Here’s Why Content Is Essential for Social Selling

When launching a social selling program, what’s one of the biggest mistakes a sales team can make? Content. Many sales leaders either dismiss the importance of content, or they overlook the need to create a content strategy for their sales teams. In so doing, sales leaders hinder their sales teams’ chances of success.

Used correctly, content will help your sales reps rise above the countless sales messages that buyers receive. It will help reps build and maintain relationships with customers in the digital world. It is the magnet that attracts new customers. It is the fuel for customer engagement.

Bottom line: Content is essential for modern sales. That’s why we’ve assembled a library of resources on the topic. Enjoy!

Being good at phone calls is no longer enough for a sales rep. The best salespeople position themselves as knowledgeable experts and consultants for their buyers.

As The Challenger Customer notes, the best sales reps push buyers to think differently and to engage buyers with new insights. They don’t just blast product messages at their customers. This transition can be tricky for many sales reps, but when salespeople are armed with relevant content, their job is much easier. This blog post outlines a few ways that content can make the modern sales process run smoother.

Users of sales content average 69% more revenue growth year-over-year compared to their peers.

But here’s the thing: marketing and sales enablement teams cannot throw content at reps, cross their fingers, and see what sticks. They need to be deliberate in curating content that will work for both their sales reps and for their buyers. This post looks at five classic examples of where your sales content has gone wrong.

Social selling requires salespeople to think less like cold callers and more like content marketers, for content is a social seller’s best asset.

Through blog posts, infographics, videos, and more, sales reps can attract the attention of their buyers, educate them, and spark engagement. Learn more in the slide deck below:

LinkedIn can be a great way to attract new customers and nurture existing ones. Not sure how to do that? This post provides a short list of dos and dont’s for sharing content on LinkedIn. For example, did you know that you shouldn’t link your Twitter and LinkedIn accounts? Or did you know that sharing only company-created content can turn off your buyers?

How should sales teams use content? How should sales and marketing teams store content? What types of content will resonate with buyers?

The Aberdeen Group tackled those questions in a recent report, and this blog post summarizes their findings.

Before sharing content online, social sellers should ask themselves…

• Will my customers care about this video or blog post or article or infographic?
• Which customers will care about it?
• Why will they care about it?
• What’s the best way to share this piece of content?
• Should I share a general update? Or should I send personalized messages to individual buyers?

To help you navigate those questions, we created a flowchart, which should help sellers determine when, where, and how they should share content.