Today there are so many options for your business in advertising, marketing and messaging.

Were getting better in the transportation industry but we could do much better.

Back in the day some of the most popular selling methods included print media, mass mail outs, yellow pages, bill boards, radio, TV and a few others, today the internet has changed the game big time.  If your not using social media in your sales process you are on the outside looking in.  How effective does your company socially sell, think about it but before you think to hard let’s take a look at what social selling is.

I learned from Awario research how they defined social selling, it is a way for your sales team to use social media to connect with prospects and provide them value.  Interesting enough although social selling has been around for years, 40% of organizations are planning to adopt or have already adopted social selling, 53% of sales people want help in understating social selling better.

If your going to be at the front of the bus in your sector understanding social selling and how your going to do it can be very helpful to your business.

By no means am I a social selling expert but here are a few things I have learned from my research I would like to pass along:

• Social selling allows your sales people to target potential buyers and can eliminate in some cases the dreaded cold calling.
• Helps with the sales process and builds relationships.
• If your using Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter your off to a good start.

There are some best practices you will want to research as well when your building your strategy but the number one thing you can bet on and this hasn’t changed forever, is you need to continue to build meaningful relationships.  As you build your social media contact list its important to stay in touch with them.  Pay attention to what their posting, jump in from time to time, like their post, add comments and let them know you appreciate what their saying.

I am a huge believer in relationships with your clients, people do business with people they like and trust. The personal attention required does not go away just because you start a robust social selling plan, it just helps and becomes part of your arsenal.  There is plenty of information out there on social selling, while your doing your own research check out how people and companies are social listening and social advertising.  All of this will help with your end game – more customers to supply your excellent services or products to.

I should throw this out there as well for you seasoned veterans in our industry, don’t ignore what our youth are doing and how there doing it when it comes to engaging their customers online.  I’m amazed at how our young people do business.

Our industry is embracing recruitment on line for professional drivers more and more everyday.  This years at the National Recruiting and Retention Symposium one of our presenters is Joel Mandelbaum. He is the award winning author of Winning On Line, Increase Your Visibility And Crush Your Competition.  He will be bringing you new ideas on how to recruit and retain talent online.

Learn more about the Symposium at www.transrep.ca/symposium