One of the main objections I come against in relation to Social Media is “I can see how Social Media leads to awareness, but it doesn’t lead to sales”

And the very simple answer to that is – Altrincham HQ wouldn’t be in business if social media didn’t lead to sales

We work with a lot of small businesses and although the metrics such as followers, likes, reach, engagement make a client smile – the metrics that ensure our business relationship continues are cold hard sales and cash in tills

So does social media sell? Yes – and here’s our guide on how to sell via social media

1. Build A Relationship
Every single person reading this article knows within 2 seconds that a sales call has come through – often it starts with a thinly veiled scripted attempt at building rapport

I see similar attempts used on Social Media and it’s easy and transparent to see

But rapport and relationship building when done authentically is the biggest chance you have with making social media work for your business

Every time you get a new follower on Twitter or a connection on LinkedIn, it’s a chance to start a conversation and develop that relationship beyond mere numbers

I recently hit 10,000 hyper-local followers on Twitter on our business account and the audience keeps growing because I always treat my latest follower like my very first follower – I’m massively appreciative that anybody chooses to follow us and listen to our words of wisdom, so I open up the conversation and try to help people as much as possible

And after that initial conversation, it’s about keeping in touch on a regular basis

Build Relationships and out-care the competition – there are dozens of people offering your service in Manchester at the same level of competency, so caring enough to talk to people goes a long way

2. Establish A Reputation
Are you the go to person in your industry? Are you dominating the market place? Are you first or last?

Establishing a reputation for being the best at what you do is an essential part of Social Media and being a content producing machine is integral to that

At primary school we were all content creators that got rewarded for our efforts and somewhere along the way at High School / University we started to judge people by their ability to remember facts and figures

If you’re a business owner looking to establish your reputation you need rediscover your inner child and be producing content on a daily basis

Images, quotes, blogs and content curation should be part of your daily social media marketing plan designed to position yourself as the market leader

All this keeps you at the front of your customers minds and subliminally sells your services until the point where your target market are ready to buy

The business owner that produces the most quality content in their sector will over time become the 1st business people think off

The hierachies are changing with Social Media and it’s not neccessary about who spends the most money – it’s about who’s the most visible

3. Deliver Social Proof
So you have relationship, you have the reputation built on the advice and information you share … and now you have to deliver Social Proof

Social Proof are the stories you tell backed up with the bank of testimonials you have on review sites

If you follow the process below
* XXX came to me with this problem
* This was the solution we offered
* These were the results from it
* And this is what they said

It’s the classic storytelling of a beginning, middle and end – and you should have a bank of these tales with testimonials on reviews sites from LinkedIn, Freeindex or your industry specific website

Testimonials are absolutely key to your social selling and the amplification of testimonials across social media will increase the number of sales / leads you bring in

If you have zero or few testimonials you are at a massive competitive disadvantage – there is no reason in the world that if you do you job well, you should not have a bank of testimonials

4. Ask For The Sale
Repeat after me – it’s ok to sell on Social Media

Clients are wise enough to know that your reason for being on social media isn’t just to share content and have conversations

They’re on social media for exactly the same reason as you – they’re using social media as a vehicle to sell stuff

If every day you go out of your way to help others and you share tips, advice and useful articles – then trust me, you have the right to ask for a sale

Don’t be afraid to sell that course, service, new offer – some times all people need is that direct prompt to get in touch

The key is knowing to ask for that sale after you have everything else in place – never try to hard sell in the 1st interaction

5. Convert The Email / Phone Call
Unless you have an e-commerce set up where people can buy or book online – most sales conversions will end up via email or phone call

And those are entirely different skill sets to social media, but you can prepare yourself for when the enquiries come through

* Have a list of questions that help to convert
* Think of all possible objections and answers to them
* Think of what is your closing one liner

And work on the close for the sale whilst they’re in buy mode

Sometimes sales don’t happen simply because you didn’t ask “shall we firm this up and put it in the diary”

CHAT TO US
Chat to about Social Media for YOUR business so we can better understand YOU and what would work best for YOU

We can only find out what is unique to your business by chatting to you

Please call Alex on 07806774279 or email alex@altrinchamhq.co.uk

Alex

Alex McCann is owner of Altrincham HQ – a social media management and training company based in Altrincham, Cheshire that has worked with 100s of local business developing their social media strategy. Alex has 350+ LinkedIn testimonials and is ranked number 1 for Social Media Marketing in the UK via independent customer reviews on Freeindex.