How do you become great at social selling? Don’t try to sell! Can it really be that simple? I am by no means an expert on this topic, so everything you are going to read from here out is purely my opinion and should be questioned 😆 .

One of the most overused phrases I hear from “experts” is “You should be telling you’re story through social. That will help you sell you and your brand”. While I don’t think that statement is completely wrong, I think people are missing the bigger picture. The one thing that is going to help you the most with your aspirations of social selling is the relationships you build. When all is said and done it is about the conversations you have and the relationships you build with people. Social media is just another tool that you can use to make connections with people.

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We are past the days where you can just jump into a conversation on twitter and tell them the reasons why your solution is the best. Customers People do not respond well to that. Instead of doing that, listen to/monitor that conversation and go write a general blog post on how your solution can solve a problem that they are having. Everyone knows that once a person is researching new solutions/products the first thing they are going to do is search online for reviews and opinions of others. Now if you have done a good job in writing this blog then they will stumble across your blog and hopefully engage with you and ask questions and then it turn you will answer…..this is what we call a conversation. However, in this conversation you have to be careful not to “sell” to this person. Answer their questions honestly whether your product/solution is the best fit or not, because we know that there are times when it may not be the best solution for that person and their needs. Once you do this, you will start to earn the trust of those people and believe it or not the next time they are having a problem at work or someone they know is have a problem they will have you (and your solution) top of mind and THAT will help with social selling.

So now you are probably thinking “Ok, but how will this help me get leads?” This is a tough question. How many times have you filled out a lead gen form truthfully? Not that many right? However, I think that if when I am researching your product and I end up on your blog or company blog and you have given me all the information I need in determining whether your product might solve my problem then I will gladly give you my information. But if you mislead me with “Click here to see how ABC can help XYZ” then I have to fill out a form to get the information, then you are getting a fake name and an email I will use just to get the information.

At the end of the day all you have are connections with people or groups of people. It doesn’t matter if you use the phone, email, social, or whatever may be next….the tools change and the connections stay. Those are my thoughts, now you tell me yours 🙂 .