5 Social Selling Tactics to Find Your Next Sales Job

5 Social Selling Tactics to Find Your Next Sales Job:

from Sales Force Effectiveness Blog by Dan Bernoske


You are a Sales Rep.  You lost your job or you see the axe falling soon.  How do you get another job in this competitive market?
You must treat hiring managers as your Buyers.  Then connect to them through social selling, inbound marketing techniques. Download the Self-Promotion Guide for a ready-built, effective approach to securing your next job.

The Hiring Manager as the Buyer

Someone who posts a job is a Buyer.  They are on the market looking for an HR solution: a top sales rep. Like most purchase decisions, 57% of the buying process is completed before buyer-rep interaction. (Source – CEB, The New High Performer Playbook, Arlington VA, 2012). This means the hiring manager is researching before you enter the picture.  While they sift through inbound leads, they actively search for the ideal candidate.
Like any effective sales process, you must align with this Buyer.  Then influence their decision by providing yourself as the solution.
 

Self-Promotion as Inbound Marketing

Today, hiring managers are scouring LinkedIn for ideal candidates. Your LinkedIn presence can be designed to drive them to your profile. This is accomplished when you make yourself more searchable.  You achieve this when you broadcast your insights to your network.  Not as outbound spam or cold calls, but as meaningful news feeds. This is an Inbound Marketing strategy that works.
Consider this fact that your marketing counterparts have learned quite well.  Inbound Marketing is more effective than Outbound Marketing.  A recent Hubspot survey found that 34% of the leads marketers generate come from inbound marketing sources. This is 54% more leads than traditional outbound leads. Borrow this inbound approach and you will see similar results in your job search.

5 Social Selling Tactics to Find Your Next Sales Job

Nothing beats a warm handoff from a colleague to a hiring manager. Referral-based hiring practices produce excellent results. When you don’t have this option, then adopt an inbound marketing strategy. Apply these 5 social selling fundamentals to secure your next job:
1. Choose your audience. If you were selling B2B technology services, your target personas were in IT. Now you are focused on selling yourself.  Shift your focus to sales managers and HR.  These are your new Buyers.
2. Build your profile. Adjust your LinkedIn profile to reflect this audience shift. Use key words that make you more searchable. Highlight areas that solve the problems of your new Buyers. Focus on the most important areas of your profile like your background and title.
3. Broadcast yourself. Start sharing ideas and articles aggressively.  You are what you share. Find insightful articles that are relevant to the jobs you want. Broadcast these ideas to your network.  Ask key individuals in your network to share your posts to others. Spread your scope of influence to as many people as possible.
4. Monitor interest. The above steps are inbound marketing tactics.  You are driving demand by making the market aware of you.  As demand increases, you can track the results. LinkedIn Signal is the ideal tool to track who follows your insights. Also, look at who has viewed your profile.  Look for interest from the people who can help you secure your next position.
5. Selectively connect. When you identify who you want to contact, send them a note in LinkedIn. Don’t ever use the default language LinkedIn provides. Instead, craft a message that is tailored to the needs of the hiring manager. Send a note with a call to action to connect.

 

Next Steps

When you work to secure your next job, you have entered a new market.  The hiring managers are the Buyers. You must align with how they buy.  You must influence them through social selling, inbound marketing techniques.  Download the Self-Promotion Guide for a ready-built, effective approach to securing your next job.
 
 Author: Dan Bernoske

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