5 reasons your sales team should give up the phone and start selling socially

1. In Singapore the only calls I get which I don’t recognise are from cold callers.

I ignore them all. On the odd occasion I lapse and think that I might be missing out on something magical, I instantly regret it when it’s either a wealth-management salesperson or a bank. Both get hung up on pretty quick. 

I am not alone. 90 per cent of C-suite executives say they never respond to cold calls (source: Harvard Business Review). Cold calling is dead.

2. There are almost 2 million people on LinkedIn in Singapore.

Basically you can reach anyone who is anyone on LinkedIn either directly or indirectly through a connection. 78 per cent of salespeople using social media outsell their peers (source: Social Media and Sales Quota Survey). You are almost 5 times more likely to schedule a first meeting if you have a personal LinkedIn connection (source: Sales Benchmark Series).

3. LinkedIn enables you to learn everything you need to about the person who wants to do business with you.

Once you receive a message from them on LinkedIn you can check out exactly who they are and whether you wish to do business with them:

• Their profile:  No photo and they are a 'no'; fewer than 100 connections and they are a 'no'
• Connections: Are they connected to people you know? Can you ask your connections about them?
• Their company page: No company page and they are a 'no'
• Their content-marketing strategy: No blog, no recent updates, they’re a 'no'

Then and only then you will find an answer about whether you feel that person and that company is one that you wish to be doing business with

4. Buyers make decisions using social media.

75 per cent of B2B buyers and 84 per cent of C-level/vice president (VP) executives surveyed by IDC use social media to make purchasing decisions, and 56 per cent decide to buy before they even meet the contact.

In other words before you even meet someone they have already decided whether to do business with you. The rest is down to you, your personality and the rapport you build. It’s also down to price. The rest is done.

5. Social buying correlates with buying influence, according to the IDC survey.

The average B2B buyer who uses social media for buying support is more senior, has a bigger budget, makes more frequent purchases and has a greater span of buying control than a buyer who does not use social media.

This means when you just think of the data that is at your fingertips on LinkedIn, you can find anyone, in any country, in any position, in any company, with any number of years’ experience, with any specific keywords, even down to the city, university and your mutual connections.

The data is all there on LinkedIn. It’s how you use it that is key. Anyone would trust someone using this kind of data on LinkedIn to spend their money over someone not using social media.