Blog: Social Selling

July 2By Podcast, Social Selling, Video Leave a comment

Social Selling and Hashtags - Ep. 067

Greg Hyer and Martin Brossman discuss using hashtags on social platforms and at conferences to help with your social selling activities.

Hashtags are used on social platforms to make it easier to find a discussion. They are utilized at conferences, for Twitter chats, to categorize shared content or as side comments. They are a great tool for social sellers to use to identify discussions and to brand themselves as an expert resource in their field.

Here are some links mentioned in the discussion:

Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake #Hashtag skit on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon

“Newsjacking” by David Meerman Scott

“How to Use Hashtags” by Martin Brossman

Join the conversation about this episode on Twitter using #LinkingSales67

Greg and Martin are making progress on the development on an online Social Selling Training program and expect to launch it this fall. Please stay tuned for future updates.

Run-time: 27:07

The Linking into Sales Social Selling Podcast is a professional development podcast geared towards sales and marketing professionals that use social media tools and networks to support the sales process and help them become more proficient in social selling.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 27:07 — 24.8MB)

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April 28By Podcast, Social Selling, Video Leave a comment

Implementing a Social Selling Strategy - Ep. 065

Greg Hyer and Martin Brossman discuss implementing a social selling strategy. This podcast was created in response to an engagement Greg had with Adam Lewites of InsightPool on Twitter. He asked what was the best way to implement a social selling strategy. Listen to this show to understand how activities and results can be tracked and how sales management can be involved in the success of implementing a social selling program.

Greg referenced a previous episode about Social Selling KPIs. Visit Episode 55 - What are Social Selling KPIs to review the KPIs you can use to start measuring your success in social selling.

How are you implementing a social selling strategy? Share your comments below or Tweet us on Twitter using hashtag #LinkingSales65.

Run-time: 18:37

The Linking into Sales Social Selling Podcast is a professional development podcast geared towards sales and marketing professionals that use social media tools and networks to support the sales process and help them become more proficient in social selling.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 18:37 — 17.0MB)

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March 31By Podcast, Social Selling, Video Leave a comment

35 Amazing Social Selling Tools - Ep. 064

This is a mega name-drop episode! Greg Hyer and Martin Brossman rattle off 35 amazing social selling tools that sales professionals can use to support their sales engagements.

Content Curation Tools

Feedly
Pocket
Google Alerts
Google News
Klout
Pinterest
Paper.li

Content Distribution Tools

Buffer App
Hootsuite
Saturn Social
Oktopost
SproutSocial
SlideShare
Wistia

Content Creation Tools

Movy
Twitter Video
Snapseed for Android / Snapseed for iOS
Prezi
MindMeister
Autodesk Pixlr

Social Engagement Tools

Twitter
LinkedIn
Facebook
Google+
Speedshare
JoinMe

Social Selling Analytics Tools

Twitter Analytics
Google Analytics
Bit.ly
Hootsuite
Goo.gl

Social Selling Intelligence Tools

Nimble
Riffle by CrowdRiff
Discoverly
SalesLoft
SellHack

Do you have a favorite social selling tool? List it in the comments below! We might mention it in a future episode.

Run-time: 35:19

The Linking into Sales Social Selling Podcast is a professional development podcast geared towards sales and marketing professionals that use social media tools and networks to support the sales process and help them become more proficient in social selling.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 35:19 — 32.3MB)

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March 17By Podcast, Social Selling, Video Leave a comment

Content Curation as a Social Selling Technique - Ep. 063

Martin Brossman and Greg Hyer discuss content curation as a social selling technique. A question came from a fan on our Facebook page about how to start with curating content and where to find it.

They discuss how to use content during a sales engagement. Starting with using content that speaks to a broad problem or big idea and narrowing the focus along the journey. Greg’s perspective on using curated content is like prescribing medicine and consuming the recommended doses until the the prospect is cured. “To Curate is to Cure.”

Martin relates content curation to an experience he had while taking an improv comedy class in Raleigh. Your audience will never get it if you don’t put what you’re trying to say in context. Context is key.

Greg and Martin also welcome Carlos Gil to LinkedIn. He is the new Sr. Social Media Marketing Manager and replaces Koka Sexton who has move into a new role at LinkedIn that involves a heavy amount of content marketing. You can find Carlos on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Also, be sure to visit our latest creation, SellingB2B.com. There you will find B2B Sales articles and questions shared by a growing community of B2B Sales professionals. It’s free to join!

Run-time: 15:34

The Linking into Sales Social Selling Podcast is a professional development podcast geared towards sales and marketing professionals that use social media tools and networks to support the sales process and help them become more proficient in social selling.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 15:34 — 14.3MB)

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March 3By LinkedIn News, Podcast, Social Selling, Video Leave a comment

Google Plus and LinkedIn Product Updates - Ep. 062

Greg Hyer and Martin Brossman sit down to discuss the recent announcement from Google about the changes happening to Google+ and how it’s being broken up in to three apps, Photos, Streams and Hangouts.

Next they discuss some recent changes to LinkedIn and how they will affect your social selling routine. The changes discussed include

1. Changes to your activity feed to help you find more engagement opportunities

2. Changes to search including the commercial search limit for non premium accounts.

3. Changes to Groups including the removal of the hero image, top contributors and the removal of multiple featured posts.

4. LinkedIn releases the Connected app for Android to help users find more engagement opportunities. LinkedIn has discontinued the Connected mobile app.

5. LinkedIn announces the new Lead Accelerator advertising platform for B2B businesses with more than 20,000 visitors.

Run-time: 16:36

The Linking into Sales Social Selling Podcast is a professional development podcast geared towards sales and marketing professionals that use social media tools and networks to support the sales process and help them become more proficient in social selling.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 16:36 — 15.2MB)

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February 23By Podcast, Social Selling, Video Leave a comment

Social Selling with Twitter - Ep. 061

Greg Hyer and Martin Brossman discuss how a salesperson can use Twitter for social selling.  Twitter is a social network where members share short messages, called tweets, about whatever they want. Greg and Martin share several techniques that a salesperson can use to while social selling with Twitter.

Greg and Martin discuss the recent improvements that Twitter has made to their product. These include group direct messages and 30-second video tweets. Group direct messages allow you to include up to 10 people in a private direct message exchange. The video tweets allow you to tweet and reply to other members with up to 30 seconds of video.

Greg and Martin discuss why the re-established relationship between Google and Twitter is important for SEO and brand credibility.

Listen to discover how salespeople can build their professional brand, align with the company brand and establish themselves as an expert. Learn how to use Twitter lists to build lead engagement lists and develop relationships with potential customers.

Run-time: 21:01

The Linking into Sales Social Selling Podcast is a professional development podcast geared towards sales and marketing professionals that use social media tools and networks to support the sales process and help them become more proficient in social selling.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 21:01 — 19.2MB)

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February 2By Podcast, Social Selling, Video Leave a comment

Greg Hyer Social Selling Interview with PipelinerCRM - Ep. 060

This is a special edition of the Linking into Sales Social Selling Podcast. Pipeliner CRM’s Richard Young and Martha Neumeister talk with Greg Hyer on their #SalesEU Twitter Chat and Google Hangout on Air about why Social Selling is about opening, not closing.

Here are the questions that Richard and Martha ask Greg.

Q1: Why is sales always focused on closing?

Q2: Why is the mindset “always be closing” not working for social selling?

Q3: What are the advantages of social compared to the traditional way of identifying which solutions are best for prospects?

Q4: How you can identify prospects who have the same problem, if you have a very large community in Linkedin

Q5: How can social sellers use social networks to listen for buying signals?

Q6: What´s the best process a social seller can use to bring value to their customers?

Q7: Retention vs Prospecting. Which one is more effective for #salespeople when it comes to social selling?

Q8: What´s the best way to satisfy old-fashioned salespeople that #socialselling works?

Additional questions:

Q9: What are your future predictions for #socialselling and #socialbusiness?

Q10: Why do people constantly say they do not have enough time for #socialselling?

Run-time: 01:02:11

The Linking into Sales Social Selling Podcast is a professional development podcast geared towards sales and marketing professionals that use social media tools and networks to support the sales process and help them become more proficient in social selling.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:02:11 — 56.9MB)

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January 25By Podcast, Social Selling, Video Leave a comment

Creating a Social Selling Routine Part 3 - Ep. 059

Greg Hyer and Martin Brossman welcome back Kevin Thomas Tully to discuss steps 6 through 12 of creating a social selling routine based on the popular infographic created by Sales for Life.

Here are the previous episodes you should check out:

Episode 44 - Creating a Social Selling Routine Part 1

Episode 51 - Creating a Social Selling Routine Part 2

Here are the steps we cover:

Step 6: Connect with your LinkedIn content readers that are outside of your first degree network.

Step 7: Review all LinkedIn email reminders and job alert changes

Step 8: Save all hot buyers into LinkedIn tag folders

Step 9: Overcome the deadzone by sharing weekly content with your hot buyers

Step 10: Review other trigger event alerts on Google+, LinkedIn, Hootsuite and Insideview.

Step 11: Follow-up on outstanding LinkedIn messages.

Step 12: Kick-start 5+ new conversations.

Here are a few of the tools we mentioned on the show:

Nuzzel - An easy way to see top news from your friends on Twitter

Conspire - Discover the best path to a new connection with your inbox.

HootSuite - Social media account management solution

Nimble - Your social relationship management tool.

Run-time: 54:53

The Linking into Sales Social Selling Podcast is a professional development podcast geared towards sales and marketing professionals that use social media tools and networks to support the sales process and help them become more proficient in social selling.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 54:53 — 50.2MB)

Subscribe: iTunes | Android | RSS

January 19By Podcast, Social Selling, Video Leave a comment

The Jon Ferrara of Nimble Interview - Ep. 058

Greg Hyer and Martin Brossman welcome Jon Ferrara, the founder and CEO of Nimble.com and the pioneer of CRM. Seasoned sales professionals may recognized him as the creator of GoldMine, the contact manager from the 1990’s.

Greg and Martin talk with Jon about how creating relationships in sales had changed and how his web-based CRM helps sales professionals better engage and grow those relationships.

When listening to this episode Jon stresses that relationships must end in a result. In business, this is very important. Social networks and social media can get you off track and send you down the wrong path.

Jon mentions that you need passion, purpose and a plan when it comes to selling. You must have a passion for what you’re selling. Your purpose is to find people that that can share your passion. You must have a plan to help you execute your passion and purpose.

This episode is a bit longer than usual, but it’s so good and you’re going to want to listen all the way through.

Run-time: 57:00

The Linking into Sales Social Selling Podcast is a professional development podcast geared towards sales and marketing professionals that use social media tools and networks to support the sales process and help them become more proficient in social selling.

 

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 57:00 — 52.2MB)

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January 13By Podcast, Social Selling Leave a comment

Social Selling in Industries that aren’t Social - Ep. 057

Greg Hyer and Martin Brossman kick off 2015 with a question from one of our listeners. Kent asks, “How do you use social selling to sell in industries that are not social?”

Greg and Martin dispel the myth that the people you need to reach are not social. They discuss how most that work in traditional industries are likely using Facebook to keep up with family and friends. And when it comes to friends there’s a great chance that they have developed a trusted circle that a salesperson could identify and become a part of.

Keep in mind while you are listening that social selling is about opening, not closing new business. It’s about building relationships using techniques that establish trust and lead to business.

Some of the techniques discussed include:

1. Follow the digital footprint
a. Learn as much as we can from the information they share.
b. Determine the best way to engage by discovering their interests.
c. Lay the groundwork for the buyer’s journey

2. Welcome them to the buyer’s journey
a. Tell the story that leads them to their happy ending
b. Requires storyboarding of content that you will share
c. Requires good listening to identify key concerns

Run-time: 20:34

The Linking into Sales Social Selling Podcast is a professional development podcast geared towards sales and marketing professionals that use social media tools and networks to support the sales process and help them become more proficient in social selling.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 20:34 — 18.8MB)

Subscribe: iTunes | Android | RSS