Author: Sales for Life Admin

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Blog Infographics Social Selling

Social Selling in 2015: A Look Into The Next 12 Months [Infographic]

Social selling has proven to be both popular and effective. According to a 2014 study by DemandGen, 72% of B2B buyers used social media to research their purchase decision in 2014. High performing companies like Oracle, IBM, SAS and ADP among others are already reaping the financial and brand benefits of empowering their sales teams with training in social selling and access to the best tools available.

So what does 2015 hold for this quickly evolving space? From consumer trends to effective social platforms and content types, 2015 will be a big year for social selling. Take a look below!

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Blog Sales Sales Advice Social Selling

Optimizing Engagement: When To Share Content On Social Media

As you might guess, there is no right or wrong answer when it comes to good timing for social media posts. Each media platform attracts different types of users who engage with it in various ways. That being said, studies do show trends in views, shares and clicks on the different social media platforms. Here are a few questions to answer before sharing your content:

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Blog Sales Sales 2.0 Sales Advice Social Selling

FAQ Series: Social Messaging Best Practices For Sales Pros

In the modern age of sales we as reps have had to adapt to new ways of attracting customers. To do this, many reps and Social Sellers have begun sharing content on a daily basis to display their area of expertise. We’ve all heard it time and time again; “position yourself as a THOUGHT LEADER to your prospects.”

Well if you’re relatively new to the world of Social Selling then you’ve probably got a lot of questions about how to approach sharing content with your buying community. If that’s the case then you’re in luck because this post has been written for your benefit.

Check out the frequently asked questions I hear from reps about Social Media Posting Best Practices and let me know if you have any others via the comment box at the bottom.

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Blog Infographics Sales 2.0 Sales Advice Sales Inspiration

How To Be An Influencer: The 6 Principles Of Persuasion [Infographic]

Understanding what motivates people helps us to better tailor our content and overall messaging to speak to their needs. The following infographic by Dr. Robert Cialdini’s, Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Marketing at Arizona State University, describes six principles of persuasion that have proven to help businesses people become influencers and achieve their goals:

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Blog LinkedIn Sales Sales 2.0 Sales Advice Social Selling

5 Big Mistakes People Make On Their LinkedIn Profiles

“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” ― Thomas A. Edison

True, that may be inspiring, but it’s terrible advice when it comes to crafting a LinkedIn profile aiming for optimum impact. First of all, you are not Thomas Edison. Second of all, LinkedIn is not the place for experimenting. You really can’t afford to make 10,000 bad first impressions.

As Koka Sexton points out, LinkedIn has emerged as the number one professional connection tool and an integral component of a social selling platform. Sales reps have found that LinkedIn profile problems have wide-ranging negative effects on personal branding across all networks. In other words, getting your LinkedIn profile right is kind of a big deal.

The reason we are focusing on mistakes – the dark side of best practices – is because they could be holding you back when you’re doing everything else right. If some of these “worst practices” hit a little too close to home, don’t panic. You’re not being picked on. The attempt is to try to help you increase your ability to sell yourself socially, boost your reputation and shine like the star that you can be.

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Blog Sales Sales Advice Social Selling

Eleven Social Selling Lessons from 7 Inspiring SlideShares

Social Selling Lesson

SlideShare has emerged as the “quiet giant” of marketing. The combination of short nuggets of wisdom alongside motivational images draws 60 million visitors every month. For example, Fast Company blogger David Brier turned his insights on branding into 70,000 views in less than two weeks. That’s a lot of potential customers.

SlideShare matters most with the prospects who matter most, as well. A report from comScore found that business executives are five times more likely to go to SlideShare over any other social network. It’s where they go for inspiration, information and resolutions.

There’s one more great reason to go to SlideShare.net. They make a perfect channel for repurposing content like tweets, webinars, blogs, videos, infographics and just random thoughts. Reaching a wider distribution without having to generate new content is a more productive way to identify new prospects. Consider learning how to excel at selling from Social Selling experts along the way as just an added bonus.

Anyone who doesn’t already carve out some of his or her weekly sales time for education via SlideShare should correct that error immediately. In the meantime, here are some of the most powerful ideas for better Social Selling directly from a few of the biggest names in the game.

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Blog Social Selling Social Selling Toolkit Social Selling Tools

Top Business Intelligence Tools For Sales Pros

Welcome to the Social Selling Tool Kit Series. This is a bi-weekly blog series that focuses on a specific segment of Social Selling tools in each post. This week’s post is dedicated to tools you can use to gather business intelligence and tracking information about your buyers and competitors.

So often having insights into the business that we interact with on a daily basis as well as their engagement with our emails can make the difference between closing a deal or not. The following tools have been designed to help you do just that.

And as always, if you have any suggestions for other tools we can include in our post, please feel free to mention them via the comment box provided below.

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Blog Infographics LinkedIn Social Selling

How Does An Ideal LinkedIn Profile Look Like? [Infographic]

Having a strong LinkedIn profile is the corner stone of any Social Seller’s activity. Our LinkedIn profile illustrates who we are, what we do and, most importantly, how we can help buyers.

Your LinkedIn should NOT be a replica of your resume. Your resume is your career history. It’s dull, boring and often task-based. Your profile should rather reflect your future, what you’re focused on and how you can professionally serve others.

Our friends at Hubspot have compiled a very insightful infographic on how to structure the perfect LinkedIn profile. Is your profile optimized for success? Will it attract your target audience? What should you change? See below!

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Blog Sales Sales 2.0 Social Selling

Why Experts Forecast Rapid Adoption Of Social Selling In 2015

Years ending with the number five have a special significance. It’s time to look back at what we’ve learned since 2010 and what we want to achieve by 2020. The future of Social Selling is shaping up to have a defining influence on the rest of this decade.

The concept of social selling has been around since the birth of social networks over a decade ago, but searches for the term “social selling” didn’t really explode until 2011. Last year, the Sales Management Association reported that even though sales reps tend to spend more than six hours on LinkedIn every week, 80 percent of them didn’t have any training on social selling – 2015 will be the year when that number drops precipitously.

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Blog Infographics Sales Sales 2.0 Social Selling

Who Do People Buy From? [Infographic]

There’s a lot of talk around the changing sales and marketing landscape. But this evolution is driven by one important factor: the buyer. The way people purchase products and services online has dramatically changed over the years – and these days, buyers have more power than ever. To understand more about what influences today’s customer, we’ve put together an infographic that reveals their motivations.

What kinds of content resonate more with buyers? Who do they trust? Which tools should you employ to simplify the buying process? Take a look!

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