If you think social media is just another fad that will fade away with time, you might need to reconsider that thought. Social media is here to stay, and the good news is that it might be a good thing for your business. With the drive towards digitalization in practically every field, social media has come to play a crucial role. It now encompasses a major part of a business – sales.
What constitutes social selling?
Most of us have heard the term ‘social selling’ and may have even used it time and again. But what does it really mean and why you should worry about it? For starters, social selling is not social media advertising or social media marketing. Social selling is a way of using social networks to find, connect with, comprehend, and nurture sales prospects. It’s not just talking about your brand or what services you have to offer, but to develop meaningful relationships with your prospective clients so that they keep your brand in their mind when they are ready to buy.
According to the data from LinkedIn’s social selling index, social selling leaders are 51% more likely to achieve their sales quota and create 48% more opportunities than their peers who don’t use social media effectively.
Lack of social selling skills in the UAE
According to the data collected by LinkedIn, in the last six months of 2017, the most in-demand sales skills on LinkedIn were strategy, contract negotiation, business planning, forecasting and budgeting. However, the skills listed by the sales professionals narrated a different story altogether. A detailed analysis revealed that not one of the top skills that UAE sales professionals listed matched the most in-demand skills for UAE salespeople on LinkedIn. It was also noted that when compared to the sales professionals of the European Union, UAE professionals do not list ‘social media’ in their skills.
Top brands utilize social selling to widen their reach
If we scrutinize the data acquired by the website stats.ae, UAE has 3.6 million active Facebook users, and 363,000 Twitter accounts, and collectively they tweet as many as 2.5 million times each day. Additionally, it has also been found that almost all successful brands of the UAE have a social-media page to broaden their marketing coverage and to make their brand more accessible to internet users.
The rise in bakeries, events planning and fashion designing businesses in the UAE is a direct consequence of increased social media presence. Social media has made it easier for enterprises to showcase their products to a large, targeted audience at once.
Future of social selling in the UAE
UAE is experiencing a tremendous growth in the adoption of digital and mobile technologies. In fact, a survey recently found that UAE residents are increasingly using their smartphones to shop with mobile spending set to grow by 26% between 2018 and 2019. The drive in mobile spending is expected to continue beyond 2020 with a further 25% growth. Hence, we can conclude that UAE is slowly turning into a country where social selling can and should be a massive show in the upcoming years. However, the lack of social selling skills is still a major reason to worry. There is an urgent need for the businesses to get their social communication right and utilize the growing digital market in the UAE to make their presence felt.
