Social proof

I was discussing social selling the other day with a client and this is something I think many businesses overlook when they think about their marketing strategies. There is nothing better in my opinion than having someone unconnected rave about you, your product or service.

Just the other day my friend Sean D’Souza put some material out there that used to be sold for $2500. I have advocated his materials for years and was impressed when I saw he was giving one of his old products away. I didn’t even think about it, I just tweeted the link to my followers.

This wasn’t something that Sean asked me to do, I just did it because I want to give people following me on Twitter something of value and I know his product is good having been his customer in the past.

This is a way of selling that we’ve been doing since the stone age but now by utilizing social media companies can take advantage of social selling. We’ve always relied on first hand evidence from friends, colleagues, Mrs Jones or the caveman next door before making our own decisions on what to buy into.

Sean is asking you to buy into his idea, and removing any risk by giving you the product. He then hopes you’ll buy his book and his other range of products. In effect he is using old customers like me to tell you how good he is so that you’ll buy into his idea and then you make your own mind up. I know this and I don’t mind.

With only a little planning, measurement and effort you can take what you sell and turn your customers into a free salesforce that is more powerful than any cold call, email, product pitch or slick sales talk.

With that in mind, do you have examples of social selling you would like to share? And are you optimizing them effectively?