Social Media & Social Selling

Air Canada Global Sales Team

December 15, 2014

1

Agenda

• Introduction

• Background

• Overview of Social Media & Social Selling

• Operating Principles

• Social Selling Strategic Plan

• Roles & Responsibilities

• Next Steps

2

Background

• Recognition of opportunity to provide sales enablement tools to capitalize on the explosion of social media and social networking

• Objectives: Contribute to sales targets

Increase presence

Build relationships with key audiences, lead generation

Increase engagement

Communicate personality, authenticity

3

Social Media Platforms by the Numbers

4

Social Media Defined

Websites and applications that enable users

to create and share content or to participate

in social networking.

5

Social Selling Media

6

Social Media Platforms by the Numbers

7

Social Media Platforms by the Numbers

8

Who manages social media?

• Social media for the consumer (B2C) is

managed by Marketing, Corporate

Communications and Customer Service

• Social media for corporate buyers (B2B) is

managed by Sales and Marketing with

support from Customer Service as

required

9

Social Selling Defined

Social selling is the process of researching,

connecting, and interacting with prospects

and customers on social media networks --

notably LinkedIn and Twitter.

10

What is Social Selling?

11

• Social selling is about establishing credibility and building a relationship so that you can guide a prospect through the buying process

• Relationship building is at the heart of social selling and it’s based on establishing credibility & trust and offering value which generates leads and sales

• Extension of the traditional sales process but on a “new” platform (social media)

Social Selling is about relationships

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• Social selling and personal relationships work the same way – you get out of it what you put into it

• Consider not just the ROI but also the ROR (Return on Relationship)

• Make the connection then invest the time and effort in building the relationship

Social Selling: Engagement

• Social selling is all about engagement

• Interactions should be thoughtful, relevant

and personalized

• Social selling more closely resembles lead

nurturing

• ABCs of Social Selling = Always Be

Connecting

13

Brand relationships have evolved

14

From Brand-Controlled Communication To Being Everywhere to Everyone

Buyer’s Journey Has Changed

15

Path to purchase is no longer linear

The New Sales Playbook

16

Why use social selling?

• Salespeople using social selling are:

79% more likely to hit sales quota

73% outperformed colleagues not using social

selling

exceed quota 23% more often

• In B2B orgs using social selling: 21% more sales reps achieved quota

31% more sales teams achieved quota

17

Source: Aberdeen Group

More reasons to use social selling

• In B2B orgs using social selling:

64% of sales teams achieved quota

• 44% of B2B companies use LinkedIn to

generate leads

• 60% of best-in-class companies train

salespeople in how to engage using social

selling

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Source: Aberdeen Group

Benefits of social selling

• Increase leads

• Decrease average sales cycle

• Increase rate of leads that convert

(improved quality of leads)

• Increase number of referrals (often from

LinkedIn connections), referrals have a

much higher close rate

19

Four pillars of social selling

20

Social Selling Strategy - Vision

To develop the Air Canada Global

Sales team into a best-in-class sales

team that achieves success through a

social selling strategy.

21

Operating Principles

• What this is:

Sales Enablement

Relationship building

Strategic plan and execution of social selling

• What this isn’t:

Not a new way of selling

Not a heavy-duty technology play

Not social media for the sake of it 22

Social Selling Strategic Plan

23

• Social selling strategy kicked off Nov 26

• Workshops and consultations with AC stakeholders (Global Sales Team, Mktg)

• Consultations with external stakeholders (agencies, corporate clients, MICE, GSAs, DMOs)

• Research and source sales enablement tools such as LinkedIn, content & social sharing library/hub

• Plan workflow to integrate social selling tools with CRM (Salesforce)

Thank you

Thank you for your participation

Contact details: Kerry Mortimer

kerry@mortimermarketing.ca

www.linkedin.com/in/kerrymortimer

@kerrymortimer

(613) 884-1335

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Appendix

25

• Four pillars of a social selling strategy

• How to get started with social selling

• Key audience (persona development) – exercise

• Key messaging – exercise

• Strategic considerations - discussion

Four pillars of social selling

26

Create a professional brand

27

Find your target audience

28

Engage with insights

29

Build strong relationships

30

How to get started with social selling

1. Optimize social media profiles

2. Join relevant LinkedIn groups (ie. ACTE, ACTA)

3. Set up social listening alerts (ie. Google Alerts)

4. Monitor trigger events on LinkedIn (ie. new

job/company, promotion, question in a group)

5. Subscribe to relevant blogs (email, RSS)

31

How to get started with social selling

6. LinkedIn Premium/Sales Navigator

7. Regular status updates

8. Create, curate and share content

9. Engage - social engagement comes in 4 main

forms:

a. Sharing content

b. ‘liking’

c. Commenting

d. Connecting

32

Optimize Profile for Social Selling

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http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/linkedin-profile-social-selling