Incorporating a Social Selling strategy to boost the commercial development of a sales team must respond to a corporate commercial strategy.
Social Selling is the implementation of a commercial development methodology that all members of the sales force must use to accelerate their commercial results. In a homogeneous manner and in response to the corporate commercial strategy.
Social Selling is establishing commercial activities on digital channels by the sales force, it is opening additional commercial dialogues with customers, it is finding other ways and means to stay in touch with customers and especially with NON-customers.
Should Social Selling be a corporate initiative or an individual initiative?
The development of a Social Selling strategy must be corporate (launched and monitored by the company) and should not be left to the discretion of each individual in our sales force, as it is possible that, despite their good intentions, they may not work the digital channels in accordance with the corporate sales strategy.
Therefore, Social Selling developed corporately or #CorporateSocialSelling is a functional strategy that must be defined within the corporate commercial strategy.
What should a #CorporateSocialSelling strategy include?
Like any functional commercial strategy, it must be consistent with the Commercial Strategic Plan, and it should be established on which customers the sales force should act digitally.
It is necessary to establish how to develop digital activity in each of the commercial processes that the sales force must carry out, and in each phase, define the digital activities to be developed. (The sales forces do not incorporate new commercial activities by divine intervention; they need to learn and practice to naturally incorporate new skills.)
It should also include goal setting, that is, it should precisely establish what challenges the sales force must achieve digitally and within what timeframes.
Every goal-setting process implicitly involves the establishment of KPIs or performance indicators.
In the strategic development of #CorporateSocialSelling, it is also necessary to establish and review, in the monthly meetings between the sales manager and each member of their team, the activities carried out by them, and the results obtained, setting action plans for the next commercial period.
Ultimately, the implementation of a Corporate Social Selling strategy or #Corporatesocialselling requires a period of vision and strategic planning from the company’s commercial management.
