With social media platforms being all the rage all over the world right now, it’s no surprise that it’s now become a fundamental new way to sell your products or services.

Social selling is about developing relationships with customers and prospects on social media sites, like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, as part of the sales process. It’s not about aggressive online sales tactics; it’s about engaging, listening, and providing value in order to make more sales. It’s a long game that will allow for great rewards over time. Done right, social selling can create a significantly positive impact on your bottom line.

For at least the near future, social selling is here to stay, so you should make an effort to care about it. Here are a few reasons why.

It’s Proven to Be Effective

A few years ago, you might have been able to argue that social selling was too new and unproven to take on. But now, the facts are in. Sales representatives who use social selling as part of their overall sales strategy more often hit their quotas than the sales people who don’t. It has also been proven to shorten the sales cycle and boost lead rates and converting opportunities, making it highly valuable to sales organizations.

It’s Cost Effective

Though social selling requires patience and you won’t see results overnight, it’s still a highly effective sales tactic, especially considering it’s incredibly cost effective. The majority of social media sites and tools are free to use. And the leads come at a fraction of the cost of other sales digital methods, like PPC. If you’re looking to not only boost sales but do so at a lower cost, then you should definitely care about social selling.

It Allows You to Provide Value

Social media platforms are excellent places for your sales people to position themselves as experts in the industry—as thought leaders—and thus more easily convert clients. They can easily share their thoughts, reviews, and vision on sites like Facebook and LinkedIn. If your sales people are blogging, they can link to their blogs and show off their professional insights. If there are important news updates about your company or industry, they can be displayed on your company’s social profiles.

Prospects and consumers are now looking for deep insights and information online before they purchase anything—and social selling can help you be the one providing this information they seek, so they’ll think more highly of your company. Social selling allows you to build trust and credibility, which are vital in the business world.

It Can Help You Stay Ahead of the Curve

Because social selling is still relatively new, only coming into the business world in the past few years, it isn’t a widely used sales strategy—yet. All of your competitors haven’t implemented it yet, so you can stay ahead of the curve by jumping on board before they do. Your customers and prospects are providing valuable pain points and buying signals via social media right now, so you should be there to respond and grab their business before all of your competitors start to appear. 

It’s Easily Scalable

You can research, identify, and nurture an endless number of prospects via social selling. You can literally reach thousands of prospects and customers at once. You’re no longer gated by how many people you can call in a day. Social selling is easily scalable, which makes its ROI very lucrative.

It’s time to jump on board and start selling on social media. It might just be the point of differentiation that sets you apart from your competitors and boosts your sales.