“What is social selling?!”
We hear this question every single day when people hear we’re running a multi-million dollar company without ever hopping on a sales call with our potential clients.
That’s because there’s a better way, and we call it “social selling”!
Just a few years ago, we were fed up with a calendar clogged full of sales calls. We were tired of feeling held back by how many back-to-back 60 minute conversations you needed to have to enroll clients into our high ticket group program – not to mention the exhaustion that goes along with it!
So we turned that process on its head and came up with a system that allows us (and all of our clients) to sell high ticket coaching programs every single day without EVER doing a sales call.
So, what is social selling – and what is it NOT?
WATCH THIS VIDEO: What is social selling? 3 Do’s and Don’ts for Selling in the DMs
This blog post (and accompanying video clip) are part of one big juicy in-depth series we’ve created all about social selling, and this is Part One.
To put it simply, social selling is the art and science of asynchronously enrolling clients by answering any last questions they have about your programs in the DMs or text messages.
If you just read that sentence and felt a pang of dread because you worry this is going to feel smarmy or gross, hang on!
The beauty of this social selling process is that it’s actually better for your clients too. It’s a win-win for everyone involved, which we’ll be diving into more soon.
Before we go any further, it’s important to point out that simply replacing all your sales calls with DMs right now without the full High Ticket Hybrid funnel and automated assets will not work.
When you have a robust system in place to educate your clients, 90% of the sales process happens through automated sales assets such as emails/videos/sales pages, and social selling is actually just the last 10% of the process. Read more about the other pieces of the full system you need right here.
Now, to truly understand what social selling is and what makes it so unique, let’s start with what we will not be doing.
❌Great social selling is NOT spammy promo Direct messages to strangers
If you’ve been on the receiving end of one of these messages, you know exactly how intrusive this tactic feels.
Here’s a real example of a message we received from a total stranger:
What’s wrong with this picture?
First of all, this person popped into our private messages with intentions of “being direct” when we have zero context about who this is or where they came from.
The person behind this message jumped right into talking about THEM without having any information about ME!
An empowering sales conversation makes a person feel heard and understood. A solution is offered from a place of finding the right fit – and that’s exactly why it feels so off-putting when someone bombards our DMs with unsolicited answers to problems we never even said we had.
This message has all the clues that reveal it’s a copy and paste approach with absolutely no personalization. There’s no actual conversation here, and this person doesn’t know the first thing about me or my needs.
✅ GREAT SOCIAL SELLING IS ABOUT BEING HUMAN AND CREATING CONNECTION
So what’s the difference between spammy messages and a social selling strategy that actually feels good for everyone involved?
It all comes down to creating an authentic connection with the person you’re talking to – and the best way to do that is by simply acting like a real human.
Here’s an example of a DM conversation that utilizes the power of connection in order to create a conversation:
Let’s break down what’s working here.
We’ve had a little back and forth conversation before jumping straight into the meat of a sales conversation.
We’ve gotten permission to move the conversation forward, because this person is actually engaging with us!
We’re demonstrating that we want to know more about this person. We aren’t making it all about our offers or whether the prospect is interested; we’re getting to know the context before presenting any kind of solution.
Social selling is never “spray and pray”, sending a thousand messages to random people with a script.
And speaking of scripts…
❌ Social selling is NOT copy/paste scripts that everyone ignores
Picture this: you get a Facebook or LinkedIn request from someone you don’t recognize.
After scoping out their profile, you determine they might be a good business connection. Since you’re trying to grow by broadening your network, you click “accept”.
But before long, you receive a message from your new connection that looks like this:
You quickly realize it’s the exact same message you’ve gotten six times already this week, word for word.
Your guard instantly goes up, because your instincts are sharp. You can sense an ulterior motive or looming sales pitch from a mile away!
Our prospects are wired the same way. So if you plan to go on a friend request rampage followed by a smattering of generic copy & paste scripts like this one, you can expect a whole lot of crickets instead of truly engaging conversations.
✅ social selling is about getting curious and asking questions
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