Study: Salespeople Using Social Media Outsell Their Peers

I was just reading Mark Fidelman’s posting on a new study by Jim Keenan now proofing that those sellers using Social Media are significantly more successful. It only confirms my thoughts and believes:

The most interesting finding was that in 2012, 72.6% of sales people using social media to sell out performed those who weren’t using social media. … Then, Keenan found that when it came to exceeding sales quota (exceeding quota by more than 10%), social media users were 23% more successful than their non-social media peers. Keenan told me that no matter how you sliced the data, social media users came out on top. …

I realize that many will argue that the numbers may mean more correlation than causation -and they have a point. But consider that over half of the respondents (54%) who used social media tracked their social media usage back to at least one closed deal. Over 40% said they’ve closed between two and five deals as a result of social media and more than 10% of the respondents said; “Yes, It directly contributes to my closes.” Respondents were very clear. Social media was a leading factor in their closed deals.

… That also means that Linkedin, Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, Google Plus, a blog, etc. are no longer nice to haves, they are salesperson must haves.

via Study: 78% Of Salespeople Using Social Media Outsell Their Peers – Forbes.

You can download The Impact of Social Media on Sales Quota and Corporate Revenue here.

Approx. one year ago Jim Keenan and Mark published the following graph on the change in Sales:

via The Rise of Social Salespeople – Forbes.