This book is very useful for those who sell online on Facebook in this day and age. Generally, most sellers still use old methods, such as making phone calls, setting up appointments with customers, and creating opportunities to close sales. But in today's era of technology and the internet, these methods are almost obsolete. Those who have experienced this will know, especially sales staff. You make a phone call, and before a few seconds have passed, the customer has already hung up. You ask to meet a customer, but they don't want to meet. Even if you do get a meeting, you barely get to say a few words before they're busy and leave. In short, they don't want to spend time reading to us introduce our products or services. Both we and they generally don't like this. Sometimes, I'm the same. If someone calls and bothers me too often, I block their number immediately. Some people, as soon as they see a salesperson, feel annoyed and don't even want to be near them.
In this situation, if we are the salesperson, what should we do? This book will tell you what obstacles are preventing you from reaching your customers. The methods in this book are different from the traditional methods that some sellers have used in the past. It tells us how to package ourselves well on social media first, then look for a good opportunity to meet the customer in person. The author of this book has extensive experience and a deep understanding of the methods and strategies behind consumer decision-making on the internet.
This book has three main points. First, we will talk about the most important points in selling on social media that you need to know. Second, two key principles that online sellers must follow. And third, we will cover the five steps to successfully selling products and services on social media.
Let's look at the first point. What is the most important thing you need to know about selling online? Salespeople need to make themselves a key figure that customers cannot do without when they have a need to buy. Our goal is to find out who the real decision-maker is. When we find these people, we will have a high chance of successfully selling our products or services. In the old way of selling, you might think that the person who decides to buy is the user. If it's a company, it must be the boss or the CEO. When we want someone or a company to buy or use our product, we have to look for a network we know to introduce us to our target customer to have a chance to meet them. But in the age of technology, everything has changed completely. The good news is, we just need to use the internet or social media to reach our customers. We don't need an introduction anymore. Another thing, it has shifted from meeting in person outside to communicating through social media. Customers don't need to meet in person to make a decision.
The goal in selling is to find the target customer, create an opportunity to get close to the customer, achieve a successful sale, and finally, make a profit. In this process, finding the target customer is the most important step. If this is not done well, the next steps will surely fail. In traditional selling, salespeople only think about advertising their products and services without knowing if the person actually needs their product or not. Selling to the wrong target customer not only has a high chance of failure but can also create a rift between friends and your social relationships.
You often receive calls from unknown numbers promoting condos or selling insurance. Generally, most people don't like this. And sometimes, before they even finish speaking, the person hangs up. If it's an email, it gets routed to the spam folder. The business cards they hand out are thrown in the trash before you even get a good look at them. You see, all these tactics are outdated. When those methods are no longer effective, sellers must find new ways to deliver information, products, and services to customers.
Let's look at the purchasing behavior of customers. They don't like being disturbed by information they don't need. But when they do have a need, they will search for product information on the internet. The growth of the internet and the increasing number of users from day to day means a lot of information is available on the internet and social media. They can find almost anything they want on the internet. For example, if you want to know something, you just search on Google, and in a few seconds, there will be millions of results for you. And if you want to know someone, just search on Facebook, and you'll find them immediately. This is the power of the internet. We see that in the past, sellers chased buyers, but now, buyers look for sellers when they have a need.
Let's move on to the second point. The purchasing behavior in the internet age has changed. In the past, when we had a product or service to sell to a company, we would contact the staff or a department of that company to seek an opportunity to present or introduce our products and services to the management or the highest decision-maker of that company. But this method has a problem. Sometimes, the company we present to may not actually have a need to buy our product or service. Another thing is, they need to have choices before they make a decision. Decision-makers need more and better information to compare. Therefore, they choose to search for information on social media or the internet, which makes it very difficult for salespeople and gives them almost no opportunity to introduce their products or services to customers or companies because they have been rejected from the very beginning.
This change in purchasing behavior shows us two things. First, the use of big data is very important information in driving purchasing decisions. Second, the process of making a purchase on the internet is getting easier day by day, especially since it is easier than buying outside. Finding the real decision-maker is very difficult. You should know that the person who decides to buy is not necessarily the one with the highest position. The CEO is not necessarily the final decision-maker in purchasing a product or service for the company. According to Google's data in 2014, it showed that while the CEO's purchasing decision accounted for 64%, the decisions of lower-level staff who are not CEOs accounted for up to 81%. This means that the people who decide to buy your product or service in a company are not all high-ranking individuals. Most of them might be project managers, heads of the purchasing department, or sometimes just regular employees. For example, in the decision to buy a domain or server for a company's website, they might buy it through websites like GoDaddy, Alibaba's AliCloud, or Amazon's AWS. But the decision of where to buy it probably lies in the hands of a regular employee, not the CEO, because the CEO probably doesn't know about technology or doesn't want to bother with such small decisions. Therefore, salespeople need to find the hidden primary decision-maker. If we analyze these people, in a company, this type of person has three special characteristics. First, they are influential people but don't have much of a say in big decisions. Second, they don't have very high positions or titles. And third, they are smart people with good connections with people outside. Their job is mostly to find solutions for the company to submit to their superiors for approval. Therefore, when you find them, it means you have a connection and a high chance of making a sale. The above is the first point we wanted to talk about. That is, the most important person in the decision-making process is the primary decision-maker, who is a mid-level employee or just a regular employee.
In the age of the internet and the rapid growth of social media users, traditional selling has changed, making salespeople not the first people that come to mind when someone is making a purchase decision. If you are a seller of products or services to a company, you need to find out who the primary decision-maker is. They are often not the CEO, but they might be a specialist or the head of a department.
Next, we move to the third point. The two key principles of selling on social media are: being an expert and building trust. In the internet age, everyone uses social media. An ordinary person can have an influence you wouldn't imagine. When you share knowledge with your users or customers, they will come to you on their own. In layman's terms, it's about keeping the pond healthy so you don't lack fish. This means if you are truly an expert in a field, customers will come to you because you have a presence on the internet. It's not difficult when they want to find you. But the essential condition you must have is that you must be a true expert in that field. Or we can say that your product or service is truly special, cheaper, or faster than others. Because they will compare your service with others' services later. Selling on social media is different from traditional selling and selling through a website.
Traditional selling often has a process like this: collect name cards, make phone calls or send emails, arrange meetings, and then introduce the product or service. As for selling on websites, you pay Google, YouTube, or Facebook to advertise your business, pushing information to as many customers as possible. Some businesses can be annoying. Generally, people don't like to watch advertisements and often close them. Selling on social media is different. It's not about selling, but about the social network itself. You need to know how to make yourself a person who provides valuable information to your users. It's not just about thinking of selling to make a profit. You could say that traditional selling is a one-way delivery of products or services. As for selling on social media, it's a two-way street. Sellers can find buyers, and buyers can also find sellers.
So how do these two groups find each other? For a buyer to find you, you need to follow two key principles: become an expert and build trust. Let's look at the first key principle. When you provide advice or share valuable knowledge with users, they will understand that you have a deep understanding of your field. And when you show that you are an expert, you will have the opportunity to meet your target customers or primary decision-makers if it's a company. Those people will come to you on their own because they see your expertise, because they don't want to make the wrong decision. The question is, how do you package yourself to become an expert?
The first point is to know how to package yourself well, which we often call "personal branding." When it comes to social media, the first thing we see of a person is through their profile. When you set up your profile well and completely, it allows others to see your true self and understand you better. Therefore, don't be lazy about writing your personal information on the social media you use, make it accurate and detailed. Your target customers will look at that information first before they decide whether to create a connection with you or not. If you write an unappealing self-introduction or personal information, you won't even get a "Hi," let alone them buying your product. And when writing a self-introduction or packaging your profile, you need to do it in a way that captures the buyer's interest. Therefore, you need to make your social media account appealing and suitable for an expert.
First, you need to find a very beautiful and professional-looking photo. If you are a photographer, you should not use a blurry photo as your profile picture because it doesn't look like you're a professional photographer. If you are a provider of consulting services, law, or a lawyer, then you should choose a photo where you are dressed in a way that looks professional. A shirt, a tie, and a photo showing the upper half of your body, looking suitable for your job. Another thing is that you should use the same profile photo on all platforms like Facebook, Telegram, and LinkedIn. You should use the same profile picture to maintain your personal branding and be consistent across all platforms. Your profile on social media is like your business card. The photo should be a portrait with good quality, clean clothes, and appropriate for a professional. If you are a dentist, wearing a dentist's uniform would be best. Avoid wearing casual clothes like T-shirts or ripped jeans. This makes others see you as an ordinary person like everyone else, not showing any special characteristics or professional appeal.
Please note that the above is for people who want to sell products or services, and expand their business on the internet. It is not for everyone. If you are not involved in these activities, you can set up your profile however you like. Another thing, in the introduction section, you should write about yourself and your expertise in a short, easy-to-understand way, and about the value you can offer to your fans. This self-introduction should be about yourself, not about your company's services. For example, if you are a salesperson for an insurance service, you can write: "Helping you protect yourself and your family from unexpected risks." And if you are a car salesperson, your bio can say: "An expert in consulting and choosing the right car for you."
After you have spent time designing and decorating your profile, the second thing you need to do is to send valuable information to your users. Or your fans on social media. It could be sharing various knowledge related to your field. One thing you should not do if you want to become a successful online seller is to not start immediately by posting about selling your products or services. You should first post articles or videos that are related to the knowledge of your field. You need to provide some value to your users or fans. Share your knowledge and insights with them frequently and consistently so that they will follow you. Use short and catchy captions to get them to view your articles or videos.
You should spend some time finding good articles from websites or other social media. You can edit, translate, or add your own insights to those articles. If you can write articles yourself, that's even better. You should know that the more you share, the more you can attract target customers beyond your imagination. If you don't write good articles or don't provide value and benefits to your readers, you won't be able to attract your target customers. And if you only post advertisements day in and day out, you can't become a successful seller, and people won't even look at you. They will scroll past because it's annoying. Sometimes they even block you.
So what kind of articles are good? Good articles are the kind that share knowledge and various techniques. If you are a car seller, you can find some articles related to car usage, techniques for car maintenance, or some points to consider before choosing to buy a car. You need to understand their needs. You have to think for them, consider, weigh, and save for them, not just know how to sell to them. When you provide this value to them, I believe that when they have a need to buy a car, or their friends have a need to buy a car, they will come to you. For example, if you are a seller of men's watches, you can write an article like this: "Five things you need to consider before you decide to buy a watch." These articles are all available on the internet. You just need to spend a little time to edit them. It can help readers gain new knowledge, like articles that talk about the history of famous watch brands around the world, or articles that tell you how to wear a watch according to the occasion.
If you try to do this for a long period of time, I believe that when they need to buy a watch, they will come to you and think that it's the right decision to buy from you. Not only that, he will tell his friends to come and buy a watch from you, doing marketing for you for free. You can sell more because they already trust you completely in choosing a men's watch. The author had a fan who told him, "I follow you because I see the various articles you've posted. They are really useful for me. Even though I haven't read all the articles you wrote, the ones I did read really gave me a lot of new knowledge." Therefore, to become a successful seller on social media, you need to spend time absorbing knowledge related to your field, research it, and then share it on social media through your page. Only then can you attract and gain the trust of your target customers.
Besides setting up your social media account well and sharing knowledge, expressing opinions through comments is also something that cannot be overlooked. For all social media platforms, they were not created just for you to share things one-way, but also for you to express opinions, communicate, and interact with your friends. Moreover, when more people comment on your post, it will make the post you shared more popular, and more people will see it because the AI of the social media platform will push that information or post to more people. Comments are very important because they show the opinion of the author of the post, making the reader feel a connection with the author or the owner of the post. You can get to know each other on a deeper level, and the opportunity to sell to them becomes higher. Therefore, when you comment, you should show your opinion as an expert, because more and more people will see your comment on that social media platform.
If you do it well, more people will share it with their target customers. For example, the famous question-and-answer knowledge-sharing platform in the world is Quora. When someone asks a question on this website, there are always experts who come to give very detailed, professional, and comprehensive answers. When readers see these good answers, they will follow those experts to get more knowledge. This is a form of advertising that is free but highly effective.
The second point, providing trust is also an important thing in selling on social media. You can't just start by posting a status that says, "Hey everyone, I have skin whitening lotion for sale. Come and buy some from me." Doing this not only results in no buyers, but you might also lose some friends. People who are just casual acquaintances will probably be startled. They will think, "Here we go again, another online seller." You will probably say, "Well, if I don't announce it, how will they know I'm selling it?" In fact, you don't need to announce it like that. You need to build trust first. To build trust, the author has presented two key tips. First, listen with your full attention. And second, create a one-on-one conversation. You need to know how to listen to what others are saying. You can follow your target customers' accounts, observe their daily lives, their work, and the problems they face. Then, find a common point to start a conversation with them. For example, recently you saw a friend on your social media start raising a cat because he often posts pictures with his cat. Therefore, you can start a conversation with him by starting a topic about how to raise a cat or the habits of cats. After knowing his situation through listening, you need to start the second step: create a one-on-one conversation.
A one-on-one conversation is very important because it makes them feel special and valued. All of this can strengthen the relationship between you and them. Therefore, it feels closer and more special. Just by doing this, you already have an advantage over your competitors. At least you are known to each other. One-on-one conversations have a very high success rate in sales. A study has shown that if you send an email to someone, the chance of them opening your email is only about 4%. This means the rejection rate is up to 96%. But if you do it the way mentioned above, use social media to attract target customers, then build trust by following their daily life and knowing their needs, and then chat with them directly by starting the conversation correctly, the chance of rejection drops to only 10%. This means you can have a success rate of up to 90%.
Just now, we have covered two important points in selling goods on social media and two key principles that you need to follow. Below this, we will discuss the third point: the five steps to selling successfully on social media. Compared to traditional selling, selling on social media has a high success rate and low cost because selling on social media happens because they already trust you. Not only that, the internet is vast. If you know how to create good content, it can easily be shared and reach hundreds of thousands of people. This number is not possible for traditional businesses.
In the internet age, you can't overlook selling and advertising on social media, and it's something you need to learn. The famous airline, Maersk, created a Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter account and connected with over 2 million people. They used social media to find target customers, partners, and shipping companies, advertise, and recruit staff. The phone company Xiaomi launched the Redmi phone model by using the largest social network in China called QQ to find their customers. They set up a strategy for selling on social media and sold 5 million Redmi phones in just 2 minutes. We know the influence and special features of selling on social media.
Next, let's look at the 5 steps to successfully selling on social media.
Step 1: Open an online store or create a page. That page must have one salesperson who is online for at least 6 hours a day. Each salesperson must follow the principles we have set above. Set up your social media account to be good. You must have a name that is easy to remember and easy to read. And don't forget to write an introduction about yourself, which we call a bio, that is short and easy to understand. We know that your target customers might follow you if you have an appealing profile and look like an expert who can help, save, and solve their problems. Therefore, when setting up your account, you must make sure to highlight these points. For example, you can write: "My name is Somnang, a legal consultant for Company K." You see? First, "Somnang" is the name of a real person, not a fake profile. Second, the word "expert" makes you look professional and trustworthy. Third, "Company K" shows your company's background, which makes them trust you even more.
Step 2: Learn to listen to your customers. After you have created an online store or page, you should regularly share good articles or learn to write articles yourself, or you can add your target customers to get to know them first. Regularly comment on their statuses to get them to notice you. At that point, they will start to get to know you, who you are, and what you are doing. What you need to be careful about is not to just post about your business all day, broadcasting it like a TV station. It's not effective and it's annoying. Therefore, what you need to do is to build a relationship with your target customers and listen carefully to their words and their daily lives. You should not send them information like a commercial. When we send a direct message to them, they will probably respond. At that point, you can use two strategies. First is to follow up with them. For example, recently you saw a friend on your social media who just built a new house and has a need to buy furniture. You can ask them if they have ever thought about some important points that they should consider before buying furniture for their new house. When you ask them like this, they will probably be surprised and want to know the answer. It seems more like giving advice than a direct sale. The chance of you making a sale is probably higher.
The second strategy is to find a topic to talk about. When you see them post something about their life, daily routine, and work, you can comment and reply to them. For example, recently you often see a friend post adorable pictures with their husky dog. If you are a seller of dog food online or a veterinarian, you can comment on that picture with words in the capacity of an expert. You can say, "Did you know that huskies should not eat certain types of food?" You have to find a point or a topic to create a conversation between them and you. Both of these strategies are also used in traditional selling, it's just a shift from meeting in person to online. When you meet a customer at their house, you can observe the photos on the wall. You can guess what kind of person they are, what they like, and what they have been through. You can have a conversation with them using stories related to them. For example, you saw a family photo of them on a trip together in Pattaya. You can ask them, "Have you been to Pattaya? I've been there once too. The scenery and the sea there are so beautiful." At that point, you will have many more conversations, the more you talk, the closer you get.
Step 3: Be an influential person. When talking about social media, this point is very important. To become an influential person on social media, you have to share valuable information and build trust with your followers. We have already explained this point above. I will not explain it again. On social media, the way to judge a person is through their photos, articles, or videos that they share or post. We can make a preliminary assumption about their personality, lifestyle, or life. We say this not to judge people, but it's just your initial assumption so that you can decide what strategy to use with what type of person. At this point, the author has shared another technique. When you post or share on social media, you should follow the 4-1-1 rule. This means you can post about sharing articles, knowledge related to your field. Like the example above. An article that says "5 techniques you should know before choosing to buy a watch." This type of article should be posted 4 times. And another time, you should post about your company or where you work. And one more time, you should post about yourself or something fun. You can post playing with your pet or post a photo of you playing sports or swimming. The goal is to add some flavor to your life and your profile to make it more appealing. The important thing is that you can have many topics to talk about with your customers when you have done many things. You don't have to be an expert, as long as you have experience, that's enough. If you meet a wealthy customer who talks about playing golf, if you don't even know how golf is played, you will probably have nothing to talk about.
To sum up, the 4-1-1 rule is sufficient to show your expertise, your authenticity, and build trust with your readers. And you can also show your personal life, lifestyle, and interests, which makes them more interested and feel closer.
Step 4: Work smart. When you find information or articles to share, translate, or edit, you spend a lot of time. Some programs can simplify your daily work. They can help you manage your time well and be more productive. Therefore, you should know how to use some supporting tools like translation programs, grammar checkers, video editing programs using your smartphone, and so on. When you work using supporting tools, you can use the least amount of time but be highly productive. You have enough time to do other work, think about digital marketing strategies, do more research, or even go to meet customers in person. For example, if most of your target customers are foreigners living in Europe, whose time zones are different from Cambodia's. If you want to send information to them during their daytime, you have to send it in the middle of the night, which is when you are supposed to be sleeping. Therefore, you need to know how to use tools to publish that information during the day. Even if you are sleeping, that information will be sent to your target customers at the right time.
The fifth point: get everyone involved. When you are the only salesperson, the influence and dissemination of your information will be limited. Therefore, it requires everyone to participate. Everyone should share, like, or comment on an article or a piece of content to make it widely disseminated. In some companies, they have integrated selling on social media into the company's strategy and implementation plan. Many CEOs and founders have shared their videos on social media. Through these videos, they have written and talked about their experiences, successes, and failures, creating stories and some motivational speeches. This is also a good strategy for selling on social media. It is very effective, like what Elon Musk, Dan Lok, or Jack Ma have done. Sometimes people buy a product or use a service because you are their idol. They fully support you in what you do. You can also create fun events like giveaways to get your viewers or fans to continue sharing with their friends.
The above is a summary of the important points in this book. I will summarize briefly what we have discussed above. I have raised three important points in this book. First, we talked about the most important points in selling on social media. Second, we raised two key principles in selling goods online. And finally, we talked about the five steps to achieving successful sales.
First, we mentioned that selling on social media has different methods compared to traditional selling. Salespeople who don't know how to use social media well will probably not have any customers coming to them. And the problem is that even if you go to them, they don't need you because in the era of online selling, buyers need to have many choices. And whenever they have a need, they will go to the seller who is an expert. Just like when you need to buy something, you start searching on Google or scrolling through Facebook. Therefore, the most important point is that salespeople must find the primary decision-maker and somehow make themselves a key figure that the buyer needs and cannot overlook.
The second point, we raised two principles that sellers in the age of the internet should follow. Sellers must know how to present themselves as an expert and know how to build trust with customers. Therefore, to make yourself look like an expert, you should regularly share knowledge, good articles, and your insights on a topic in your field. By listening carefully to the needs and personal life of your target customers, you can start a one-on-one conversation to build trust between you and your target customer or fan. And the last point, we talked about the five steps to achieving successful sales on social media. First, you start by opening an online store or creating a page. Second, listen to the needs of your customers and follow their profiles. The third point is to become a person who can be trusted by providing advice and creating a conversation with them. The fourth point is to work smart by using supporting tools. And the last point is to get everyone involved to create various events to get your fans or friends to share further.