>>Thanks so much for making our preorder campaign a huge success. With your help, we reached 180% of our funding goal! Social Selling is now available here:
http://bit.ly/SocialSellingBook2015

Did you know that 89% of purchases (75% for B2B) start with an online search? Today's socially savvy buyers don't even contact you (or your competitors) until 57% of the purchase process is complete. Social media selling provides you with a never before seen opportunity to influence buyers to approach your business.

So what exactly is social selling? It's the practice of incorporating social networks in your sales process, from prospecting to positioning to presenting. Social selling doesn't replace the sales fundamentals, but instead evolves them. Today, social media provides sales professionals and business owners with the opportunity to engage with future customers directly without even picking up the phone. No more buying lists. No more cold calls. No more gatekeepers!

I'm writing this book because as a fellow sales professional and business owner, it's exactly the book I needed when I started with social media about 10 years ago. I'm writing this book for you.

In my work with sales professionals and business owners, I've noticed some best practices for social selling. In fact, 64% of sales teams who use social selling reach sales quotas (and 15% more contract renewals) versus 49% who do not adopt it. By incorporating these three areas (Prospecting, Positioning and Presenting) and ten essential strategies, you can experience the benefits too:

PART 1: PROSPECTING

Prospecting is one of the most important aspects of social selling (and traditional selling). You need to use social media to ask qualifying questions and keep refining your prospect list to help you avoid wasting time calling on people who are unlikely to do business with you.

Chapter 1: Find Your Audience. Know where your target customers are congregating on social media. Success in social selling requires discovering the top three ways of consistently reaching a large number of your target customer.

Chapter 2: Have Conversations with Prospects. Join discussions where prospects share their goals and challenges. Before promoting products that you love, find out what your customers love.

Chapter 3: Generate Sales Leads. Capture email addresses from prospects and fill your sales funnel. Link back to your opt-in page by offering and delivering something of value in exchange for their contact details.

Chapter 4: Get Past Gatekeepers. Qualify prospects and reach decision makers. Use search tools to identify stakeholders and confirm need, budget and decision-making authority.

PART 2: POSITIONING

In a world where buyers are inundated with choices, how can you stand out from other solution providers? It all comes down to positioning. While there's no right or wrong answer, you need to have at least one differentiator to stand out from your competition.

Chapter 5: Demonstrate Your Expertise. Position yourself as an authority and thought leader. Being an expert in your field will make you a more valuable resource. This will simplify and shorten the buying process.

Chapter 6: Differentiate From Competitors. Stand apart from competitors by communicating what's important to your prospects with your unique message. Share the essential elements of what your business is about.

Chapter 7: Assess Prospects' Needs. Ask the right questions to uncover problems and identify the needs of your prospects. This will better position you as the ideal solution provider.

PART 3: PRESENTING

Closing the sales is easier if everything is handled properly throughout your presentation. Effective closing methods do not pressure the prospect. Rather, your closing methods need to focus on prospects' dominant buying motives. Especially with increased competition in today's marketplace, you need to adopt a relationship strategy that emphasises the lifetime customer.

Chapter 8: Deliver Sales Presentations. Share solutions through online presentations. Plan your benefits, your answers to objections and your materials in advance.

Chapter 9: Ask for the Sale. Convert conversations to closed deals. Closing is easy if everything is handled properly throughout your presentation. Focus on prospects' dominant buying motives. Make it easy for them to buy from you.

Chapter 10: Get Spin-off Business. Use introductions and recommendations to get more business. Demonstrate how you can support your customers in solving their problems. Establish a partnering relationship.

This book is structured to walk you through the strategies in a certain order, because the sequence has proven to work for me and top sales professionals and business owners around the world. I recommend you start with the first strategy about finding your audience and work your way through the strategies in the order that they are presented. If a certain chapter resonates strongly with you right now, however, you're welcome to skip ahead.

At the end of each chapter, you'll find action steps designed to help you apply what you've read, so that you can keep moving forward and begin making sales with social media immediately. You're also encouraged to visit our website (www.socialsellingprogram.com), where you can watch videos and read blog posts that will help you reach your goals faster.

It's my hope that by applying the ten essential strategies in this book, you'll soon be using social selling to generate leads, stand apart from competitors and close more deals faster and easier than ever before.

The Plan

I'm loving writing this book and with your support we can make it a reality. We'll be self-publishing this book and the funds raised will be used for editing, design, printing and marketing. This pre-order campaign will run for 2 months; the writing, editing and layout will take 1-2 months; and you'll have your copy in your hands by March 2015.

Corporate and bulk discounts are available. Please contact Elaine at prosper@sohosalescoaching.com for more information.

The Author

Tom Abbott

Author | Coach | Speaker | Trainer

Tom Abbott is an international sales and social selling expert and author of 'The SOHO Solution: 21 Selling Strategies for Growing Your Small Business' and 'Social Selling: 10 Essential Strategies to Prospect, Position and Present using Social Media'. Multinational corporations with regional sales teams, engage Tom for cutting-edge programmes that help them generate leads, stand apart from competitors and close more sales faster than ever before. Clients include: Crocs, Electrolux, Fuji Xerox, Hewlett-Packard and Singapore Telecommunications.