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Introduction

We are in the middle of a social revolution.

A new age of the social customer has arrived, marked by an ever-expanding stream of blog posts, status alerts, tweets, and “likes.” Social networking users have surpassed email users, and 22 percent of time spent online is on social media sites. This new order has radical implications for salespeople. The power once held by thesales rep as the keeper of expert knowledge is shifting to the customer. The customer is now in the driver’s seat, with everything from pricing to product information available in real time from trusted social connections. But sales reps are also better o . The same social revolution that is empowering buyers is providing salespeople with an unprecedented supply of sales intelligence as well as withtools to strengthen and extend their connections. According to a study by Cone Inc., 56 percent of U.S. consumers feel both a stronger connection with and better served by companies when they can interact with them in a social media environment. Sales reps who adopt social technologies say they enjoy greater reach, higher productivity, more meaningful relationships, and inevitably, they sell more.This eBook examines how some of today’s most successful reps approach social sales. Among others, you’ll meet a wine salesman with almost a million Twitter followers, a global manufacturer who is taking orders on

56% of buyers feel stronger connections to brands that engage them on social media.
Facebook, and a storage saleswoman who used Twitter and other tools to exceed her quota by 200percent. We’ll discuss the role of social media mainstays like blogs, Facebook, forums, LinkedIn, and Twitter along with tools for collaboration on private employee social networks. And we’ll look ahead to highly networked sales channels and rich customer databases—complete with social insights— that we believe will become the norm in the near future.

Social Customer ROI Guide

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Get in theGame
My needs and objectives My technology environment

Salespeople should know more about:
0% 20% 40% 60% 80%

If there is a single gripe common to customers everywhere,
it is that sales reps don’t take the time to nd out what they need before launching into a pitch. During IDC’s recent “The Buyer Speaks” survey, which included 339 IT buyers, nearly three-quarters of respondents complainedthat sales reps didn’t know enough about their companies or their industries to be e ective. Luckily, social media is here to help. Research used to be the loneliest stage of selling. You’d go to a prospect’s website, read the marketing materials, and try to incorporate the nuggets you found into a PowerPoint. If you had a sales content or CRM system, you’d log in and hope to emerge before lunchwith a scrap of data to help shape your game plan. Overachievers might dial up a prospect’s customers, competitors, or vendors. But realistically, most salespeople only had time to shout over to the next cube. Social sales is not only more fun, it’s much more productive. Instead of cold-calling a list of outdated leads with a generic sales pitch, you can identify the members of a decision-makingteam and reach out to them with a custom proposal tailored to their particular business goals. Rather than digging through old emails in search of everything from product specs to winning presentations, you can log into an internal collaboration tool and nd everything at your ngertips. Quick tip #1: Put yourself in your customer’s shoes. Where would you go to learn about your products or services?Social Customer ROI Guide

My timeline

My organizational structure

75% of IT buyers said sales don’t know enough about their industry.
Get in the Game Know Your Customers’ Hangouts Make Yourself “Like”-able First Friends, Then Leads Connect with Social Intelligence Tweet-up Your Pipeline Get Together, Sell Smarter
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Rackspace social channels by volume of posts

Know Your...