Harnessing the power of Social
Media in the Buy-Sell relationship
today
Presentation for
Decoding the Buyer
The Old Model
Salespeople and Account Managers
used to be Key Information Sources for
Transformation
The Internet + Social Networks Have
Changed Buyer Behaviour Forever.
Why Should B2B Professionals Care?
Source: Corporate Executive Board (www.executiveboard.com)
What Do B2B Professionals Need To Do?
Sales Mindshift
● Sales professionals need to capture B2B buyers’ attention earlier ● Sales professionals need to be customer-centric and provide
insights that go beyond the 57% that the buyer already knows
● How do you achieve both of the above?
○Sales professionals need to participate in channels that buyers use for research, discovery, and discussion
Issues with Traditional Marketing Channels
Channel Dilemma
Issues with Traditional Marketing Channels
Channel Dilemma
Limited Access to
Senior Executives
Issues with Traditional Marketing Channels
Channel Dilemma
B2B Opportunity
The Case for Social Networks
● Fresh Marketing Channel (first-mover advantage)
● Transparent + Direct Access to Senior Decision Makers
● Brand building, demand generation, and lead generation can be executed simultaneously
Social Selling Opportunity
What Is Social Selling?
Social Selling is the process of
Social Selling Opportunity
What Is Social Selling?
Social Selling is the process of Social Marketing for Sales
Enablement.
1. Connect your brand with B2B buyers on social networks 1. Use Brand Building to grow Market Trust in your brand
1. Use Demand Generation to grow Market Need in your solution 1. Convert Market Trust + Market Need into meetings, pipeline, and
Key Numbers and Statistics
● LinkedIn has over 300 million members globally; 65,000,000+ are in Asia Pacific ● Asia Pacific: ○ 6,500,000 in Australia ○ 1,200,000 in New Zealand ○ 1,400,000 in Singapore ○ 3,560,000 in Indonesia ○ 2,635,000 in the Philippines ○ 1,900,000 in Malaysia ○ 28,000,000 in India ○ 5,475,000 in China ○ 930,000 in Hong Kong ○ 912,000 in Korea
Social Selling Opportunity
Search Volume Trends (Keyword = LinkedIn)
Social Selling Opportunity
Age of B2B Buyers on LinkedIn
Australia
New Zealand
Social Selling Opportunity
Login Activity of B2B Buyers on LinkedIn
Source: Quantcast.com (August 2014)
Between 41% - 44% of ANZ LinkedIn Users are either “Regular Visitors” or “Addicted Visitors”
Target Audience: Chief Procurement Officer / CPO / Director Procurement
469 C-level throughout ANZ; 292 of these work for
organisations > 1000 staff
Target Audience: Procurement – any level
8.1k – anyone with
Procurement in their job title
throughout ANZ; 4.8k of these work for organisations > 1000 staff
Target Audience: Chief Financial Officers / CFOs
5,731 CFOs throughout ANZ; 1,179 of these work for
organisations > 1000 staff
Target Audience: Chief Information Officers / CIOs
Social Selling Opportunity
1,467 CIOs throughout ANZ; 551 of these work for
Target Audience: Chief Marketing Officers / CMOs
Social Selling Opportunity
541 LinkedIn members serve as CMOs throughout ANZ; 207 of these work for
Engaging Buyers
So How Do B2B Professionals Engage
Through Social Selling?
Company-to-Person
● “Company-to-Person” is the dominant engagement model today
● Examples of Company-to-Person Social Selling:
○ LinkedIn Company Page
○ Twitter Page
○ Google+ Page
○ Facebook Page
○ Corporate Blog
● Engagement and lead generation is often limited due to amorphous brand
Paradigm Shift: Person-to-Person
● Social Networks were designed from the ground up, for
Person-to-Person engagement
● The majority of B2B relationships and deal flow are based on
Person-to-Person engagement
○People always rely on, and buy, from other people during B2B sales engagements
Therefore:
● Social Networks are an ideal channel for B2B
Social Selling Models
Google Enterprise:
Who is Google Enterprise?
Case Study: Google
●
Google Products & Technology for Work
●
Packaged up for the Enterprise:
○ Google Apps for Business
○ Google Maps for Business
○ Google Search for Business
○ Cloud Platform
●
Key Challenge: highlighting the relevance of the
Google brand for work, to Senior Executives
Case Study: Google
Why Social Selling?
● Pinpoint the right decision maker
● Overcome “list fatigue”
● Highlight the Google brand for Enterprises
● Build trust => Build relationships
Process Overview (Snapshot)
Case Study: Google
Build Social Seller Profile
Month 1 Month 2 Month 3
Target Audience Identification
Make Connection Requests
Share Relevant Content (Brand Building + Demand Generation)
Request Meeting
Discovery Meetings
Target Audience Identification Advanced Search Parameters: ● Job Title + Variations ● Company Name ● Regional Locations
Case Study: Google
Social Selling Models
Make Connection Requests
Case Study: Google
All invitations must:
●Be Personalised
●Show Context and
Relevance between the
Seller and Buyer
●Be supported by a
strong Profile
●Cory’s connection rate with CIOs and CMOs: 66.31%
Share Content (Brand, Demand, and Inbound Lead Generation) Brand Building (Market Trust) Demand Generation (Market Need)
Case Study: Google
Amplification
Inbound Lead Generation
Request Meetings
Key:
The Social Seller converts the Market Trust + Market Need they have developed into meetings.
Case Study: Google
The Social Seller sent
Personalised,
Contextualised, and Relevant
Meeting Requests to all of his connections.
41.82% of his connections agreed to meet him.
Cory generated dozens of meetings with senior decision makers, resulting in a large sales
Anecdote
The Social Seller’s Feedback
● Tone of meetings was open and friendly
●One-on-one meetings: Top-Down Selling vs. Traditional Bottom-up
●Business challenges are discussed
Tracking, Capture, Measurement, and ROI
●You can capture + score buyers’ digital language (clicks, downloads, web page visits) using Marketing Automation
●You can capture buyers’ thoughts and sentiments using Social Listening platforms
●You can incorporate this data into social-enabled CRM ●Provide greater buyer information to your sales force
●Disrupt your competitors
● The B2B buying process has been disrupted forever ● Social Networks:
○ Provide transparent access to your target audiences
○ Are a real-life engagement channel
○ Enable brand building, demand generation, and lead generation
● Person-to-Person Social Selling differentiates you from competitors ● You can track and measure No. Connections, Meetings, Pipeline, and
Revenue
● When rolled out at a large scale, Social Selling can transform your sales
force, and your organisation
