Sell like a Kardashian? 

Social Selling: A Digital Selling Primer

by Gerald George Mannikarote, MBBS MBA

When Kim posts something she uses on Instagram, people go out in droves to buy it.  You scroll through Facebook, you see people telling you how you can make make money with an online business. As you go through SnapChat stories, you are plastered with sponsored ads.  You may be contacted on LinkedIn to take advantage of a new business opportunity. 

With the entrenchment of social media in our lives, there’s a lot of talk about digital marketing.  Most of us are quite aware of digital marketing- Facebook ads, promoted posts on Twitter and Instagram, etc.  But what is digital selling?  Let’s explore that today.

Digital selling is the act of conversion of digital marketing efforts into a transaction or a sale.  This essentially moves away from exposure to an organization’s or an individual’s brand, products, or services, to engagement and ultimately a sale.  Think of digital marketing is getting a lot of followers and digital selling is when those followers buy something from you.

According to digitalsellingconference.com, 75% of people using social media outsell their peers.  This statistic shows you that there’s value in using social media for selling.  So how do you leverage social media to sell?

First of all, it is important to draw parallels between digital selling and traditional selling. There’s a marketing component, pre-call planning, introduction, qualifying questions, value proposition, handling objections, and closing. We’ll leave the marketing component out of this discussion- there’s a ton of information out there going over social media marketing.  You’re welcome to take a look at that on your own, or if you’re interested in reading about it here, let me know in the comments section.

Pre-call planning

Similar to preparing for your traditional sales call, it is important to prepare for your digital sales call.  You need to not only understand your product, but you also need to understand your customer.  Develop an avatar of your ideal customer.  Think of that customer’s needs.  What is their lifestyle? What kind of businesses are they interested in?  How will your product or service help them?  Will your product or service fulfill any of their needs? Once you understand your product or service and your ideal customer, you will be prepared to begin your sale.

Introduction

Introduce yourself, your product, and/ or your service. Explain who you are.  Explain what the product or service is.  Thank the visitor for coming to your site.

Qualifying questions

Pose questions to your prospective customer. Based on the avatar you developed, ask questions of the customers to see how much they are interested in your offering.  Obviously, being an online platform, you will have to provide the answers to the questions you pose.  But based on your avatar, your answers should be tailored as if the customer would answer it.

If you are engaging the customer via a messaging platform such as LinkedIn Messenger, Online Website Chat, or Facebook Messenger, you can pose questions directly to the customer to gauge their interest.  Through such an engagement, your chances of converting your prospective customer into a paying customer.

Value proposition

This is an important aspect of digital selling.  The value you propose to your avatar should be very clearly stated through out your website as well as your social media and digital marketing.  There should be no question of the value you will be offering your potential customers.  

Handling objections

Think about your avatar.  What sort of objections would they pose?  How would you handle those objections?  Write those down.  Post them on a separate section on your site.  As your prospective customer moves through the sales funnel, guide them through the objections section.  By the time they’ve read, heard, or watched how you’ve handled those objections, they should be ready to purchase your offering.  Once again, if you are using a messaging platform to engage your prospective customer, you can directly handle their objections.

Closing

Just as in real life, don’t forget to close!  You may have made a great introduction. You may have qualified your prospective customer.  You may have proposed great value.  You may have handled objections. However, if you don’t ask for the business, your prospective customer just might go somewhere else!  Make sure you ask.  Whether it’s through your online sales funnel, or if it’s through engagement via a messaging platform, ask for the business!

Thanks for reading this piece.  I hope this helped you get started in the world of digital selling. You may not have the influence of Kim, but just maybe in the digital space, you just might engage and sell to your customer like a seasoned salesperson.

What tips would you offer someone in regards to digital selling?  Leave your thoughts in the comments.  If you would like to receive a FREE infographic on the digital sales process, please contact me at jerrydmann@dmanntraining.com and put ‘Digital Sales Process Infographic’ in the subject line.