Sales is the proving ground for an organization's social business program.

Successful social sales efforts begin with the activation and optimization of the individual brands of the salespeople. The process can then progress to activities including content creation, content amplification and converting online to offline behavior.

The social sales program must include the following 4 key steps:

1. Build individual social business identities. Focus on profile activation and optimization for relevant channels to your business.

2. Grow social business networks. Leverage academic and work history to connect with target companies and roles.

3. Deepen social business networks. Request sponsored introductions through your existing connections for targeted network building and growth. Contribute to and relate through conversations in groups and communities, Twitter conversations or common lists/hash-tagged content. Create original content and share across social networks.

4. Convert interactions fluidly between online and offline channels. Communicate and coordinate online to meet at upcoming events, forums, Meetups or other activities.

Take Aways

Provide ongoing training and set up an organized self-study library and regular lunch-and-learns to reinforce the behavioral change and sharing of successes and challenges.

Once the program is fully underway, amplify the behaviors and collaboration that are working by leveraging social sales enablement tools.