This is a mega name-drop episode! Greg Hyer and Martin Brossman rattle off 35 amazing social selling tools that sales professionals can use to support their sales engagements.

Content Curation Tools

Feedly

Pocket

Google Alerts

Google News

Klout

Pinterest

Paper.li

Content Distribution Tools

Buffer App

Hootsuite

Saturn Social

Oktopost

SproutSocial

SlideShare

Wistia

Content Creation Tools

Movy

Twitter Video

Snapseed for Android / Snapseed for iOS

Prezi

MindMeister

Autodesk Pixlr

Social Engagement Tools

Twitter

LinkedIn

Facebook

Google+

Speedshare

JoinMe

Social Selling Analytics Tools

Twitter Analytics

Google Analytics

Bit.ly

Hootsuite

Goo.gl

Martin Brossman and Greg Hyer discuss content curation as a social selling technique. A question came from a fan on our Facebook page about how to start with curating content and where to find it.

They discuss how to use content during a sales engagement. Starting with using content that speaks to a broad problem or big idea and narrowing the focus along the journey. Greg’s perspective on using curated content is like prescribing medicine and consuming the recommended doses until the the prospect is cured. “To Curate is to Cure.”

Martin relates content curation to an experience he had while taking an improv comedy class in Raleigh. Your audience will never get it if you don’t put what you’re trying to say in context. Context is key.

Greg and Martin also welcome Carlos Gil to LinkedIn. He is the new Sr. Social Media Marketing Manager and replaces Koka Sexton who has move into a new role at LinkedIn that involves a heavy amount of content marketing. You can find Carlos on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Also, be sure to visit our latest creation, SellingB2B.com. There you will find B2B Sales articles and questions shared by a growing community of B2B Sales professionals. It’s free to join!

Run-time: 15:34

The Linking into Sales Social Selling Podcast is a professional development podcast geared towards sales and marketing professionals that use social media tools and networks to support the sales process and help them become more proficient in social selling.

* Follow us on Twitter: Twitter.com/linkingin2sales

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Greg Hyer and Martin Brossman sit down to discuss the recent announcement from Google about the changes happening to Google+ and how it’s being broken up in to three apps, Photos, Streams and Hangouts.

Next they discuss some recent changes to LinkedIn and how they will affect your social selling routine. The changes discussed include

1. Changes to your activity feed to help you find more engagement opportunities

2. Changes to search including the commercial search limit for non premium accounts.

3. Changes to Groups including the removal of the hero image, top contributors and the removal of multiple featured posts.

4. LinkedIn releases the Connected app for Android to help users find more engagement opportunities. LinkedIn has discontinued the Connected mobile app.

5. LinkedIn announces the new Lead Accelerator advertising platform for B2B businesses with more than 20,000 visitors.

Run-time: 16:36

The Linking into Sales Social Selling Podcast is a professional development podcast geared towards sales and marketing professionals that use social media tools and networks to support the sales process and help them become more proficient in social selling.

* Follow us on Twitter: Twitter.com/linkingin2sales

* Join our LinkedIn Group: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/2450586

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Greg Hyer and Martin Brossman discuss how a salesperson can use Twitter for social selling.  Twitter is a social network where members share short messages, called tweets, about whatever they want. Greg and Martin share several techniques that a salesperson can use to while social selling with Twitter.

Greg and Martin discuss the recent improvements that Twitter has made to their product. These include group direct messages and 30-second video tweets. Group direct messages allow you to include up to 10 people in a private direct message exchange. The video tweets allow you to tweet and reply to other members with up to 30 seconds of video.

Greg and Martin discuss why the re-established relationship between Google and Twitter is important for SEO and brand credibility.

Listen to discover how salespeople can build their professional brand, align with the company brand and establish themselves as an expert. Learn how to use Twitter lists to build lead engagement lists and develop relationships with potential customers.

Run-time: 21:01

The Linking into Sales Social Selling Podcast is a professional development podcast geared towards sales and marketing professionals that use social media tools and networks to support the sales process and help them become more proficient in social selling.

* Follow us on Twitter: Twitter.com/linkingin2sales

* Join our LinkedIn Group: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/2450586

* Add us to your Google+ Circle: https://plus.google.com/+LinkingIntoSales

* Subscribe to us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/LinkingSales

* Talk with us on Facebook: Facebook.com/linkingintosales

This is a special edition of the Linking into Sales Social Selling Podcast. Pipeliner CRM’s Richard Young and Martha Neumeister talk with Greg Hyer on their #SalesEU Twitter Chat and Google Hangout on Air about why Social Selling is about opening, not closing.

Here are the questions that Richard and Martha ask Greg.

Q1: Why is sales always focused on closing?

Q2: Why is the mindset “always be closing” not working for social selling?

Q3: What are the advantages of social compared to the traditional way of identifying which solutions are best for prospects?

Q4: How you can identify prospects who have the same problem, if you have a very large community in Linkedin

Q5: How can social sellers use social networks to listen for buying signals?

Q6: What´s the best process a social seller can use to bring value to their customers?

Q7: Retention vs Prospecting. Which one is more effective for #salespeople when it comes to social selling?

Q8: What´s the best way to satisfy old-fashioned salespeople that #socialselling works?

Additional questions:

Q9: What are your future predictions for #socialselling and #socialbusiness?

Q10: Why do people constantly say they do not have enough time for #socialselling?

Run-time: 01:02:11

The Linking into Sales Social Selling Podcast is a professional development podcast geared towards sales and marketing professionals that use social media tools and networks to support the sales process and help them become more proficient in social selling.

* Follow us on Twitter: Twitter.com/linkingin2sales

* Join our LinkedIn Group: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/2450586

* Add us to your Google+ Circle: https://plus.google.com/+LinkingIntoSales

* Subscribe to us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/LinkingSales

* Talk with us on Facebook: Facebook.com/linkingintosales

Greg Hyer and Martin Brossman welcome back Kevin Thomas Tully to discuss steps 6 through 12 of creating a social selling routine based on the popular infographic created by Sales for Life.

Here are the previous episodes you should check out:

Episode 44 – Creating a Social Selling Routine Part 1

Episode 51 – Creating a Social Selling Routine Part 2

Here are the steps we cover:

Step 6: Connect with your LinkedIn content readers that are outside of your first degree network.

Step 7: Review all LinkedIn email reminders and job alert changes

Step 8: Save all hot buyers into LinkedIn tag folders

Step 9: Overcome the deadzone by sharing weekly content with your hot buyers

Step 10: Review other trigger event alerts on Google+, LinkedIn, Hootsuite and Insideview.

Step 11: Follow-up on outstanding LinkedIn messages.

Step 12: Kick-start 5+ new conversations.

Here are a few of the tools we mentioned on the show:

Nuzzel – An easy way to see top news from your friends on Twitter

Conspire – Discover the best path to a new connection with your inbox.

HootSuite – Social media account management solution

Nimble – Your social relationship management tool.

Run-time: 54:53

The Linking into Sales Social Selling Podcast is a professional development podcast geared towards sales and marketing professionals that use social media tools and networks to support the sales process and help them become more proficient in social selling.

* Follow us on Twitter: Twitter.com/linkingin2sales

* Join our LinkedIn Group: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/2450586

* Add us to your Google+ Circle: https://plus.google.com/+LinkingIntoSales

* Subscribe to us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/LinkingSales

* Talk with us on Facebook: Facebook.com/linkingintosales

Greg Hyer and Martin Brossman welcome Jon Ferrara, the founder and CEO of Nimble.com and the pioneer of CRM. Seasoned sales professionals may recognized him as the creator of GoldMine, the contact manager from the 1990’s.

Greg and Martin talk with Jon about how creating relationships in sales had changed and how his web-based CRM helps sales professionals better engage and grow those relationships.

When listening to this episode Jon stresses that relationships must end in a result. In business, this is very important. Social networks and social media can get you off track and send you down the wrong path.

Jon mentions that you need passion, purpose and a plan when it comes to selling. You must have a passion for what you’re selling. Your purpose is to find people that that can share your passion. You must have a plan to help you execute your passion and purpose.

This episode is a bit longer than usual, but it’s so good and you’re going to want to listen all the way through.

Run-time: 57:00

The Linking into Sales Social Selling Podcast is a professional development podcast geared towards sales and marketing professionals that use social media tools and networks to support the sales process and help them become more proficient in social selling.

* Follow us on Twitter: Twitter.com/linkingin2sales

* Join our LinkedIn Group: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/2450586

* Add us to your Google+ Circle: https://plus.google.com/+LinkingIntoSales

* Subscribe to us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/LinkingSales

* Talk with us on Facebook: Facebook.com/linkingintosales

 

Greg Hyer and Martin Brossman kick off 2015 with a question from one of our listeners. Kent asks, “How do you use social selling to sell in industries that are not social?”

Greg and Martin dispel the myth that the people you need to reach are not social. They discuss how most that work in traditional industries are likely using Facebook to keep up with family and friends. And when it comes to friends there’s a great chance that they have developed a trusted circle that a salesperson could identify and become a part of.

Keep in mind while you are listening that social selling is about opening, not closing new business. It’s about building relationships using techniques that establish trust and lead to business.

Some of the techniques discussed include:

1. Follow the digital footprint

a. Learn as much as we can from the information they share.

b. Determine the best way to engage by discovering their interests.

c. Lay the groundwork for the buyer’s journey

2. Welcome them to the buyer’s journey

a. Tell the story that leads them to their happy ending

b. Requires storyboarding of content that you will share

c. Requires good listening to identify key concerns

Run-time: 20:34

The Linking into Sales Social Selling Podcast is a professional development podcast geared towards sales and marketing professionals that use social media tools and networks to support the sales process and help them become more proficient in social selling.

* Follow us on Twitter: Twitter.com/linkingin2sales

* Join our LinkedIn Group: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/2450586

* Add us to your Google+ Circle: https://plus.google.com/+LinkingIntoSales

* Subscribe to us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/LinkingSales

* Talk with us on Facebook: Facebook.com/linkingintosales

Greg Hyer and Martin Brossman bring social selling in 2014 to a close with a review of all the discussions they shared over the past 12 months. They also share some of their predictions for social selling in 2015.

* Managing your LinkedIn endorsements and remembering to keep giving recommendation

* Publishing long-form post – Keep it good.

* Why we love Social Selling & Social Selling yourself for a Job

* The world learned that Social Selling is about Opening, not Closing

* Creating a Customer Facing LinkedIn Profile

* How to delete someone from Linkedin to find they may suggest you later.

* We spoke with Kevin Thomas Tully of Sales for Life and  Jeff Zelya of Tribleo about using Content for Social selling

* We spoke with Brian Fanzo about Social Business Intelligence

* We spoke with Eric Quanstrom and Rachael Miller of Pipeliner CRM about social selling sales engagement and social listening

* We spoke with Gil Pagan about working with a prospecting team

* In the background we have been using Nimble and the new mobile app more ourselves

* Writing review for personal branding – How a Google City Expert does Social Selling.

* Creating  your social selling tool box: Evernote, Nimble, Mindmeister, Cloud storage

* LinkedIn shuts down Rapportative and InMaps

* Building a professional networking for the first time

* Social Selling KPIs

*

Greg Hyer and Martin Brossman discuss social selling KPIs and why they matter to sales management and the sales professional. If we don’t measure our work against benchmarks we cannot improve the work we do. Sales Management must also be aware of what these KPIs do and how to determine the performance of their teams.

Examples of Social Selling KPIs include:

* The number of new 1st degree connections

* The number of Welcome messages sent

* The number of replies received from the welcome message

* The number of messages sent asking for a demo

* The number of messages received accepting a demo

* The number of follow up phone calls made following a connection request

* The number of demos made

* The number of proposals sent

* The number of sales made

This list includes measurements that aren’t exclusive to social selling. We include them because they are a result of the work that was done to help the buyer navigate the buying process using social selling techniques.

What social selling KPIs do you use to measure your success? Please leave us a review on iTunes or Stitcher. We will be sure to share them on a future episode.

Run-time: 12:45

The Linking into Sales Social Selling Podcast is a professional development podcast geared towards sales and marketing professionals that use social media tools and networks to support the sales process and help them become more proficient in social selling.

* Follow us on Twitter: Twitter.com/linkingin2sales

* Join our LinkedIn Group: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/2450586

* Add us to your Google+ Circle: https://plus.google.com/+LinkingIntoSales

* Subscribe to us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/LinkingSales

* Talk with us on Facebook: Facebook.com/linkingintosales