I think if you asked 10 people you would get 10 different answers to that question. The funny thing to me is that Sales is inherently social to begin with. I think it should actually be called “Social Media Selling” to clarify the new way of interacting and “selling” people with all the new tools and resources we have available to us in today’s world.

I was fortunate and honored to be recognized recently by Forbes as one of the Top 30 Social Salespeople in the World which was great but it got me thinking – why and how did I get on this list?  I wasn’t going for it. I didn’t even know about it. I know so many people who use services or pay to get more Twitter followers or #hashtag ever other word to try and get picked up by anyone and everyone to improve their status and ranking on Klout or whatever. I also know people who all they do is share other people’s content which is good but I personally like original thought and opinions. Lastly, there are the people whose twitter feeds are littered with how many miles they ran that day and where they went to eat, etc. which I find completely annoying. I don’t do any of that but yet I still made the list which means I guess I’m doing something right. So I thought I would share my thoughts on what social selling means to me and how to approach it in case anyone was interested.

There are two main components of social selling in my opinion. The first is using social media tools like Twitter, FB, Linkedin and whatever else to look for things to make connection to people you want to target and get meetings with. For example, I see the CEO of one of my target accounts tweeted something about his or her focus on operational efficiencies in the coming year. If my product or service and help with operational efficiencies then I can either tweet them about it or send them an e-mail explaining the value I might be able to add to their situation based on what they said. The whole point is to look for information about what people or companies are doing or saying so you can be highly relevant to them when you reach out. This is why I set up a dummy FB and Twitter account to follow all my target prospects and executives. I also sign up to their blogs and use products like Feedly to aggregate all the information about my clients in one place. Lastly I set them up on tools like Google Alerts, InsideView and Gagein to track my clients and prospects and get information about them to come to me.

The other component of social selling is about building your own personal brand so people eventually come to you and see you as an industry expert, not just a sales person. This takes more time and doesn’t provide the instant gratification that we seemingly all crave more and more these days. It’s all about adding value to your target market in my opinion. The whole ‘give to get’ mentality. This is why I write my blogs and always try to add value by not just talking about the theory of something but actually giving people useful tips on what to do and how to do it (example – set up a dummy FB and Twitter account and follow your top prospects, use tools like InsideView and Gagein, etc.).  The videos tips I put together are all meant to be actionable and give away a lot of the content I train on. I post or re-tweet articles not just about sales but about business topics that I think are important to my target market (example – The Top 10 Strategic CIO Issues For 2014). I join groups on Linked-in and answer questions people have without pointing them back to my website or telling them I can help solve their problem if they call me. Lastly, I only follow people I find take the same approach that I do.  When I see people who are following 10,000 people but only have 100 followers I know they are not looking to add value, they are just looking to consume information which is fine but not my approach. By taking this approach and focusing on adding value to my target market I’ve been able to build up my social profile to the point where opportunities are starting to come to me and stuff like the Forbes recognition happens without me even knowing about it.

So, with all that, take time to think through your “Social Sales” approach. My recommendation would be not only to look for information you can use to connect with people but also position yourself as an industry expert by sharing information that is relevant. This will help you throughout your career no matter what job you have. #Now #do #me #a #favor #and #go #tweet #and #repost #the #crap #out #of #this #article.  Good luck and happy selling.