What is Social Selling and How to Do it Effectively?

In today's digital era, research indicates that 60% of purchase decisions are made before the buyer meets the seller. This statistic raises a significant challenge for typical salespersons in a hyperconnected world on social media: renewing their message and continually adapting it to their target audience. This is also where social selling comes in handy.

Thanks to today's social networks, salespeople can contact their prospects anytime and obtain much information from their profiles, allowing them to adapt their communication better. An estimated 92% of top sales reps already use this new method, so why not you?

Find out the benefits of social selling and how to apply them effectively to your business.

Definition of social selling

Social selling emerged in 2009 as part of academic research. In 2013, LinkedIn relied on this theory to launch a new software called Sales Solutions which depends on the database of contacts each user has on social networks and uses it as a sales engine. Thus, social selling is an approach that uses social networks to prospect for new customers. It would therefore replace cold calling, which is less and less effective today. Cold calling tends to annoy because it is considered too intrusive and poorly targeted. On the other hand, social selling allows you to know your target audience better and generate new leads. This social selling action is primarily used by salespeople in the B2B sector and mainly on the LinkedIn social network.

Why orient your sales strategy towards social selling?

Social selling is a powerful tool for effective sales prospecting. Since professionals are widely present on social networks, salespeople must also be present there. Indeed, the amount of information they can retrieve about their potential prospects is enormous, whether through the posts they like, share or comment on, the people they follow or the pages they regularly access. Sorting through all this information and selecting the most relevant allows them to tailor their prospecting.

Customers are no longer interested in spammy messages sent to hundreds of people. On the contrary, they are much more responsive to messages that are addressed to them personally. In addition, it is estimated that 59% of decision-makers no longer wish to deal with cold calls, and 75% make their purchase decision on the internet. Social selling, therefore, seems to be an appropriate response to deal with this paradigm shift. Salespeople are still prospecting, but the personalization of their messages and their presence on social networks humanizes the relationship they build with the prospect. The latter then accepts the initial exchange much more quickly.

Social selling is an excellent sales tool. 54% of salespeople say they have made at least one sale thanks to social selling!

How to do social selling effectively on LinkedIn?

Social selling is a relevant solution to deploy in your search for leads, especially B2B leads. But how to do it efficiently?

Measure your Social Selling Index (SSI)

Before you start, measure your Social Selling Index (SSI) to know where you're starting from and how you stack up against your peers. Linkedin says, " The Social Selling Index (SSI) measures your effectiveness in imposing your professional brand, finding the right people, communicating using the right information, and building relationships." The four pillars on which the Social Selling Index rests (establishing your professional brand, finding the right people, exchanging information, and building relationships) are each rated out of 25, thus giving you a score out of 100. A very inactive person scores around 20, while a very active person will score between 80 and 100.

So, put a professional photo, take care of your presentation title, offer a summary that presents your skills, and explain how you put your knowledge and know-how to your customers' service. Also, don't forget to put a Call To Action with your contact details to invite your prospects to get in touch with you.

Grow your networks by asking your prospects for a connection

Social selling is exciting during the commercial prospecting phase because it allows you to act much more efficiently and immediately target the most interesting profiles for your sector of activity. These profiles logically correspond to your personas, in other words, your ideal customers. To make this selection, go to LinkedIn and search by specifying the criteria that interest you (position, function, location, sector of activity, etc.). Once you have identified the potential prospects that interest you, ask them "to connect."

It is worth noting that there is no point in having a vast network with people who do not interest you professionally. On the other hand, having an extensive network with all your commercial targets as relations is particularly interesting. So, make sure you balance quantity with quality.

It is also important to remember that you will have free access to their contact details by being in a direct relationship with your prospects. In fact, about 30% of people mention their professional email on LinkedIn (the remaining 70% are personal emails), and 40% indicate their telephone number.

Create engagement with social selling

Now that you know how to approach the contacts you are interested in, we will explain how to bring even more relevant contacts to you without you sending them a single message.

Being present on social networks is good, but sharing quality content is even better. By regularly sharing (one to several times a week) on your profile content relevant to your sector of activity, you will arouse the interest of your audience. Indeed, if you have selected your contacts carefully, they will be interested in the issues you deal with because they are probably facing them in their day-to-day lives. For example, do not hesitate to share your blog articles on your LinkedIn profile. Contacts interested in this topic will see that you are an expert on the subject and thus have confidence in you and your abilities. Therefore, they will contact you when they feel the desire or the need to make a purchase because you have already proven yourself by sharing your expertise. In addition, word of mouth can be more powerful than you can imagine: your skills and expertise can therefore go beyond your simple circle of contacts.

Regular interaction with your contacts is crucial in a social selling approach. These interactions further highlight your professionalism and authority through comments, private messages, or content shared on your profile. Also, the more active you are, the more you will be remembered when needed.

Get salespeople to collaborate with the marketing team

This is the last step to completing your social selling strategy. The primary mission of salespeople is to "hunt" new targets and convert them into customers. On the other hand, they are not necessarily qualified to create the appropriate content relevant to the target audience and its buying cycle. It is instead the role of marketing. Therefore, it is paramount to have the two departments work together to plan and execute a highly effective social selling strategy.