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“Trust your sellers” and build “Rep Pages” for your sales team – IBM @ #SocialShakeUp

Jamie Shanks
Jamie Shanks

Sales TargetYou might think this blog is crazy. You may still be stuck at “why should we do Social Selling?” If you feel this is you, well I’m sorry to tell you that the world is already on Version #2. The top sales teams are now looking at enabling their sales force with even more powerful Social Selling tools.

Write this down… in 2014, you will hear more about “REP PAGES”, sales rep Microsites:

What is a “REP PAGE”?

Micro Site

 

I’m writing this blog from #SocialShakeUp in Atlanta, as the top minds of Social Selling are in one room. Doug Hannan @ IBM is presenting an executed a project called “REP PAGES”. Simply put, they 100% believe that buyers are only checking out IBM webpages when they are truly looking to buy. IBM also believes that buyers will buy from PEOPLE first. Since its people that support people, IBM has created a microsite for each sales rep to customize and populate with amazing content, to help a buyer through their buying journey.

Like Paper.ly – they even allow their sales reps to add 3rd party content to their Microsite. Why? Because social selling is about helping a buyer (using content) through their buying journey (with or without your branded content).

How would we benefit if we experimented with Personal Microsites?

1. Sales reps become real thought-leaders. Your sales team is now placed in front of the client as a resource and clear trusted advisor. IBM has seen real empirical evidence with this, as $64,000,000 has flowed through these sales rep pages.

2. Meet the buyer where the buyer starts their buying journey – ONLINE. You might be saying that LinkedIn is essentially a microsite for your sales reps. TRUE, but not to the power of adding dynamic content, with downloadable assets that can be measured and create leads.

3. Track real-time opportunities through the page. This is a microsite, so everything is trackable. Clicks, opens and read… this is old school. If your microsite is integrated with Marketing Automation, you can track all user buyer behavior. We also use StoryQuest which is based on a WordPress platform that can track everything you want as well.

What will be the keys to success?

Sales rep buy-in – If your sales team doesn’t believe this well help them, they will never refresh the content on the site. That’s like watching a grape die on the vine.

Give your sales team access to MORE content – CONTENT IS KING. Content is the reason why your buyers want to come to sales rep pages. You must feed the beast for it to attack!

Integrate with marketing automation! What good is a landing page if you can determine traffic, buyer activity, and build a buyer behavior score (so you can focus on the HOT LEADS).

How do we get started?

If you don’t want to be left behind the 8 ball – you need to start to take action. The following dozen blog posts on utilizing Social Selling strategies using LinkedIn can help you start. If you are really looking for some hidden gems on how you can attract a very specific prospect, I recommend you check out – 10 Steps to Building a Social Selling Machine. Find the topic of Social Selling interesting? Click below to book a time in my calendar to explore further!

Jamie Shanks

CTA

 

 

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