How ADP Uses Social Selling for Fun and Profit (But Mostly Profit)

Liz Gelb-O’Connor, ADP

Buyers are becoming more social, so sellers should become more social, too.

Liz Gelb-O’Connor, VP of Inside Sales Strategy and Growth at ADP, shared some of ADP’s success stories and social selling tactics in her presentation at the Inside Sales Virtual Summit.

She started by highlighting a few key stats that show the importance of social selling:

• 88 percent of B2B buyers research purchases online.
• Anywhere from 57 percent to 90 percent of B2B purchase decisions are made by the time the buyer reaches out to a specific vendor.
• Reps who use social selling are 50 percent more likely to meet or exceed their sales quota.

Watch Gelb-O’Connor’s presentation in the YouTube video below.

Identify trigger events

Gelb-O’Connor shared an example of how one of ADP’s inside sales managers closed a deal by spotting a trigger event. A few months ago, the manager set up a Google Alert for one of ADP’s clients.

She received a Google Alert with an article from a business journal, informing her that her client had just acquired a 2,000-employee company.

She acted fast, called the client and asked how ADP could help with the acquisition. The client was impressed that she had found out about this so quickly.

Her contact happened to be the CFO and was in the process of evaluating whether the company should stay with ADP or switch to the vendor that the newly acquired company was using.

After this conversation, the client decided to stay with ADP and add the 2,000-employee acquisition onto the account. That’s what you call #winning.

Connect with key decision makers

Another inside sales manager at ADP gained access to valuable prospects via LinkedIn. She knew ADP had made a lot of attempts trying to get into a large organization.

She thought her database might be missing some key contacts at this company.

By entering keywords for relevant areas and titles in LinkedIn’s Advanced People Search, she found two additional contacts: director of recruiting and director of tax.

She contacted them and scheduled two appointments to discuss ADP services. Now, this company is considering using ADP.

Establish thought leadership

ADP also teaches its inside sales pros to use LinkedIn to set themselves apart as industry thought leaders. Gelb-O’Connor told of a time that one of her managers closed a deal by answering a question posed in a LinkedIn Group.

The manager noticed a discussion about pre-employment drug testing. He jumped at the chance to share his expertise with the LinkedIn group. He identified himself as working for ADP and offered his opinion without pushing any products or coming across as too salesy.

A few days later, he received an email from the person who posted the question. She wanted to meet with him to discuss what ADP could offer. Within two weeks, he closed the deal with this client for ADP’s pre-employment product.

The value of social selling

Clearly, ADP is seeing a ton of business value from its social selling initiatives. Gelb-O’Connor says her company has closed deals ranging from $2,500 to more than $1 million by using these techniques.

Social selling is not just a small-business play. It’s not just a large-business play. It’s a play for every business in every segment of the market.

ADP has developed training modules for all levels of social sellers. It celebrates successes and shares best practices throughout the entire company. And it tracks the results of its social selling efforts.

How is your sales team using social selling? Share your best tips in the comments.

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