Engage with insights
Perform research on the front end to improve your chances of having engaging discussions with the people you aim to meet.
- What can your shared connections tell you about the people you'd like to meet?
- Have the people you'd like to meet recently published content or a status update that merits discussion?
- Have they, or has their company, been featured in the news recently?
Think about the insights you can share that will transform your conversation conclusion from "Nice meeting you" to "I'm really glad we had a chance to talk."
Session to attend: Social Selling: A Live Conversation with Jill Rowley and Koka Sexton
Build strong relationships
Meeting these people and connecting on social channels is just the start. On the way home, develop a plan for continuing to provide value to your new contacts. Also, if your new contacts are from key accounts, think about how you can leverage your new relationships to form additional connections that will deepen your relationship with the entire buying committee.
Don't let your new relationships fizzle out. Momentum is your friend, so build on your new relationships to make them stronger.
Session to attend: #1 Competitive Edge in Today's Sales World: Jill Konrath and Panel
To get the most out of your Dreamforce attendance, make it a point to seek out the actionable nuggets you can easily add to your social selling strategy. And of course, have fun.