We'd like you to consider, for a moment, the following sales strategy. We call it "extreme cold calling" (ECC) and it goes like this. Call a prospect, introduce yourself, and then promptly ask the person on the other line their ten favorite movies, their current city, their age, their hobbies, and, just for the fun of it, the name of their pet. Sounds foolproof, right? 
Alas, it isn't. Your prospect will angrily hang up and you'll be back at square one. If they even pick up! If only there were some sort of sales strategy in which prospects would voluntarily tell you these things. Some sort of social media platform where people could enthusiastically post their interests, personal information and other key demographic information.
Sarcasm aside, you can start to see the potential for what's called "social sales." It's worth emphasizing: prospects are voluntarily telling your their life story!
Here are six reasons for selling on social:
- It's a lead generation machine (though some are better than others.) Take LinkedIn, for example. It provides a seemingly limitless platform for identifying leads, as members happily talk about their jobs, industry trends and professional connections. Of course, a "LinkedIn cold call" (sending a spam-ey, sales message) is almost as offensive as “ECC,” so make sure you build relationships first.
- You're already almost there. We're not suggesting you sign up for Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and all the other social networks; that would be redundant because you're most likely already signed up on some of these platforms. If you already have a presence on these networks, there are literally no up-front costs associated with transitioning towards a selling posture. It's like, you're already at the party — you may as well start talking to people.
- It isn't that hard to set up accounts, if you haven’t already! If your sales reps want to kepp the separation between personal and sales accounts, they can consider setting up a separate "sales profile" on social media. After all, many people don't want their main profile to become purely a sales channel. Clients who pursue this option quickly realize setting up a social sales profile is no different than any other profile. Take Twitter, for example. For social selling purposes, upload a profile picture and a bio that exudes expertise. Make sure the content is focused on industry trends that prospects would find interesting. And as always, interact with followers and lay off the overtly "salesy" stuff. If all of this sounds familiar, it's because it's stuff you're likely doing on your other social profiles, Web site and blog anyway
- The big CRM vendors are betting on it (so you'll have no choice anyway.) It's always smart to look at technology "early adopters" because in many instances smaller companies follow their leads. In the case of social selling, the industry's best and brightest CRM providers will be selling social media sales functionality to their clients. Salesforce, for example, is throwing big money at Introhive, a social selling platform, in an effort to complement its existing CRM platform. Microsoft, meanwhile, is bundling Yammer — its social media network — into its ubiquitous Office platform. And the list goes on. Our point: the major CRM players and betting big on social sales. And since they make the software, most companies are going to have to embrace social sales whether they like it or not.
- It works! A recent 2012 survey found that 78.6% of sales people using social media to sell, out- performed those who weren’t using social media. Pretty staggering. Now the caveat: the survey was conducted by — surprise! — a consulting firm that is selling social media sales to its clients. That said, the survey methodology is pretty solid and the primary findings do underscore a larger point: at the very least, "social salespeople" have intimate access to unique sales channels where tech-savvy prospects voluntarily talk about the products they like. And last but not least...
- It's better than cold calling. Though we must admit, we do still have a soft spot for calling of the more effective variety
