Do I really need Social Selling?

Yes. Social Selling is helping companies finally bridge the gap between sales and marketing. For small to medium size businesses, with limited resources, it can also help improve the marketing team's ability to engage via social media.

Not convinced? Let's think about it. Sales is about relationships; it always has been. We have relationships with people. Have you ever had a sale where you didn't have to develop a relationship with the prospect or customer? We didn't think so. If your sales professionals, didn't meet people, get referrals from people, and give people (your customers and prospects) reasons to like and respect them (and your company)...then they likely aren't very successful.

Sales has always been social. Social selling is simply the use of new communication channels and tools to develop and maintain relationships.

But having access to these news tools and channels doesn't mean you should ignore or stop doing the things you're already helping you sell. Social selling doesn't replace tried and tested cold calling and prospecting. It doesn't replace email, and it doesn't replace lead generation campaigns (typically from marketing). But it can help deepen relationships, develop trust, and establish you as an industry expert — if you do it right.

And as we mentioned before, it's also a great way to bridge the gap between marketing and sales teams. Helping them work together to find prospects, develop valuable content, share expertise and insight, develop trusted relationships—and of course, generate revenue.

Won't it take more time? How will I measure success?

If you're already measuring sales metric, you can easily add social selling efforts into the mix. If you aren't you should be! (Click for the answer to "what is sales operations" and how does TwoSpot support it here.)

And there are lots of free, or inexpensive, tools to help you get more done in less time Of course, marketing is there to help with developing and sourcing fresh and valuable content you should share.

TwoSpot can develop social selling programs that support marketing efforts and help sales people get over the fear of the unknown to embrace social selling, including: