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LinkedIn has quickly become one of the most effective and business-savvy social networking sites. Sales professionals are able to take advantage of valuable insight about prospects and peers, in turn developing a strong network that translates into increased productivity through resources, tips, advice and much more. By joining these groups, you will gain some incredible knowledge in the world of sales as well as discovering some of the top leaders in the industry.
To help those in the sales industry, the following groups and channels are among the most influential and valuable on LinkedIn.
Description: Social Selling University is not like social media courses which are typically designed only for marketing departments. This is how to use social media tools like LinkedIn and Twitter for sales people. Join this group to find out how and pass this group along to anyone you know in sales.
Owner: Koka Sexton | 632 members
This group allows Inside Sales practitioners to share ideas and information, and provides networking opportunities for global professionals from a variety of industries to connect with their peers.
Owner: Trish Bertuzzi | 11,521 members
Description: Sales, leadership, management, marketing, CRM, Salesforce, recruiting, business development, selling tips, lead generation, prospecting, training, networking, jobs, career, Web 2.0, technology, software, strategy, social media, blogging, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and more.
Owner: Doyle Slayton | 36,356 members
Description: The Sales Association is the premier association for sales & business development professionals. We provide members a powerful means to connect at events and online. Topics: sales, marketing, sales jobs, convention, conventions, jobs, trade show, trade shows, conference, conferences, CRM and careers.
Owner: Troy Davis | 26,483 members
Description: Sales, leadership, management, marketing, CRM, Salesforce, recruiting, business development, selling tips, lead generation, prospecting, training, networking, jobs, career, Web 2.0, technology, software, strategy, social media, blogging, LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.
Owner: Paul Castain | 25,110 members
Description: This group is for: sales people, sales managers and business owners who want to: 1. Exchange information about the emerging discipline of Sales 2.0 2. Partner up to help each other sell more, penetrate accounts and exchange leads.
Owner: Nigel Edelshain 4,160 members
Innovative Marketing, PR, Sales, Word-of-Mouth & Buzz Innovators
Description: Innovate with innovative marketing, public relations, promotions sales and selling professionals skilled at using creative marketing methods. Join thousands of members to learn & share best practices & advice. LinkedIn’s largest Marketing & PR Innovation Group.
Owner: Gerald “Solutionman” Haman | 148,010 members
Description: The Sales Management Association (www.salesmanagement.org) is a global, cross-industry professional association for sales managers, sales executives, sales operations, sales trainers, sales enablement practitioners, and thought-leaders engaged in supporting or leading the sales organization.
Owner: Bob Kelly | 15,274 members
Description: Sales Gravy helps Sales Professionals, Sales Leaders, and Sales Recruiters gain the winning edge. We discuss sales techniques, sales training, sales jobs, sales careers, sales tips, sales recruiting, sales process. www.SalesGravy.com is the most visited sales content website on the internet.
Owner: Jeb Blount | 15,274 members
Description: Have you some Sales or Marketing skills? Let’s share our experiences: Sales development, marketing, CRM, productivity and trade performance, team management and more.
Owner: Laurent J.V. Dubois | 82,904 members
We are excited that we were included for the second year running to the Gartner Research Magic Quadrant for Social CRM. InsideView is the only company in the Magic Quadrant specifically addressing the sales processes, intelligent monitoring, outreach and collaboration for sales professionals. This is only the second time that Gartner Research has addressed the growing market of Social CRM (sCRM).
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In the report’s introduction, Gartner analysts mandate measurable benefits of any social CRM vendor included in the Magic Quadrant. InsideView’s integrated, seamless sales intelligence has been shown by analyst firm Aberdeen Research to improve top-line revenue by more than ten percent.
“While others focused on one-to-many marketing and service areas, we have focused on the one-to-one relationships critical for sales,”
“InsideView distinguishes itself as one of the few vendors in social CRM focused on sales processes,” reads the Gartner report, available for purchase here. The report continues, “With an emphasis on usability, InsideView has promoted a compelling vision for applying search and relationship mining technologies to aid salespeople with key informational needs around sourcing contacts and leads, as well as monitoring business events and personnel within accounts.” Ease-of-use is also praised: “…easy to set up and personalize to specific needs (i.e., list building, lead generation, lead qualification, precall research in prospecting, account research, etc.).”
The report also highlights InsideView’s ability to uncover new sales opportunities and relationships, as well as to provide real-time intelligence and social information on leads and prospects through its unique Buzz Tab. One new area of emphasis by InsideView is the establishment of broader community: just last month, InsideView launched a Lithium-powered community for its nearly 100,000 users.
“While others focused on one-to-many marketing and service areas, we have focused on the one-to-one relationships critical for sales,” said Umberto Milletti, CEO of InsideView. “It’s great to see the industry analysts agree on the importance of these one-to-one relationships. We are now expanding more into the areas of marketing and service as these recognize the need for deeper relationships. Look for some exciting announcements about our offering soon.”
There is a good conversation on the Social Selling University LinkedIn group that is worth sharing. The great thing about these communities is getting so much feedback from so many people with similar and different points of view.
I asked a question that comes up a lot with sales teams that are trying to close business. “Is it ever alright to nag or pester your prospects?” It’s a fine line that I used to walk when managing a territory. Your forecast shows a deal, you have a close date set and then the prospect goes radio silent and falls off the grid. So what do you do? How many calls do you make leaving voice-mails trying to get a status update? You can send an email a day until you get a response but that is definitely crossing into creepy nagging territory.
Social selling techniques can be used if they are not responsive to other communications. Without having a line in the sand as to what would be considered pestering, it’s hard to say. But some of our SSU members had great insights.
What do you think? Leave us a comment here or jump over to the Social Selling University LinkedIn group and post your response there.
Jerry Voltero • If the customer has made a firm commitment to buy from me and we had previously agreed on a time line which he is clearly going to miss, I will politely remind him of that. So yes, if it’s the end of my quarter and he has gone radio silent on me, I am going to nag him until he responds with either a PO or an explanation as to why he is going to miss the time line. To put that in context, my deals are usually long term and the project is laid out well in advance with a proof of concept, lot’s of engineering planning and both business and legal negotiations prior to this point.
Always a great event to be a part of, SXSW in Austin is a place that showcases innovation and thought leadership. Umberto Milletti the CEO of InsideView gave a compelling presentation during the event discussing the use of social media for sales teams the title of the session was called “Social Espionage & CRM: Selling to Customer 2.0″
Monitoring. Listening. Tracking. Measuring. No, this isn’t a covert CIA operation: It’s the way brands and businesses are marketing…and selling…to YOU, Customer 2.0. Is it creepy? Regardless, it’s also a reality, and it’s working tremendously, as well as being adopted at a rapid rate by everyone from your local coffee shop to Best Buy to enterprises like Adobe. From social CRM to mobile-social tech to community management, 2011 is the year of full-blown execution after, well, two years of panels discussing ‘the future of social business.’ Come hear about the truly effective processes and best practices around social customer relationship management and intelligence, and walk away with an actual plan for your business in social selling and marketing.
In true SXSW fashion the attendees were very vocal online about the content and session.
There was a lot of interest by attendees to get a copy of this presentation and we aim to please. A couple hours after Umberto was done with the session, we posted the slides on the InsideView Slideshare account and the response was amazing! The great people at Slideshare noticed and we got added into their Business and Management Spotlight.
InsideView Launches Social Selling University to Provide Comprehensive Education for Sales Professionals, Driving Sales Productivity Through Social MediaWorld’s Top Sales Experts, Social Media Pundits Unite for Launch of First-of-Its-Kind Education Initiative
Today Social Selling University officially launches as the first program to educate sales professionals on how to leverage social media technologies and methodologies to increase sales productivity and drive revenue throughout the entire sales cycle. The first-of-its-kind program instructs sales organizations, consultants and in-house teams about selling to the modern and socially-connected customer — Customer 2.0 — and offers both an on-demand curriculum and live workshops. The program is open to all sales professionals starting today.
Social Selling University’s (SSU) actionable content and interactive learning modules have been developed by expert instructors, including experienced thought leaders, authors and analysts. Classes are designed for all levels of sales professionals, covering a broad range of topics including entry-level social media instruction on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook, best practices for managing personal online brands and how to accelerate the sales cycle by leveraging recent business events, social conversations and social relationships (aka “social intelligence”). The program’s instructors will provide expert advice to sales management on how to best incorporate social selling into their organizations, and educate sales professionals on how to utilize social media platforms to drive greater sales productivity.
“Social media is fundamentally changing the way sales professionals navigate the sales cycle — what worked two years ago, doesn’t work anymore because socially savvy buyers know far more about products and companies than ever before,” said Barbara Giamanco, Talent Builders CEO. “Fortunately, SSU levels the playing field by teaching sales executives, managers and reps how to interact with and sell to the modern consumer. These social sales practices breed relationships and eliminate the need for cold calling.”
Who should attend SSU?
Any sales professional — from account rep to sales team leader, director or executive — who CANNOT answer the question: “What is social selling and why does it matter to my sales organization?”
Isn’t social media for marketers? Why does social media matter to sales people?
- Social media marketing grew 50% in 2010 to $1.2 billion, and analysts predict that 2011 is the “year of social integration” for businesses. Social CRM has crested as the new and understood platform for sales and customer service.
“Salespeople who fail to leverage social media do so at their own peril. The problem is, many don’t know how,” said Jill Konrath, best-selling author of SNAP Selling and Selling to Big Companies. “Thankfully, technologies exist to allow any sales professional to gather and share relevant buyer information and achieve greater sales success. Social Selling University is a great place to start and continue learning what’s possible in the new world of social selling.”
As part of the initiative, SSU will host a Webinar series, featuring a panel of industry thought leaders to answer questions about how to use social media for sales, including:
March 3: Barbara Giamanco, founder and CEO of Talent Builders, Inc
March 8: Koka Sexton, director of Social Selling University
March 10: Jill Konrath, author of SNAP Selling and Selling to Big Companies
March 15: Patrick O’Malley, social media trainer and consultant
March 17: Nigel Edelshain, CEO of Sales 2.0
March 22: Pelin Thorogood, principal, Schulman + Thorogood Group.
March 24: Anneke Seley, CEO and founder of Phone Works and coauthor of Sales 2.0
March 29: Dan Schawbel, managing partner of Millennial Branding, LLC
March 31: Tibor Shanto, principal, Renbor Sales Solutions
On March 8, SSU will host a live, complimentary workshop following the Sales 2.0 Conference in San Francisco, where industry thought leaders will discuss the best practices for leveraging social media to increase sales team performance. Visit SSU’s registration page for more information about the agenda, speakers or sign-up information.
“Social media has completely changed the world of selling, and if you and your organization want to stay relevant, then you need to learn how to use these tools before your competitors,” said Dan Schawbel, the author of the number one international bestselling book, Me 2.0: 4 Steps to Building Your Future. ”Social Selling University is the first program to teach salespeople how to use Facebook, Twitter and other social tools to generate ready-to-buy leads and build relationships with customers that result in long-term business growth.”
About Social Selling University
Social Selling University is the world’s first initiative dedicated to teaching the sales profession how to put social media to work within their sales processes and organizations for greater productivity and revenue, through online instruction and in-person workshops. SSU staff includes dozens of the leading experts in social media, sales and Social CRM, and provides courses made specifically for executives, managers and representatives. Founded in 2011 by InsideView, SSU is the leading source of education about using the social Web to increase sales productivity through social intelligence. For more information, visit www.socialsellingu.com.
Many people have 100’s if not 1000’s of connections on LinkedIn and keeping in contact with all of them is impossible. What if you knew who your major connections were and started building better relationships with them to reach a broader audience?
LinkedIn recently launched a new application in LinkedIn labs called InMaps. InMaps is an insight into who the major connections, bridges and influencers are in your network. People with bigger dots and their names in larger fonts have more connections (and typically more sway) in specific clusters.
At first glance the application just looks like some eye candy that lets you see your network in a different way but after further investigation, InMaps could be a great tool for a sales person that wants to maximize their social selling productivity. Every dot on the InMap besides being another point of connection also provides intelligence on how influential a specific contact has within your entire LinkedIn social graph. Paying special attention to your key influancers should be a goal in your sales profession since these connections will be able to get you introductions and spread information to much larger groups of people.
A sales person looking at their InMap can quickly identify who their key influancers are and take steps to be more engaging with them and leverage that relationship for additional referrals to new connections. This becomes more prevalent as your LinkedIn network grows but this can work if you have as little as 100 connections. Using my InMap as an example I was able to find one person that was connected to dozens of people across my network. Identifying who you are connected to in LinkedIn and how they are connected to the rest of your network gives you some great insights.
Using LinkedIn to find new opportunities and expand your sales reach is very effective. Using InMaps lets you get a laser focus on who your major connections are so you can be more productive with using social media for sales as well as giving you a great starting point for creating new connections.
What does your InMap say about you?
Social media has become a defacto marketing tool for any organization, but it’s incredible how scared sales managers and teams still are of letting their sales reps join the sales 2.0 party. But the reality is, the only thing you have to fear is fear itself…oh, and not closing more and larger deals faster than ever before.
Social networks like Twitter and LinkedIn (as well as the entire blogosophere) are target-rich environments to find new opportunities and leads, and engage with prospects in a powerful and effectively intelligent new way. So what is holding companies back? Of the dozen or so objections I have heard, my conclusion is: FEAR. Fear that their sales team will not produce results, fear that the sales team will waste their time online and fear that their sales teams will do or say something online that will tarnish their brand and kill sales. The fact of the matter is, NOT letting sales professionals engage on social media is detrimental to the bottom line for the reasons below.
In addition, it always surprises me when a company pushes off any new technology based on such fear, and masks it with an excuse. Businesses that embrace innovation and new tools have a great track record of becoming leaders in their spaces. Social media is no different as it applies to sales professionals. There are very simple reasons that all of these excuses should be thrown away and sales people given a green light to social media engagement with leads and prospects.
Fact: Social selling produces results
Sirius Decisions Inc. recently said in a webinar that in most sales cycles, customers are now in control. Customers are doing 70 percent of the research online that drives the buying decisions, and then contacting a specific vendor for the purchase. The old concept of customers calling into a company to be ‘sold’ something is quickly vanishing. Since more of the buying process is happening online in discussion groups and social networks, sales people that are paying attention and, in most cases, are already a member of these networks like Twitter, will capitalize on these conversations and identify new opportunities much earlier than those without such social involvement.
Myth: Social Selling is not a time-suck
If your sales team is wasting their time online or talking to friends on the phone most of the day, stop now and reevaluate your employees. If you have talented and hard working people on your sales team, then you shouldn’t expect them to behave any different with using social media throughout the sales cycle. If your sales team is already using Twitter or other networks for personal use, they will be able to adopt a sales methodology around the same tools to produce revenue.
Myth: ‘Social Selling’ is too risky
This is an objection that comes up more often than any other, and it’s a common misunderstanding that a business can be destroyed in the matter of one status update or blog post. But, I don’t agree with this any more than I would with the idea that a poorly sent email to a customer can do the same. There was a point in time where sales people didn’t have access to email for that exact reason, but can you imagine not having email as a tool? The same will be said about social media tools in 10 years – those who embrace it will be in the drivers seat, and ultimately win out.
It all comes down to “letting go” and enabling your sales teams to be more effective. Social Selling is not fit for every sales person, but I’d bet you have a strong percentage of your sales team that would welcome the opportunity to drive opportunities through social tools in addition to traditional phone and email tactics.
This post originally appeared on Sales2.com where InsideView has regular contributions. Sales 2.0 is a site dedicated to the improvement of sales results.
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Word of caution as a few others have brought up…
The email response (or any other type of response) isn’t the solution to a flawed sales process or missed steps during the sales call.
It is possible though to do everything correct and still have the prospect go silent on you. Not often, but it does happen. And in those cases, the email template (in the link above) is one of many tools to have in your arsenal.
If you already think that you are becoming annoying, it’s probably too late.
If follow up is accompanied by added value, it often can lead to a sale. If it’s met with indifference or non-responsiveness, it may be time to move on – at least for now. Following up from time to time with articles, added value and so forth can lead to renewed interest … as long as you don’t begin believing it’s going to happen “any time now,” and provided you don’t forsake new business in the process.
Chasing prospects who dont want to be caught doesn’t make you persistant, it makes you broke.
If you’ve failed to identify a problem, establish a pain and confirm they want a solution on your previous call, learn from it and move on. Use other avenues like linkedin, twitter and smart email marketing to continuously brand yourself and to stay in front of your prospects, but make sure you avoid calling once hot but now not leads.. otherwise suffer the consequences.
Early in the process, learn how and when they want to be contacted. Each call or message should be planned and personalized for maximum effect. It’s too easy to get caught up in mechanized activities that check boxes in our CRM, so make every call and email count.
If your approach is customer centric with quality and value information to them, yet they are reacting negatively, evaluate the situation with considerate questioning.
If you have never gotten to first base and the prospect is not enjoying hearing from you, don’t waste your time and focus your attention on new opportunities.