Power of Social Selling: Strategies and Best Practices

[00:00:00] Taylor Wells: Hey, everyone. Thanks for tuning to this week's GTM News Show. This week, I'm pulling a clip from a conversation I had with Mandy McMewen, on the recent event I did around b to b outbound. She talks all about social selling. And, honestly, I think, we need to have a different term for social selling

[00:00:17] Taylor Wells: I it should be like social networking or social connection, building relationships, anything other than selling because, actually, what Mandy shares in this episode It's some great tips around building relationships and, building that credibility, building that trust before you go into sell. So let's Tune in to, my conversation with her, and thanks for listening. Thanks for coming on. We I've been following your content on LinkedIn for a while around social selling. So in the next 8 to 9, 10 minutes or so, give us your rundown on your best practices for social selling. 

[00:00:46] Mandy McEwen: Yes. Definitely. So this was a perfect tee up For Will's awesome, chat there. And so what I like about what we're talking about today is we're all talking about ways to stand out. Right? 

[00:00:58] Mandy McEwen: Like, Will's talking about, hey. You need to look different. You need to be different. So what I love about social selling is it allows you to stand out. And so when we're talking today about Whole email and cold calling and all the ways to stand out.

[00:01:09] Mandy McEwen: When you start with social, it's actually not that cold. Right? So we're trying to start on social to build these relationships, to engage with people, and that is the way everything is shifting. Right? Every single person that's on this, today, all these speakers, they have a presence on LinkedIn. 
[00:01:25] Mandy McEwen: They understand the power of social slang, and they could all talk about the same things I'm about to talk about because they get it. So it's not we're not in a silo anymore. We're not just doing cold call, cold email. Like, it really needs to come together because that is the way that the market has shifted. So People want to do business with people that they know, like, and trust. 
[00:01:43] Mandy McEwen: So if I'm gonna reach out to you, Taylor, and I'm gonna hit you up on on cold email or even cold call, And you might be interested in my products. You might visit my LinkedIn profile. And if it's crap and I haven't posted in 9 months and there's, like, 2 things on it, you might be like, Nah. I don't know. Right? 
[00:02:00] Mandy McEwen: And this isn't even if you if I'm reaching out on LinkedIn. I'm talking about this is where people go. They're they're looking to see, does this person have a presence and the company. So this is the power of social and the the challenges with with salespeople, that's why I'm here in Vegas right now speaking about this exact same thing, is they're just not doing it. They're just quite frankly, they're not doing it.

[00:02:20] Mandy McEwen: And it's and it's almost like you don't know what you don't know. Like, they don't understand it. They don't know really how they should be using it. They're just leveraging Sales Navigator to do some some basic research and maybe to build some lists. So they're not taking it that step further. 
[00:02:33] Mandy McEwen: Like, when I was yesterday in front of 379 plus people here in Vegas, and I I asked a question, like, how many of you are leaving comments? Like, at least, you know, One comment a week on on people's posts. Right? And, like, there's, like, 2 people that raise their hand. You know? 
[00:02:47] Mandy McEwen: It's like, they're not even leaving comments. And so I wanna talk Now about, my friendly leader method, which is essentially what I just said. But, you know, this this works really well when obviously people are active. I understand that not all of our prospects are actively using LinkedIn, but there's other ways you can do this. You can even engage with the company page and then start dialogue from there

[00:03:06] Mandy McEwen: But how my friend's lead leader method works is You go. You have a list of prospects. Obviously, this works amazingly if you have sales navigator. If not, you can still do this with the free version of LinkedIn or LinkedIn premium. But you go and you engage with them. 
[00:03:17] Mandy McEwen: So, If they're posting content, awesome. Engage with it. Leave a comment. Like it, etcetera. If they're not, look for something else on their profile that you can relate to. 
[00:03:25] Mandy McEwen: You can call something out that's personal. You could also go engage with their company content. So I've actually had clients land, clients they were going after from engaging with their company content alone because they started to see that familiar face, and then they start engaging with other people, sending connection requests throughout the company. And then you send a connection request after you engage with whether it's, you know, On Twitter even. Right? 
[00:03:46] Mandy McEwen: It could be anything. Like, look to see where this person is. What are they doing on social? Are they on Twitter? We talked about Twitter yesterday too. 
[00:03:53] Mandy McEwen: Because in tech, you know, Twitter or x, sorry, x, I'm still not used to calling you x, is still a viable, you know, way to to reach out to people, to engage, to retweet, to respond, to to start the dialogue. So it's all about starting that conversation and then standing out. So what can we do to mention that, like, hey. I actually did my homework, and I know about you. Like, let's let's seem like real human beings here.

[00:04:14] Mandy McEwen: Like, we're talking. That's why I call it my friendly leader method because, essentially, as salespeople, we're just trying to be everyone's friends. And if we're doing that in a way that is genuine and it doesn't come across slimy, it works really well because most salespeople are just like, I wanna hit my numbers. I wanna blast as many as I can, throw stuff at the wall, and hope it sticks. So that's the method that, I have been utilizing my clients, and it's Successful, but you have to think outside the box too when it comes to, you know, where are these people hanging out. 
[00:04:43] Mandy McEwen: Does that make sense? 
[00:04:45] Taylor Wells: I love it, Mandy. Anything from a leadership standpoint? I imagine especially building relationships, building friendships takes time. Right? It's not just, the the sales cycle or the marketing cycle, if you would, It's gonna be longer, than maybe some people expect, but it proves to, you know, great results in the long run. 
[00:05:03] Taylor Wells: How to create a culture of it, and how can leaders, Create A Culture, if you mind a follow-up question.

[00:05:09] Mandy McEwen: Yeah. That is a really great question. Lead by example. Right? So When I'm working with companies, I want the leaders to actually do what I'm saying. 
[00:05:18] Mandy McEwen: And so the best successes that I've seen with companies I worked with is the leaders are doing the same things that I'm telling the SDRs and AEs to do. Right? So if we can get them to at least Partly do what we're talking about here and get them to it's all about, like, we need buy in from the top. Like, we need people to believe in this. It's not just about what tactics do we do, how do we talk to people, how do we resonate, how do we not look like a slimy salesperson like everyone else.

[00:05:45] Mandy McEwen: Those are all, like, obviously, okay. We agree with that. But does leadership actually believe in the power of social? Do they believe that this works, And what are they doing themselves? And so it all starts at the top. 
[00:05:57] Mandy McEwen: Right? And so it's difficult to come into an organization where the leaders aren't doing crap on social, you know, and they don't really care. Mhmm. Unless they're ready to change, you know, and make that change of care. That's a whole different ballgame. 
[00:06:09] Mandy McEwen: But we have to have the leaders also be in this, You know, because this is what their teammates are looking to them for also. It's like, hey. I wanna see, like, if if you believe in this and you're doing it, then I'm gonna follow suit. But if you don't, why the hell am I doing it? You know?

[00:06:23] Taylor Wells: Well said. Love that, Mandy. Any thoughts on even I'm sure you have also thoughts on this as far as, like, time commitment and, you know, how much especially from a leader, you know, if if, the c suite or whatnot that are thinking about integrating this. And then for the rest of their org. I can see, especially leading by example, time. 
[00:06:40] Taylor Wells: Right? You know, how do I have time? And how do you think about that, and how do you advise your clients on that? 
[00:06:46] Mandy McEwen: Yeah. That's a really good point. So I'm glad you brought that up. So I am a huge fan of time blocking. And so, we have a 1 hour a day checklist that we have for our clients, and we encourage everyone to time block. 
[00:06:59] Mandy McEwen: And I do it in 15 minute increments. So for example, every single day, and it could be it could vary on the day depending on what you have going on, but it could be spend 15 minutes leaving comments on prospects and industry leaders post. Spend another 15, responding to messages. Spend another 20, you know, sending x number of connection requests. Send another 20 on looking in Sales Navigator.

[00:07:22] Mandy McEwen: So when you are serious about doing this and you actually put Specifics not just like, hey. I'm gonna spend an hour a day on LinkedIn. We have a checklist. Look at it. Follow it. 
[00:07:32] Mandy McEwen: Don't just, like, go on and and meander around. And then before you know it's 50 minutes later, and you've done nothing. You know? Like, you have to be diligent with your time. But this also goes back to leadership too. 
[00:07:42] Mandy McEwen: It's like, are you allowing your able to make an effort, a concentrated effort on LinkedIn because it's all about consistency. Right? Social is all about consistency. You have to be doing it every single day for it to actually pay dividends. And so I love the time blocking strategy because it's there.

[00:07:58] Mandy McEwen: It's on your calendar, and it's very specific on what they wanna do, and then they can even set a timer. So that's ideally how I like to go about doing it, and it keeps everyone structured because, You know, our days are crazy. Like, there's so much going on. We're getting bombarded. And if we can have that time and then just shut everything out and actually do it, It doesn't take very long for you to see results. 
[00:08:18] Taylor Wells: I love that. I'm sure you get better and better the more you do it, obviously, and and that consistency over time. Any closing thoughts, Mandy?

00:08:26 The Importance of Social Selling and Building Relationships Online

[00:08:26] Mandy McEwen: Yeah. So closing fast is just do it. I feel like, you know, and this is coming up more and more. You know, I've been doing this for a very long time, but specifically social selling, a concentrated effort just in the last few years, and confidence is a huge thing. So if I can leave you all with anything, it's like have the confidence to go out there and do what we're talking about because there's not enough people doing it. 
[00:08:45] Mandy McEwen: And so you might be worried, like, I don't know what to say. I don't know what to comment. I don't know what to post. You just have to go out there and do it and realize that you're the only one judging yourself. You know? 
[00:08:53] Mandy McEwen: Like, you're you're looking too far into it. You're thinking too much. Just go out there, do it, engage, build relationships, send messages, send voice notes, send videos. Like, act like you would in person at a conference to people. Right? 
[00:09:05] Mandy McEwen: Like, always think of that. Like, what would I say to this person if I was face to face with them? And you just have to be consistent. But the biggest thing that, you know, that I see over and over again is just the confidence factor. Like, I I'm scared. 
[00:09:15] Mandy McEwen: I don't know what to say. What if I say the wrong thing? And it's just when you get in the habit of doing it time and time again, it just becomes, like, second nature and easy, and you build your confidence up over time. 
[00:09:26] Taylor Wells: Love it. Well said, Mandy. Thank you so much for coming on. Folks, go follow on LinkedIn. Gun's a great con information around social selling. 
[00:09:33] Taylor Wells: Thanks again, Mandy. Safe travels. 
[00:09:34] Mandy McEwen: Thanks for having me, Taylor. Bye.