There are four distinct stages of Social Selling, which is the new way business development professionals are getting the edge. Embrace these steps, make them part of your daily routine, and you will see significant results. What are they Sharing ? Need to learn LinkedIn, use it and monetize it to grow your business? Watch this eLearning Class for FREE LinkedInWebinar.info Password SSL Clearly identifying and listening to your target market, their industry, clients and competition is the foundation of social selling. Using social platforms to identify articles your prospects “like”, blogs they are sharing, discussions they are participating in, awards they have won, charities they support, boards they are on, whom they follow and their new connections, allows you to understand what matters to them quicker and easier than ever before. When you know what they care about is the foundation for the other three stages in Social Selling, so when you get this down, you will be successful. What is Social Selling? What is Trending in Their Industry ? Google Them! Who are they following? Listen to Your Clients & Prospects Client- Centric Profiles Educate Your Target Audience Thought Leadershi p & Original Content Educating your prospects, clients and followers establishes your thought leadership and subject matter expertise. Blogging is an easy way to share knowledge and offer tips and strategies to your readers. Educating prospects can begin with a customer-centric LinkedIn profile, where leveraging the summary to provide value is a simple way to begin building a strong reputation. The insights that you share in updates, publications and conversations will enhance your presence and ultimately attract and engage your target market. Engage on Their Terms! Provide Value First! Prospect Your Target Market Hang Out Where They’re Hanging Out! Build Relationships & Trust…The Clients Will Follow Naturally The key to positioning you and your company well is to use your research during the listening phase in your prospecting meetings. Be sure to Google your prospects and their company, search industry trends and use their LinkedIn profile to help you build rapport. In addition, follow all the potential influencers and decision makers, company pages as well as other online and social sites to have full visibility into current events and happenings. Being prepared will ultimately position you to be the subject matter expert they need, set the bar and influence their buying decisions. Position Yourself Share Thought Leadership & Original Content Research Every You Are Meeting Be the Subject Matter Expert Linkedin.com/in/brynnetillman | SocialSalesLink.com | Copyright © Social Sales Link, LLC – All rights reserved. Participate in Relevant Discussion s Share Valuabl e Insights Finding the right prospects and engaging in conversation is essential to be a successful social seller. There are many platforms that offer business development opportunities such as Facebook fan pages and Pinterest for consumers, LinkedIn for B2B and Twitter and Google+ that overlap in both worlds. LinkedIn is my social selling tool of choice as it allows me to search and filter my connections’ connections and identify who can make introductions on my behalf. Want to make it really work well? Give first. Social selling at is core is about giving, content, insights and introductions. Know 80% of What They Need Before the First Sales Meeting