The Social Sales Revolution: 7 Steps to Get Ahead

1Get in The

GameKnow Your Customer Hangouts

Build your Social

Market Value

First Friends, Then Leads

Connect With Social

Intelligence

Tweet-up Your Pipeline

Get Together, Sell Smarter

The power is in the hands of the buyerEarn credibility and respect to be a recommender - be helpful – trusted advisor

2 3 4 5 6 7

3. Build your Social Market Value

A social savvy rep needs to:• Join social dialog

• Build credibility

• Have experience

• Know the industry

• Be transparent

2PHOTO BY KEXINO

Credibility > Selling

3

Case Study:

190,000+CUSTOMER

S84,000+ SERVERS

4,500+ RACKERS

8 GLOBAL DATA CENTERS

120 +COUNTRIE

S

60%FORTUNE® 100

OFTHE

WE SERVE OVER

Annualized Revenue

OVER $1.2BILLION $$$$

OPEN TECHNOLOGY AT WEB SCALE

Choice, flexibility and freedom from vendor lock-in

SEAMLESS PORTFOLIOPublic Cloud, Private Cloud,

Hybrid Hosting and Dedicated Hosting

5

Recommendations

Relationships

Referrals

Sales injects social into the funnel to accelerate deals

6

SEM

Trade ShowsOnline Display

Events

Webinars

Demos

Whitepapers

Blogs

Email

Videos SEO

Qualified Leads

CUSTOMERS

Sales

7

Department involvement

BEFORE

Marketing

NOW

Marketing

Sales

8

THROUGH

DecisionConsiderationAwareness

AdviseListenIntro

GroupsFollowConnect

prospect with social

platforms

prospects and have

them follow us

to prospects

for feedback

How we do it

BuildContent

AdviseListen

prospects on social

media

Including case

studies, webinars and more

We train our sales teams to think and act social

How to:Build personalized social profiles on multiple platforms

Engage directly with

recommendations and relationships

Join groups and gain credibility

Build contacts by territory and customer list

Involve prospects in the conversation

Build and maintain relationships

Research and monitor social

media

Make your sales team:1. Effective

2. Social

3. Self-reliant

12

Our customers and prospects are already thereIT Leaders & C-Level use LinkedIn to get their job done – finding information, recommendations, and solutions.

Staying on top of the latest news or trends in enterprise software

Finding recommendations for enterprise software products

Getting advice on how to solve an enterprise software challenge

Getting information about enterprise software companies or products

0% 20% 40% 60% 80%

43%

50%

52%

56%

% Who Think LinkedIn is a Good Resource for:

Base: All IT survey respondents (N = 800).

IT Software Study – March 2011

“Do you agree or disagree with the following statements? LinkedIn is a good resource for:”% of respondents who answered “Agree” or “Strongly Agree”.

LinkedIn Provides a Connection to Trusted AdviceWork colleagues are the most widely trusted source of recommendations.

Vendor salespeople

Vendor websites

IT forums and message boards

Consultants

IT publications (CNET, ZDnet, etc.)

Industry analysts (Gartner/Forrester/IDC)

Work colleagues / professional network

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

22%

23%

51%

58%

59%

80%

93%

Base: All IT survey respondents (N = 800).

% Who Would Trust a Recommendation From:

“When deciding whether to purchase a particular software product for your company or institution, do you trust recommendations from the following sources?”

IT Software Study – March 2011

15

The Power of

Recommendations

on LinkedIn

Rackspace vs. Company X

554Recommendations

7Recommendations

17

Professionals recommending Rackspace on LinkedInwork for these companies:

18

We failed before we succeeded

How we first failed:• Our initial approach was too

aggressive in scale• Mass mandate failed

• No instant results

• More planning needed

• Disconnect: tying social to

quotas

How we succeeded

• A pilot team that

• Understood relationships

• Connected the dots

• Had patience

Key Results

Increased engagement on

social platforms from sales teams and their customers

Increased event attendance from their customers

Increased downloads and

engagement with content

More leads through referrals,

relationships and recommendations