I've been working in Marketing for over 8 years now in many different industries, but in the last couple of years, I've been immersed in Social Selling. Now that I'm working with sales teams, I'm able to bridge the gap between sales and marketing and I've discovered some interesting things. From my marketing experience, and working with sales teams, here are 5 misconceptions about Social Selling that I see:
- I don't have the time for Social Selling. Many sales people think they don't have the time in their daily or weekly schedule to do Social Selling the proper way. The reality is, once you get down a routine, it will only require about 15-20 minutes per day... preferably in the beginning of your day, of networking, content, and posting. Those few minutes per day can be big gains later down the road.
- It takes too long to see the ROI of Social Selling. If you post something on a social platform on a Monday and expect a signed P.O. on Friday because of that post, then yes, social selling might take too long. One of the biggest things to understand is you have to be realistic about the process. Social Selling is a nurturing process and not all results will happen over night, but sticking to the process can do wonders.
- Social Selling is pointless. This can't be further from the truth. More and more sales teams are using Social Selling and there are countless studies that show how sales people who use Social Selling are outperforming their sales peers. The fact of the matter is, you as a sales person can't afford not to use Social Selling. Plain and simple.
- You need to be on all social channels to use Social Selling. This again is not true. Actually, you don't want to be on too many. Choose the channels where your customers and prospects are at and go there. This might mean you don't need Facebook and Google +, but Twitter and LinkedIn is where the action is.
- You have to always talk about yourself or your company for Social Selling. Please do not do this. Customers do not want to hear all about you and your company. And plus, all you are going to say is how great you (and your company) are and how is that no different than what the next sales person or company will say? The basic of Social Selling is to share relevant content to your followers and prospects so that you stay top of mind and you become an industry Thought Leader to them.