AMP Up Your Social media   /     AMP Up Your Social Media #58: Brian Burns on Social Selling

Description

With the rise of marketing automation, sales VPs at software/SaaS startups are intent on tracking and monitoring multiple KPIs – outbound calls, trials started, emails sent vs. opened, etc.. But, there’s only one KPI that counts – revenue, according to Brian Burns, a 25-year enterprise software sales veteran, and the author of the widely read book Selling In A New Market Space. Burns recently joined Glenn Gaudet on the Amp Up Your Social Media podcast to discuss software/SaaS sales in today’s sales environment of marketing automation and social media selling.Continue Reading → The post AMP Up #58: Brian Burns on Social Selling appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

Summary

With the rise of marketing automation, sales VPs at software/SaaS startups are intent on tracking and monitoring multiple KPIs – outbound calls, trials started, emails sent vs. opened, etc.. But, there’s only one KPI that counts – revenue, according to Brian Burns, a 25-year enterprise software sales veteran, and the author of the widely read book Selling In A New Market Space.
Burns recently joined Glenn Gaudet on the Amp Up Your Social Media podcast to discuss software/SaaS sales in today’s sales environment of marketing automation and social media selling.

* Finding Your Ideal Sales Targets And Where They Spend Their Time Online:Sales teams need to find the person of entry into an account. Who in a company has the problem that your product or service solves? Once you’ve identified those typical prospects, you need to figure out where they live on the Internet. Are they discussing problems on LinkedIn? Are they active on Twitter? Where do they look for answers to the problems that your company solves? Are they reading specific blogs?
* Creating Content: Smart content marketers will create content that’s open and honest about the problems that their software solves. Effective content will add humor or entertainment to those real problems. And, it’s important that the content created is not too self-involved and talks only about your product.
* Sharing Content for Social Selling: Effective social sales people will share quality content. But, it’s important not to just share your content. You need to share content that’s adjacent to you and relevant for the sales targets you identified in the initial sales process outlined above.
* Social Sales Are No Different Than The Real World – Don’t Be That Guy: Amidst all the marketing automation and social selling tools, we’ve forgotten that people are people. You don’t go up to someone at a social event, give them your business and give them your elevator pitch. The same applies in the social media world. Be willing to help people and engage with them and, naturally the topic of what you do, and what your company offers, will come up.
* Cold Calls Are Almost Worthless: How many people pick up a phone call from a number they don’t recognize? Almost no one. So cold calling for sales is not efficient. With social selling, you have context and connections when you contact a sales prospect. “We met on social media. We’ve traded comments on relevant articles. I re-shared a timely blog post that you originally shared a few weeks ago . . .”

Connect with Brian Burns on LinkedIn or Twitter.
Subscribe and get the AMP UP Your Social Media podcast on iTunes or listen below. Tweet about the show using #AUYSM or Tweet at us @AMPUPSocial. AMP UP Your Social Media is a proud member of the FIR Podcast Network.
About Brian Burns

After spending 20 plus years selling enterprise software for 12 VC backed start-ups, Burns is now a sales consultant focused on helping a handful of companies. He works with leadership teams and sales executives to dominate their market segments.
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