"The digital landscape has changed buyers' habits. Sales professionals now need to develop relationships with decision-makers through social networks to reach them early in the decision making process. Social Selling provides a practical, step-by-step outline for harnessing the skills and techniques necessary to achieve this, including developing a high quality community, building trust, developing authority and influence, and connecting with changemakers. It also discusses enterprise implementation of a social selling strategy, maturity and investment models necessary, risk and governance, and technology platforms. The chapters feature tips, checklists, and theoretical examples"-- Provided by publisher.

"As the digital landscape has changed buyers' habits it's increasingly difficult to reach them early enough in their decision-making process using traditional sales methods. Developing relationships with decision-makers through social networks has become an increasingly critical skill - enabling sales professionals to engage early on and 'hack' the buying process. Social Selling provides a practical, step-by-step blueprint for harnessing these specific and proven techniques including: - How to use networks purposefully to build social trust and create a high quality community - How to develop real influence and authority in your subject area and connect with change-makers - How to scale the social selling strategy across an organization including maturity and investment models, risk and governance, and technology platforms"-- Provided by publisher.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction to social selling -- Community and tribalism. The importance of owning your community ; Building your community ; What community is not ; Summary ; Bonus material -- Your identity within social networks. LinkedIn ; Twitter ; Summary -- Talking to strangers. 'Networking in real life' example ; Listening ; Social graph ; Researching ; Talking ; Summary -- Controlling influence. What is influence? ; Your celebrity ; YouTubers ; The structure of influence ; How do you create loved-up influencers? ; Control and trust ; Modelling ; Summary -- The mechanics of traditional sales. A quick word about technology adoption curves ; The mechanics of networking ; The mechanics of social networks ; Summary -- Moving from an analogue to a social mindset. So what do you listen for? ; Signals--what are they? ; What is your own brand DNA online? ; How do you find content? ; The 4-1-1 rule ; Online and offline community ; Social selling best practice ; Summary ; Bonus material -- Selling the idea of social selling and measuring success. The opportunity ; Common objections and how you get around them ; How to position social selling with your executive team ; Return on investment (ROI) and criteria for success ; Different types of metrics ; Finally, some questions you should be asking yourself ; Summary ; Bonus material -- How to use technology to your advantage. Research ; Tools that automate and schedule ; Content curation ; Content creation ; Measuring influence and amplification ; Summary -- Digital maturity. Social media is all about trust ; Social selling maturity ; How to implement a social selling change programme ; Optimization ; Social initiatives ; Summary -- Five steps to getting you started. The Changemaker Method ; Getting started ; Step 1: Setting up shop ; Step 2: Learning to listen ; Step 3: Building authority and influence ; Step 4: Optimizing ; Step 5: Enhancing collaboration ; Summary.

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