Is social selling on your to-do list?

We’re big fans of it at Reply, and view social selling as a key part of any marketing campaign (if you’re not yet convinced, check the statistics on just how effective it’s become). That’s why we leapt at the opportunity to interview Dylan Hey.

Dylan is the business development manager at Leadfeeder, a tool that enables you to see who’s been visiting your website and turns these visitors into sales leads.

Whether you’re unsure where to start with social selling or looking to boost your existing campaigns, Dylan has a wealth of knowledge that he’s graciously agreed to share. Read on to learn more about the effectiveness of social selling, the tools Dylan recommends, and his tips for getting started.

Hi Dylan. Can you start by telling us a little bit about yourself and your passion for social selling?

I love social media and I’m always pushing myself to find new ways to utilise social as a business tool. I’m extremely passionate about helping everyone from startups through to large enterprises better utilise the data and tools that are available to us, so that we can not only increase our sales pipelines but also improve our customer’s experience. I find social selling is the perfect way to do this.

I completely agree. Can you tell us more about your background and what led to you joining LeadFeeder?

I left school at the age of 17 as I knew I didn’t want to follow my friends to university just because it’s seen as the right path to take. I knew I wanted to work. I had a pretty successful sporting career when I was younger and a family friend at the time suggested I get into sales so that’s what I did.

I started working for an engineering supplier company selling specialist tooling to anyone that would listen to me.

Our main clients were engineering shops and motorsport teams. I then moved into recruitment (headhunting) where I spent about 3 years. This was a heavily KPI’d and often boileroom type environment where I was targeted on high numbers of outbound calls just as much as my sales numbers.

Throughout this time I began to realise that I could utilise social media alongside my cold calling to actually close more deals at a faster pace. I then had a fantastic opportunity to join the sales team at Hootsuite in London.

This is when I really learnt to hone my skills with social and develop my love for proper social selling. I decided to leave Hootsuite earlier this year and take up the exciting challenge of growing LeadFeeder’s presence in the UK.

Lots of people are talking about social selling today, but what does it actually mean in practice?

By definition, social selling is about leveraging your social network to find the right prospects, build trusted relationships, and ultimately, achieve your sales goals.

In your experience, is social selling as effective as simply hitting the phones?

You will often see on LinkedIn people having the social selling vs cold calling debate. For me there is no debate, social selling isn’t here to replace cold calling.

If you’re a salesperson you can’t be scared of using the phone. Social selling in my opinion is more effective than solely cold calling but it’s important to remember that they both complement each other.

What’s the biggest mistake you see people make when social selling?

One of the biggest mistakes I see is people going for the sale immediately. With social selling it’s just as important to build a relationship first. I would recommend the book Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook by Gary Vaynerchuk as he covers this ideology in great detail.

I’m curious to know what your social selling toolstack looks like. Could you share that with us?

When it comes to tools there are hundreds, if not thousands within this space. I’m a sucker for a great Chrome extension too. The tools that I would say I use the most are:

What advice would you give someone who was looking to start social selling?

A great tip that I once received from Koka Sexton at Hootsuite was “Visibility creates opportunity”. I love this mantra and would say to people to just get started with your social and make sure you are visible.

I would also say to remember that you are human and have a personality. Don’t be afraid to show it off. People buy from people, not robots.

Social selling sounds great, but how effective is it really? What kind of results have you seen using social selling as a major component?

I have always over achieved on my pipeline generation targets and this has been as a result of my social selling efforts. One great example of this is during my first quarter at Hootsuite where I hit 260% of the target.

If we look at personal branding more specifically, my LinkedIn posts are now regularly seen by over 15,000 people at a time and this definitely had an impact on what I am trying to do at Leadfeeder with us having our record UK month in June.

Those are some impressive results! Thank you for sharing your expert advice with us. How can people get in touch if they want to learn more?

If you want to get in contact with me personally all of my social media links are below. I would love to answer any questions you have.

LinkedIn
Twitter
Facebook
YouTube
Instagram

Sign up for a free trial at leadfeeder.com and enter the promo code DYLAN10 for a 10% discount when your trial ends.

Thanks again to Dylan for that interview. Hopefully you’re now feeling inspired to go out there and use what you’ve learnt to supercharge your social selling. By putting a human face to your company and building meaningful relationships with your audience, you can boost your marketing efforts and enjoy higher lead generation.

If you’re ready to get started, sign up for free trial of Reply today and we’ll help you get your campaign up and running.