It just isn’t obvious why investing extra energy into yet another sales channel would pay off. They’ve not needed it to help them hit their sales targets before now. Besides, hasn’t LinkedIn become just like Facebook these days?
There are many good, sound reasons why salespeople push back when a social selling initiative is brought into their business. And we understand them too. But we also understand the role LinkedIn can have, when used as part of an overarching sales approach. When well-connected professionals, with a deep understanding of their customers and market share their perspective, people listen. The ripple effect of that can drive a multitude of good outcomes (dig into the ITRS case study for the detail on that).
So rather than wasting time and energy trying to convince people to change behaviours and adopt new tactics they don’t see the value in, we left them to it. And instead focused on those who already had an appetite for it. Our time was then put to best use by helping to amplify these individuals and drive positive results through sharpening their LinkedIn profiles, getting tonnes of rigour behind their Sales Navigator activity and publishing and engaging in a smart, considered way.
Then we placed them on a podium – in front of the entire global salesforce. Celebrating the growth of their networks, the new conversations they had started with key accounts, the customers they re-engaged with – and more.
And that was where FOMO came in and did the trick. We saw previous Social Selling Sceptics do a double take. They became more curious leant in more. What was it they were missing out on?
Over the year-long engagement we had with the global sales teams at ITRS Group, we saw uptake grow and grow as people watched their colleagues reaping rewards from their social selling efforts, and wanted some for themselves.
Read the full case study
Boost social selling efforts
If you’re unsure how to get going with LinkedIn, or simply want to arm your Sales and Marketing teams with a social selling toolkit to help them drive the right results, get in touch.