There are currently more than 1 billion active social media users across the various social media platforms. This makes social selling one of the best ways to reach mass audiences. These social media users will turn to their online social networks before committing to a purchase, and the average consumer will look at more than ten pieces of content before making a purchasing decision. This means that implementing an effective social selling plan can generate large sales increases for businesses. A recent Entrepreneur article,“9 Steps to Get Your ‘Social-Selling’ Program Off the Ground,” discusses the importance of social selling and defines it as a way for businesses to use content and engage in social media in order to more successfully sell.

Outlined below are five ways to effectively use social selling to generate leads and sales.

  1. Set the groundwork with your sales team. Taking the time to train the sales team about the ins and outs of social selling will help them utilize social media more effectively which ultimately translates into sales. Showing sales associates how to connect with consumers should be the first step for any business in getting their social selling program off the ground.
  2. Personalize your approach to your clients. Sales executives should contact consumers individually as well as sending mass messages. Tailoring messages to a client or explaining why a piece of content is important to them specifically encourages follow up contact. This also helps build connections and helps you better understand the consumer’s needs.
  3. Keep track of the results. It is important to not only keep track of sales, but to also track conversations and appointments that your sales associate have generated through social selling. Sales associates can even include a call to action in their messages so that the client is encouraged to follow up with them. This helps get the sales team excited about these methods and show them which tactics are working and which are not as effective.
  4. Always be on the lookout for content. Keep looking for information that might be useful to current clients or even potential clients. It is often helpful to keep a word document or spread sheet with the content you find so that the content can be reused for other clients down the road.
  5. Be consistent. Don’t give up if these tactics do not work every time. There is so much social media messaging that some messages do get lost in the shuffle. The best way to make sure this does not happen is but continuously sharing relevant content that encourages clients to keep reading.

With so many users on the various social media websites, social selling is a very effective means of generating sales and leads. If a company begins with a well-trained sales team and consistently communicates through both mass messages and personalized content, social selling can result in new clients and successful sales.

If you’re in healthcare, insurance, technology or other professional services industries, and need help with a PR, marketing or social media campaign, contact Scott Public Relations.

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