PandaDoc - Social Selling Initiative of the Year
Company: PandaDoc, San Francisco, CA
Company Description: PandaDoc is one of the fastest-growing B2B SaaS companies in the eSignature, proposal, and contract management space. Used by more than 15,000 of the most innovative businesses around the world, PandaDoc empowers sellers to personalize documents that build meaningful customer relationships and win more business.
Nomination Category: Sales Awards Achievement Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Social Selling Initiative of the Year
Nomination Title: Scaling Up and Getting Social: Sales in the Digital Age
Which will you submit for your nomination in this category, a video of up to five (5) minutes in length, explaining the nominated achievement since July 1, 2018, OR a written essay of up to 650 words describing the same? (Choose one): An essay/case study of up to 650 words
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Challenge
PandaDoc has a talent for filling the right seats with the right butts. Each one of our sales professionals is either bursting with raw, coachable talent or has an impressive rap sheet that’s a mile long. Our team is sharp, dynamic, and consistently meets expectations.
But when a business transitions from startup to scale up, meeting expectations starts to look like exceeding them; pushing past traditional sales tactics, taking stock of the world around you, how people communicate, the technology available to you, and then viewing that information through a lens of innovation and practical application.
Sales can feel like a race; heads down, phones in hands, and laser focus ON. Exceeding expectations requires reflection – for reps to take a step back.
You can understand our predicament.
Our reps wanted a direct route to decision-makers, better relationships with clients, show-stopping conversion rates, and shorter sales cycles.
Social selling was the solution.
But there was another issue. One member of PandaDoc’s executive team revealed that despite all of their industry knowledge they were afraid to post on LinkedIn. They thought their followers wouldn’t be interested in what they had to say, or that they’d make an embarrassing grammatical error. Some reps were overly active, sending bulk InMail messages and regularly posting but with little engagement.
Solution
Our resident Sales Enablement and Training Manager, Patrick Downs, provided the road map to channel the energy of our reps. During our 2019 sales Quarterly Business Review (QBR), Patrick executed a session on how sales professionals should be leveraging the equal parts misappropriated and untapped power of social selling, specifically on LinkedIn.
Downs covered why reps weren’t seeing the level of engagement they wanted, how to structure successful posts, appropriate and effective ways to engage with decision-makers, and demonstrated what highly-shareable content looks like.
More importantly, he connected improving one’s social presence to identifying decision-makers, building client relationships, increasing conversion rates, and decreasing sales cycles.
The two most notable suggestions:
-Get to the Point
Reps have seconds to hook their followers. Downs suggests starting your post with an abbreviated style of writing, preferably a topic that is controversial and encourages followers to anxiously click “see more”. Opt to share insights over orders. Opinions beget more opinions, so be prepared to see your engagement skyrocket with this type of content.
-Get Tactical
Sales reps aren’t seasoned marketers. Identify the themes in your copy and when in doubt, add one. Focus on tagging relevant people in your posts who have the ability to widen your audience and engage with your post, like other reps you admire or leaders in the industry. Don’t forget to reply to comments. It’ll make your current base of followers feel heard.
Outcome
Learning to leverage the power of LinkedIn, our Pandas have reduced lead contact time, increased their number of leads, created deeper relationships with clients, improved conversion rates, and shortened their sales cycle.
PandaDoc executives and sales professionals alike now post regularly on LinkedIn using the structural and engagement strategies presented during the 2019 QBR. What used to be just a couple of sales reps posting regularly has now inspired even all eight members of our executive leadership to share and grow their personal brands too.
The Panda pioneer of social selling, Patrick Downs, has even co-hosted an episode of the B2B Sales Show podcast on the subject.
Social selling was never meant to be a magical deal-closing potion for our Pandas in the 11th hour. However, the raw talent of our reps combined with a little guidance and a product they truly believe in has created the secret sauce that we thrive on every day.