As the Passle team continues to rapidly grow, so does the need for a bit of extra space. Our team headed off this morning to check out our new office. I watched as the construction team was hard at work and I couldn't help but think about how firms need to focus on building a strong foundation for the digital brand of the firm and its fee earners.

Here is a snapshot view of the steps you as a marketer can take to make this happen:

Equip your team with the necessary tools

It is vital that you provide your sales teams with the knowledge, tools & tech that they need to build their social profiles as well as creating content. There are various tech options available to do this. From social selling tools to content marketing technologies, the possibilities are endless.

Building the foundation 

The key to building the digital brand of your salespeople is building a strong social profile. Despite LinkedIn being the largest publicly available B2B database in the world, many salespeople in the industry still aren't using it effectively.

Sales and marketing leaders need to collaborate to educate sale teams around the value of building their profiles and help get their profiles set up in a way which effectively demonstrates their expertise and value. The profile of these individuals will often act as the first point of contact between them and many prospects and referrals and we all know the impact that a first impression can have.

Developing the structure

Helping your sales teams outline and promote your firm's corporate brand, as well as their personal brand, is key to any successful social selling program. 

By demonstrating how salespeople can best develop their online personas and build an effective, and powerful network of connections you are able to help them open doors to new prospects and markets which may not have been available to them before. 

It is really important that you clearly demonstrate the purpose for building these profiles and nurturing the conversations online. Ultimately your sales team is made up of various individuals who are driven by financial targets and always chasing the next sale. By showing them the value in engaging directly online and having a strong social presence and how that can relate to driving new growth and revenue you start to speak their language. 

Teach them how to do their due diligence online by researching their prospects on social platforms like LinkedIn, and how by doing this research they can gain a competitive advantage by understanding their prospects and clients on a deeper level. 

In turn, show them how potential buyers will be doing the same when looking for suppliers. By doing this you are showing the importance of being positioned as a trusted expert in the market. 

Adding the furnishings and final touches 

Ultimately sharing and engaging with content online is the lifeblood of a successful social selling program and the best way to get your foot in the door when trying to make a sale. Marketing should collaborate with sales teams and plan out ideas for what content would be most meaningful and valuable when engaging in sales efforts. 

With the support of the marketing team and the feedback of sales teams around the interaction with this content, you are able to create a spinning wheel of effective content creation and distribution from both teams which ultimately supports the overall goals of the firm. 

By following these simple steps you are able to get involved with your sales teams and help them further build these brands they are able to effectively position themselves in the market and generate leads and revenue and ultimately make your content and distribution of content flow more easily and effectively.