Social media teams are set up to inform and engage with the general public. Many people believe they should have nothing to do with actual sales, because the general public does not like to feel it is being bombarded with sales requests. This is only half true. The truth is that people do not like to feel they are being bombarded with sales requests. The flip side is that a truly talented sales person will know how to present products to the public without making them feel that way. Many modern companies are now integrating their once separate sales and social media teams for multiple reasons. Let’s take a look at just a few of those reasons now.
- Sales people truly understand a call to action. They are able to craft them with skill, persuasion, and class. While engagement with the actual consumer is very high up on the list of reasons you use social media, the bottom line is that you are still trying to sell a product. A call to action is able to do both: engage the audience while selling the product.
- Sales people are experts at finding trends, understanding search engines, informing the public, and general promoting. All of these things can and should be integrated into the way you approach social media. When you combine your sales people and social media team, you come up with a combination sure to succeed.
- Persuasion and ingenuity are key when it comes to selling a product without actually seeming to sell it. The people on your sales team are trained to use those two key talents to their utmost advantage, so why not capitalize on that?
- Your sales people know how to find and take advantage of opportunities. For this reason they will be able to guide your social media team on how best to approach their current target audience from day to day and week to week for the greatest benefit
Although combining your sales and social media team has many fantastic benefits, there are a few things that could go wrong if you approach this the wrong way. Remember what we said about people not wanting to feel as though they are being bombarded with sales requests? Exactly. That is why it takes skill and tact to make this strategy work properly. Here are a few tips on how to do that:
- Inform your sales people that blatant ads and sales pitches should be avoided. Ask them instead to rely on more low key marketing techniques.
- Remember that not every post should be selling something. A good mixture of engagement and promotional items are necessary on social media. This mixture has simply been lacking the promotional items, which is where your sales people come in.
- Request that your sales people use a mixture of different call to actions. Some should send consumers to places with more information, some should request they buy something, and others should be focused on engagement or interaction.
- Just use common sense when it comes to selling on your social media accounts. Don’t overdo it, but make sure your customers know you are a business with products to sell.
Integrating your sales team with your social media team is an incredibly potent combination. Together you have experts on how to best fulfill the two reasons you use social media: engagement and sales.
