Social selling is the new sales because it utilizes all the techniques and tools that we've always enjoyed as sellers in order to help us build better relationships. Although nothing will ever replace the face-to-face relationships that sellers have with their clients, social selling is a valuable tool. Today Carson Heady shares what he has learned over a 17-year sales career about prospecting and relationship building and how social selling helps with it. Social selling Social media can help you find the right person to talk to that can help you connect with the right people, get a meeting, and stay top of mind. It's a great compliment to the business relationships we should already be forming. Social selling isn't a replacement for the things we're already doing. It's the application of the tools that enable us to get insights or see what customers and their organizations are thinking, doing, and talking about. When I first started using social selling, I was guilty of blasting a bunch of messages on LinkedIn and pitching people there. I quickly realized that wasn't social selling. Social selling equates to brokering relationships but you're doing it online. It isn't sending mass emails to people sharing everything that you have to offer. Results Salespeople are interested in results, and Carson said that after studying reports about social selling, he has determined that it amounts to standing apart, being unique, and finding a way to differentiate. Social selling is a very targeted and specific effort to cast a wide wide net to reach maybe 30 people in a single organization in hopes that you'll land a single meeting. That effort resulted in one of the larger deals in Microsoft. Relationships Carson suggests following business journals and using Sales Navigator to help in your efforts. Following the trades to stay aware of new C-levels that join the organization. Last year, Carson was the first to the table when a new C-level joined a company he was connected to and now Microsoft is helping to drive change within that organization because of the relationship. The relationships drive the deals forward, and those relationships wouldn't exist without the strategic utilization of social selling. Innovate We're all just trying to do something different. We're trying to get a response or a meeting by setting ourselves apart from the others who came before us and failed. We aren't just sitting on the phone reaching out to people. We have so much technology at our disposal that we have to be careful to be focused and tailor our efforts. If we don't, we'll likely suffer from diminishing returns. Our past approach of "spray and pray" doesn't work anymore. You have to embrace the probability of success. In the past, people were willing to send out hundreds of notes with the understanding that they wouldn't get a whole lot of reception. Consistent If you want to connect with a C-level at an organization, you don't just go after them. You've got to start a few levels below where you'd like to end up. Once you're able to talk to someone who is receptive, you can use that momentum internally to get in front of the right audience. But you must be consistent in your approach. Prospecting never ends. You must revisit those prospects. Not surprisingly, many clients don't reply immediately like you'd like them to. Be persistent and reach out to the same folks, but change your messaging. Offer a compelling reason for your prospects to respond. Be aware, too, that you may catch someone on an off day. The prospect may be sick or he may have...

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