The world is becoming increasingly connected through social media, with more than half of the population now engaged in these platforms. According to Statista, this number is expected to swell to 6 billion by 2027.
With the rise of hyper-connectivity, social selling has become a vital channel for sales teams to engage with customers. Yet, to triumph in social selling, teams must adopt a more precise and considered approach, which involves buyer segmentation.
Let’s explore how effective buyer segmentation can help your sales team thrive in their social selling and prospecting efforts.
What Is Social Selling?
social selling has become an integral part of the sales and marketing strategy, and the approach has transformed how businesses interact with their customers.
It is a strategy of leveraging social media platforms, like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook, to engage with potential customers, nurture relationships, and ultimately increase sales.
There are two main types of social selling:
- B2B social selling mainly involves utilizing a company page on social media platforms to define the overarching marketing strategy, develop content, share success stories, and increase followers and advocates.
It is about directly talking to target audiences, generating engagement, and nurturing a community.
- Social selling at an individual level is about developing a personal brand and through which a relationship with existing and potential customers. It is not about spamming using automation or pursuing hard selling tactics.
Instead, it is about creating a sales opportunity by offering value, sharing insightful content, passively raising awareness, and learning more about customers.
By building relationships through social media, sales teams can establish trust and credibility. And by engaging with potential customers early in the buying process, sales teams can create a pipeline to increase their sales in the long run.
The Importance of Buyer Segmentation in Social Selling
In the world of social selling, buyers often conduct a significant portion of their research independently. Hence, tailoring is extremely important.
Social selling relies heavily on building customer relationships, and buyer segmentation helps sales teams achieve this by understanding their pain points, motivations, and buying habits.
With this knowledge, sales teams can develop targeted campaigns and communication strategies that resonate with each segment, building deeper connections, trust, and credibility.
Additionally, buyer segmentation allows sales teams to allocate their resources more accurately, leading to a more efficient sales process.
The Role of Sales Teams in Buyer Segmentation
By segmenting stakeholders, sales teams can develop targeted sales strategies and tactics that resonate with each buyer persona.
Sales teams must know their buyer personas’ objectives, goals, and how they interact with one another. Therefore, effective buyer segmentation requires a deep understanding of the different types of buyers, such as:
- Economic buyer, who seeks the best return on investment
- Technical buyer, who evaluates the product’s functionality
- Value buyer, who seeks the best value for their money in a purchase
- Influence buyer, who sways the decision-making process
- User buyer, who ultimately uses the product or service
It’s important to recognise that relying solely on traditional segmentation techniques may limit the potential for success.
To achieve effective buyer segmentation, sales teams must leverage data and analytics to group them into meaningful segments. This involves collecting data on buyer demographics, behaviour, and preferences, as well as analysing customer feedback and engagement metrics.
The Role of Sales Team Leaders in Buyer Segmentation
Sales team leaders can align their team’s efforts with the organisation’s objectives by developing a clear vision for buyer segmentation and social selling.
With a well-designed and coordinated approach, leaders can pinpoint goals and metrics for buyer segmentation, defining target buyer personas that support their team. They can outline the social selling strategies to engage and convert these personas.
Engaging with the lead and nurturing them helps to build credibility of the brand, which can pave the way for a future sales conversation.
Leveraging the power of training programs, coaching, and feedback, sales team leaders can empower their sales reps to develop the right mindset to become progressive social sellers. By investing in their continuous development, they can create a culture of excellence that fuels success at every level.
How to Use Digital Marketing to Improve Buyer Segmentation
Digital marketing can be a game-changer for sales teams looking to improve their buyer segmentation strategies.
Digital marketing allows salespeople to continuously test and refine their buyer segmentation strategies over time. By leveraging individual marketing and B2B channels, salespeople can access a wealth of data on customer demographics, behaviour, and preferences. This data can then be used to create more accurate and targeted buyer segments.
To maximise the benefits of digital marketing for buyer segmentation, sales, and marketing teams need to work together. Recurring collaboration is essential for sharing insights and maintaining consistent communication.
By leveraging B2B social media platforms, like LinkedIn, salespeople can not only access data on their prospects but also showcase their expertise and build their reputation. This can be the difference between engaging and ghosting prospects.
Revolutionising Buyer Segmentation With Technology
Technology has completely transformed how salespeople approach buyer segmentation. Sales teams now have access to advanced tools that enable them to analyse customer data more efficiently than ever, from social listening tools to sophisticated customer relationship management (CRM) systems.
While the advent of AI, machine learning, and advanced tools have made data analysis more efficient than ever before, it’s important to remember that these tools lack the personal touch that is essential to successful social selling.
To create effective sales processes, sales teams must balance the data-driven approach with authentic communication, ensuring their outreach efforts are personalised and engaging.
By taking a privacy-responsible approach to data management, sales teams can build customer trust. Therefore salespeople must ensure that they are using customer data ethically and in accordance with relevant regulations.
The Future of Social Selling
The pace of change is accelerating, and new technologies and platforms are emerging all the time. To succeed in this dynamic landscape, sales teams must be adaptable, creative, and forward-thinking.
To prepare for the future of social selling, here are some practical tips that can help:
Stay Informed About Emerging Trends
To stay ahead of the curve, salespeople need to be constantly learning and adapting. Make sure to stay up-to-date on the latest trends and technologies in social selling, such as artificial intelligence, chatbots, and augmented reality.
Embrace Innovation
Don’t be afraid to try new things and experiment with different approaches to social selling. The digital marketplace is constantly evolving, and what worked yesterday may not work today. Be open to new ideas and willing to take risks.
Build a Culture of Continuous Improvement
To achieve sustained success in the ever-changing landscape of social selling, it’s crucial to build a culture of continuous improvement so your team can gain the momentum to create new perspectives and find new sales opportunities.
LSOS’s sales training methodology is designed to help your team continuously develop the skills and strategies essential for modern sales and empower them to overcome their daily and long-term sales challenges.
You can unlock your team’s potential and drive their success by exploring LSOS’s sales training programmes today.
Need more information? Contact us anytime! We’d be more than delighted to assist you.
