A case in point: at KiteDesk, we are wrapping up a nationwide Voice of the Customer<\/a> survey that measures the pervasiveness of social selling practices. The early results show that while 94% of respondents are on LinkedIn and 67% reportedly use Twitter, only 26% are using social channels for listening and 37% to engage with prospects. In other words, only early adopters are using social media to connect intelligently with potential customers.<\/p>\n That said, I\u2019m optimistic that with the right tools, training and senior-level support, the industry will quickly move from early adopters to the early majority phase. <\/p>\n A quick Google Trends search shows that interest in social sales is significant, and it continues to trend upwards: But interest is just one indicator. There are three barriers to industry-wide social sales adoption. The first is a lack of education: only the minority understand how to get a positive return on the time invested in social media. Second, there are few easy-to-use tools for intelligent prospecting, listening and buyer engagement. And, finally, there’s limited support among c-suite executives, many of whom aren’t social<\/a> themselves.<\/p>\n So what are best-in-class social sales organizations like Ford Motor Company, GE Capital, Trendr and XO Communications doing differently? First and foremost, they equip their teams with the tools and social media know-how to makes social selling effective. They evangelize success stories across the organization. And they track the reach, efficacy and business impacts that social selling delivers.<\/p>\n Reach<\/strong> is simply a measure of the size of your entire company\u2019s network, where those connections exist and its growth trajectory. See for example KiteDesk\u2019s soon-to-be-released sales connections leader board, which measures the relationship capital of the entire company<\/em>. <\/p>\n I firmly believe that business relationship capital should be viewed, managed, protected and reported in the same manner as any other business asset. The most valuable reach metrics to track include:<\/p>\n 1.\tTotal company connections To track the efficacy<\/strong> of KiteDesk’s social marketing and sales efforts, I use:<\/p>\n 1.\tSprout Social, to measure influence on twitter (eg the total number of followers, @mentions in the last two weeks and number of new followers in the last two weeks), social engagement (an algorithm measuring the number of @replies or @mentions in response to the tweets we send) and share of voice. That said, if you create only one social selling dashboard, business impact<\/strong> should be it. Some of the best Key Performance Indicators to track include:<\/p>\n 1.\tSales cycle impact.![\"Innovation](\"http:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Innovation-Adoption-Cycle-300x193.jpg\")
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\n2.\tTotal direct connections
\n3.\tConnections by source (LinkedIn, Gmail, CRM, etc.)
\n4.\tProjected growth of connections based on previous growth rates
\n5.\tThe reach of your content shared and consumed across your company\u2019s connections
\n6.\tReach by targeted customer profile, customer account, geography and industry
\n7.\t(Eventually) The value of this reach, based on the influence these connections have on closing sales.<\/p>\n
\n2.\tSalesforce, where we house data about our sales funnel and the sales process.
\n3.\tSocial Bro, to project the growth of our social connections, analyze the best days and times to engage our audience and identify industry thought leaders so we can connect and build relationships with them.<\/p>\n
\n2.\tAccount penetration. How many people are engaged in the process, their titles and their role in the decision making process.
\n3.\tRevenue or profit per sale. Trusted relationships should be valued higher. Be sure to monitor this metric to be sure sales reps are not negotiating away the relationship capital you have built.
\n4.\tClose ratio. LinkedIn’s Koka Sexton<\/a> reports a 2x-4x lift on conversion rates using social.
\n5.\tQuota obtained by sales teams and individual reps.
\n6.\tAnd finally \u2013 team morale. If your team is more productive AND happier, that is a positive sign that your shift to social sales succeeding.<\/p>\n