Social selling can be compared to a “long con” game, but the distinction comes from its lack of deceit and mutually beneficial conclusion. Rather than utilizing tactics of a confidence scheme, where a “grifter” (in this case, a salesperson) spends an extensive amount of time cultivating a relationship with a “mark” (a prospective buyer or influential individual) through subtle interactions and sharing, social selling prioritizes building trust and transparency to result in a successful exchange (a sale or referral) for all parties involved.
It is apparent that the strategies employed by astute salespersons in the practice of social selling closely resemble those used by tricksters in numerous literary works and films. Therefore, below are some effective sales methods that can be adopted from cons.
5 Key Players in a Long Con: Building Your Digital Sales Team
Movies like The Sting, The Grifters, or A Fish Called Wanda demonstrate that a successful scheme often requires a team of associates who assume various roles. Similarly, in digital selling, having a support team of skilled specialists is beneficial for achieving success. This article explores the parallels between typical con game accomplices and the crew members who can enhance your social selling game.
- The Roper identifies and analyzes the mark and then lures the mark in. Good ropers find a way to get close to the mark—learning the mark’s likes and needs, building a friendship, maintaining interest—and eventually offering the mark what he or she seems to want. This leads to an introduction to the Inside Man (in our case, the salesperson).
The credibility of social selling is greatly enhanced by “warm hand-offs” from someone you know. Salespeople can perform “roping” themselves, but it is more efficient if executed by someone knowledgeable in social media or content marketing, such as a marketing department expert. With social selling, you don’t have to work alone since there are social media experts within your organization who can assist you, allowing you to focus on sales relationship building.
An adept social media specialist has the ability to search the internet for influential individuals and potential customers. Through locating notable figures in their respective fields who have extensive followings on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn, a social media professional can determine the most effective voices to enhance the promotion of your sales message. Moreover, they can assist in fostering this connection by means of likes and shares using your company’s social media profiles. Social media experts can also employ tools such as social media monitoring, Google News Alerts, Quora comment tracking, and other resources to identify potential customers who have expressed a need, question, or even a complaint that can be resolved by your product, service, or information.
- The Hacker is an essential crew member for highly technical cons. The hacker manages or assists with computer and IT operations, including website development, tech support, analytics, and even cybersecurity. Digital selling demands to have similar expertise on the team. Experts certified in data analytics give salespeople and marketers important intelligence about website visitors, competitors, your marketplace, customers, and prospects, as well as metrics about content engagement and even potential triggers that salespeople can use to pursue contact.
- The Shill (also known as the Face) is a third party, an ostensibly previous client of the scheme, whose job it is to encourage the mark and offer a personal recommendation for the inside man, building trust and confidence.
Customer testimonials are highly valued in sales, especially in social selling. A Content Marketing Trends Report by Pardot reveals that 89% of B2B marketers consider customer testimonials to be the most effective tactic for content marketing. In addition, expert testimonials from industry leaders are even more powerful. Thus, social selling aims to attract these influential individuals to promote and endorse your product or content.
Testimonials are effective because of the psychological concept called the norm of social proof. When confronted with a decision on how to behave in a certain situation (such as purchasing a specific wine brand or assisting an injured person on the street), individuals typically observe others’ behavior for confirmation that their own actions are appropriate. When a single person, particularly someone similar to them or an authority figure or celebrity, confirms their decision, individuals are more likely to take action as it removes their inhibitions and encourages them to act.
- The Outside Man is a counterpart who can be used to make the mark believe there is a potential threat (such as a fake law enforcement official). This builds trust by making the mark feel like a member of the team. In social selling, you can create a sense of unity with prospects or even influencers by identifying a rival, competitor, or even a government agency that presents a potential threat to both of your interests. Then you can recommend action, seek advice or offer to help by providing supportive content.
- The Cooler is a person who stays behind after the con to “cool the mark out” by checking in and assuring that the mark is not so upset as to “squawk, beef or come through” (call the police or alert other potential marks about the con).
Social selling presents an advantageous chance to interact and strengthen relationships by checking in on customer satisfaction after the sale, or expressing appreciation to influencers who have supported or shared your brand. It is advisable to designate a dedicated member of your staff to oversee your social media channels (referred to as a Community Manager, working in conjunction with Customer Service) in order to promptly address any feedback, inquiries, or grievances.
Following up efficiently also significantly boosts the chances of obtaining further and more meaningful collaboration from an influencer. It can even generate recommendations and income from prospective customers. Jennifer Galley, a BDC Consultant, affirms that “acquiring a new customer costs seven times more than selling to an existing customer.”
Top Digital Marketing Tools for 2023
As a digital marketer seeking to enhance your marketing tactics and ROI, it’s essential to familiarize yourself with helpful tools. Digital marketing tools enable you to implement effective strategies efficiently, keeping everything well-organized. These tools are intended to support you in making necessary modifications as required.
In light of the obstacles encountered in 2022, our primary objective for 2023 is to develop enhanced and inventive tactics. We have compiled a list of the most impactful and original digital marketing tools to inspire and invigorate your marketing endeavors for the upcoming year.
- MailChimp
MailChimp is a tool that automates and manages digital marketing campaigns, including social advertising and email marketing. It is considered one of the top digital marketing tools due to its ability to enhance campaigns and analyze web traffic. Additionally, the platform supports integrating different SaaS companies. It is a highly efficient tool for conducting email campaigns, which can effectively engage the audience. MailChimp is a reputable and well-known name in the realm of email marketing.
MailChimp’s characteristics:
- Creates better content with easy-to-use design tools
- Use an Ai-powered assistant for generating custom designs.
- Create personalized emails and get up to 6 times more orders using marketing automation
- Provides tools for getting insights and analytics in one place
- Also, provide a free plan for small marketers.
With its pre-designed, adjustable email automation, MailChimp enables you to efficiently connect with the perfect audience at the ideal time. The cherry on top is the ability to maintain your brand’s visibility and delight your clientele with congratulatory, greeting, and purchase update messages.
The utilization of MailChimp can greatly contribute to the success of online retail and e-commerce enterprises by assisting in boosting website traffic, enhancing conversion rates, and expanding sales.
- Google Analytics
Google Analytics is an efficient tool for digital marketing that can assist in making various marketing decisions. It enables you to monitor your e-commerce enterprise and objectives, which would aid in maintaining your company on course. By utilizing the vast array of information provided by Google Analytics, marketing professionals can effortlessly comprehend which actions to take with site adjustments and improvements. You just need to add Google Analytics to your webpage, and you are all set.
The characteristics of Google Analytics:
- Provides you with information about traffic on your website that is divided by devices, products, pages, and more.
- Let you create your metrics, dimensions, and dashboard for easy access to data and information.
- Helps you understand your target audience in a better way. You will get real-time updates about your website’s customers, including the pages they are currently exploring. This can help you make your landing page more engaging by providing the customers with a more intuitive experience.
- Let you uncover insights about how the business is performing.
- Let you share the insights with the help of various reporting tools.
- Let you organize and visualize the data suiting business requirements.
Finally, Google Analytics boasts numerous features and functionalities, enabling users to generate personalized dashboards and reports.
- Google Ads
Regardless of the size of your business, Google Ads can be an effective marketing tool. Although some marketers may perceive it as costly, Google Ads remains a potent tool in driving your business towards success.
Google Ads’ characteristics:
- Drive website visits
- Increase the call calls from customers through a click-to-call button
- Increase footfall in your shops
To utilize Google Ads in an efficient manner and avoid squandering your funds, it is imperative to acquire knowledge of the platform. A favorable aspect of Google Ads is the ability to easily calculate return on investment (ROI). Additionally, the incorporation of new artificial intelligence technology has resulted in a more rapid and user-friendly experience. The implementation of AI features can expedite results in Display advertising.
You can utilize various targeting options to focus on your customer base using criteria such as age, gender, location, profession, and more. This feature sets it apart from other digital marketing tools.
Access to Google Agency Account Strategist is crucial as it provides information on the newest Google features. Additionally, this access also includes the opportunity to participate in beta testing.
- Canva Business
Those who work in digital marketing comprehend the importance of having a high-quality design tool at their disposal, which aids in the creation of exceptional social media posts and other marketing materials. Canva is a top-of-the-line design tool that enables the development of successful marketing campaigns through visual content that can be shared across multiple platforms, such as blogs, websites, and social networks. Visual content is the cornerstone of any digital marketing strategy, and to capture the attention of your specific audience, it is vital to produce captivating posts.
The characteristics of Canva:
- Canva allows you to edit posts and create graphs of any type and kind.
- The tool incorporates numerous templates. It boasts a massive library of stock images, photos, designs, icons, and vectors that you can use to create any type of visual content for your marketing campaign.
- It allows you to choose from a massive collection of designs, such as a postcard, brochure, CD cover, wallpaper, book cover, resume, certificate, magazine cover, letterhead, presentation graphic, blog banner, card, poster, flyer, presentation, logo, and social media.
You can easily generate visual content for your digital marketing campaign with its uncomplicated drag-and-drop interface. The most appealing aspect is that you don’t require an expert designer to create these visuals. The tool is so user-friendly that anyone, even without a design background, can utilize it.
- Trello
Trello is a highly favored content management tool among digital marketers worldwide, providing assistance with content ideation and strategy for digital marketing efforts. With Trello, users can easily create, schedule, and organize their online content.
The platform facilitates team cohesion, streamlining communication and organization. Assigning various team members to a single card allows for collaborative efforts on projects, while also clarifying their individual responsibilities such as design, writing, editing, posting, and implementing call-to-action offers.
Trello’s characteristics:
- Allows you to create cards and incorporate notes on the card topic while creating deadlines and assigning topics to specific teams.
- Facilitates remote working where your teams can access their tasks and projects from anywhere.
Trello can be utilized to arrange your digital marketing strategies and guarantee that you stay up to date with all the tasks performed by your team.
- Slack
Slack is utilized daily by digital marketers for discussing client work, exchanging ideas on new articles and projects, resolving new support tickets, sharing valuable content, and sending messages.
Slack plays a vital role in facilitating effective communication with a specialized group of digital marketers.
Slack’s characteristics include:
- Makes it easier to communicate with team members over the web in real time.
- Let you follow everything related to the projects, teams, and channels.
- Let you do message and video conferencing too.
- Assist the teams in collaborating from anywhere
Though it may appear to be merely a messaging app, Slack offers much more functionality. It has the potential to enhance your organizational efficiency, though it is not designed as a project management or collaboration tool. Rather, it functions as a robust messaging platform that supports a wide range of options and settings. With Slack, you can engage in group conversations that are searchable and either public or private. Furthermore, you can customize the interface by modifying the color scheme and creating distinct groups.