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Blog LinkedIn Sales Sales 2.0 Sales Advice sales training Social Selling

The Big Spenders Are On Social Media (And They’re Looking To Buy) [SlideShare]

Social Media

A whitepaper released by IDC Research and LinkedIn focuses on the value of social networks for increasing trust between buyers and salespeople.

According to new research published by IDC and sponsored by LinkedIn, buyers making purchase decisions gravitate to their professional social networks to increase their confidence on a determined product or service. This process is called social buying.

Check out the whitepaper titled Social Buying Meets Social Selling: How Trusted Networks Improve the Purchase Experience, which includes great original data and tips on how to gain trust from buyers and provide them with confidence during the decision making process.

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#S4LSocial Blog

Social Selling: Lead Generation Secrets

Lead Generation Secrets

Leads are the lifeblood of the modern sales professional. What happens when the well runs dry?

Ask any sales professional to describe his/her ideal working environment and among the top responses (after every deal is a whopper and it always closes) is an endless supply of sales qualified leads.

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Blog LinkedIn Sales Sales 2.0 Sales Advice Social Selling

10 Timeless Quotes That Will Make You A Better Social Seller

Better Social Seller

Over the past 5 months in the Social Selling training industry I’ve read a HUGE amount of quotes thrown around about the power of Social Selling tactics. From the upper echelons of management right down to the newly hired reps on the sales floor, professionals at all levels of organizations are seeing the positive effects that Social Selling can have and are announcing it to the world.

Below I’ve compiled a descending list of what I think are the most relevant Social Selling quotes to date. Some are from prominent business leaders, which you may have heard before. But even more important are the quotes I’ve included from sales reps that have transformed their ability to exceed their targets by incorporating Social Selling techniques into their daily routines.

Without further ado, here are my top 10 timeless quotes on Social Selling:

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Blog Infographics Sales Advice Sales Metrics Social Selling

The State Of Social Selling In 2014 [Infographic]

Social selling is having an important impact in the way buyers interact with companies.

According to a study by Social Centered Selling, 54% of social salespeople have tracked their social media efforts back to at least 1 closed deal. Our latest infographic explores the way companies are leveraging social selling, including top benefits, sales results, and relevant advice by social media experts. Check it out!

Key insights:

  • Knowing how to target prospects is still a big concern for 83% of companies.
  • 73% of companies that spend 6+ hours per week working on social media see an increase in lead generation.
  • 57% of organizations who’ve been using social media for at least 3 years report it has helped them improve sales.

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Blog Sales Sales Advice Time Management

Time Is Money: 3 Easy Steps To Pay Yourself First

Pay Yourself First

Every morning I got to bed with a game plan for the morning. “OK, I’m going to get up at 5:30 a.m., finally drink my fruits and veggies, go for a 5 mile run, and be at my desk at 7:15 a.m. before anyone else!” Then the morning comes…. I have to fight off the “snooze monster” every day! But, once I finally get out of bed, I have a wicked routine that’s helped build my business.

Now on the PROFIT side of this story, I just finished reading a book by Mike Michalowicz called PROFIT FIRST. The premise is quite simple: we as business owners are terrible at creating a routine for allocating profit from our revenue. We pay bills, taxes, employees… everyone but ourselves properly. He’s developed an ingenious method for paying yourself first.

Avoiding Time Burglars

To the context of sales – sales professionals are rolling out of bed, grabbing their smartphones and CHECKING EMAILS! These emails are TIME BURGLARS! These are OTHER PEOPLE’S PRIORITIES!

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#S4LSocial Blog

Do LinkedIn Connections Matter?

Social Selling With Twitter

Sales professionals are obsessed with numbers. Unfortunately, their focus is not always on the numbers that truly matter.

Nearly every sales professional can recite the nuances of the most complex compensation plan, including commission structure, tiers, bonus clauses, and accelerated payouts.

Because, in their mind, compensation is a reward for performance. And that bottom line number is the only number that matters.

What about the effort it takes to achieve the coveted compensation target?

An old business axiom tells us to “work smarter, not harder.” In an industry that is notorious for looking for shortcuts to success, many sales pros miss the easiest shortcut of all: the power of their LinkedIn network.

Surprisingly, sales professionals continue to operate their LinkedIn network as a closed system – much like their Facebook page – inviting only people they know intimately – friends, family, and colleagues.

They actually have more connections/friends on Facebook than LinkedIn – a clear demonstration of where their priorities lie.

Sales professionals must think differently about their LinkedIn network.

LinkedIn is the equivalent of your digital business card. When you meet people, you should look to forge a digital connection on LinkedIn.

Opening your LinkedIn network will have a cumulative effect: as the number of connections increase and you utilize the LinkedIn publishing platform, more people will see, be influenced by, and share your content.

That shared content will, in turn, be seen, liked, and shared by the connections in your advocate network (your current second and third degree connections), which most likely includes champions and decision makers at companies you’ve been trying to access.

Savvy sales professionals will tap these expanded networks for introductions, or leverage them for further conversations.

Consider this: if you initiate five new conversations on LinkedIn per business day, that’s 1200 potential new opportunities per year.

If only 10 percent of those opportunities convert, that’s 120 net new pipeline opportunities – all because of an expanded LinkedIn network.

For sales professionals, that’s a bottom line number that matters.

To learn more about the value of an effective LinkedIn network, we hosted a new edition of our weekly #S4LSocial Twitter chat, which continues every Wednesday at 12 p.m. ET.

Here’s a transcript of the chat, including some of the best tweets:

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Blog Infographics LinkedIn

LinkedIn for B2B Lead Generation: Why, When, How [Infographic]

This infographic summarizes why, when and how to use LinkedIn for B2B lead generation.

Did you know that over 80% of leads generated through social media for B2B marketers come from LinkedIn? If your B2B business is going to be on social media, LinkedIn should be a priority.

The infographic below from oktopost provides some insightful tips on getting the most out of your LinkedIn posts.

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Blog Sales Sales Process

The New and Ancient Art of Data Visualization

Data Visualization

Applying data visualization to the sales process can yield actionable insights that make sales teams become more productive.

This is a guest post from Nikolaus Kimla, the founder of Pipeliner CRM.

Something that fascinates us here at Pipeliner CRM is the power of a language we want to speak well: Visual. This concept, the learning and absorbing information through a visual process, is getting more attention. This is good, because our product is differentiated on the visual features whereby Pipeliner customers can “see” the data and immediately get what they need to do their job more effectively.

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Blog Content Marketing Social Selling

11 Social Selling Resources You Should Be Checking Regularly

Build your modern sales expertise by following these social selling influencers and experts.

Here at Sales for Life, we live and breath Social Selling. As a cornerstone of our engagement strategy we are constantly creating new content on topics around Social Selling and Content Marketing.

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Blog sales training Social Selling

Social Selling Training Is Now Available on Lynda.com!

Social Selling Training

Learn to supercharge your LinkedIn profile with this online video course from Lynda.com

We’re excited to announce that we’ve worked with Lynda.com, a leading online learning company, to offer introductory social selling training in the format of an online, self-placed course that any sales professional can follow.

With the Up and Running With Social Selling course, individuals sales professionals can now proactively learn and grow their sales skills, without having to wait around for their company to initiate sales training. If you’re a sales rep who’s been looking for training and resources to further your career and develop skills you can take to future jobs, this course is perfect for you.