How to succeed at social selling on LinkedIn

Blog · Partner: POLISH YELLOW PAGES® · since 1991

A post from the POLISH YELLOW PAGES® blog (formerly DATABOT.PL), originally published on 17.11.2022. Some information (tools, prices, regulations) may have changed since then.

How to succeed at social selling on LinkedIn

If you are a B2B sales professional, you probably know the business network LinkedIn. You don’t? Perhaps it is time to add this channel to your sales strategy. LinkedIn is a social network for professionals that lets you connect, share and learn from people in your network and industry.

LinkedIn revolutionised networking , and even introduced a new sales strategy  that has become more popular over the last few years. This strategy is called social selling, and it turns out to be a tactic used by many successful sales professionals across many B2B industries.

But before we dive into how to bring social selling into your overall sales strategy, let’s discuss why it matters and how it can complement your current B2B sales techniques

What is social selling?

Social selling is a sales technique and practice in which a sales representative uses their personal channels (ideally LinkedIn) to connect with prospects and begin building relationships . This not only lets sales reps engage with a new prospect, it also offers a unique opportunity to practise social listening.

Social listening is an important tactic that can be described as monitoring prospects’ activity, posts, likes and interests, which are usually available on their social channels. This gives you a sense of which information in your pitch is likely to resonate most.

Alongside listening, engaging (whether by liking or commenting) lets you build a relationship with prospects and show that your interests align. With B2B social selling, relevant content is generated for the target audience . This will make you recognised as an expert, and the prospect will automatically trust your product or service. This tactic is great for lead generation and, as with other traditional B2B sales strategies, trust is at the heart of relationship building .

What social selling is not

Social selling is not about overwhelming or flooding prospects with endless messages or offers. This can be seen as spam and you may find that instead of building a relationship with a prospect, you quickly ruin it. You may even have experienced this yourself and ignored spammy messages on LinkedIn!

Social selling is more than just adding more and more contacts to your network. It is about adding the right contacts to your network – contacts most likely to connect with you and buy your product, solution or service. Some contacts may “only” provide valuable information that helps your personal development, but even they will ultimately help you close deals, because you have sharpened your skills.

Interactions through the lens of social selling are meant to be meaningful and memorable , so that when a B2B prospect is ready to make a purchasing decision, your company or solution is front of mind. And by taking the time to engage and interact meaningfully with a prospect, you have a better chance of building trust and loyalty.

Our best advice is to treat this tactic as a relationship-building exercise, and not another cold-calling channel !

Why is social selling on LinkedIn important in B2B?

LinkedIn is known for its professional networking opportunities. That makes LinkedIn an easy way of identifying companies and contacts that match your company’s products and solutions .

The platform has also become a destination for people looking for new opportunities, business news and industry news. In addition, buyers search for products and solutions to meet their needs, and LinkedIn has also grown into a place where professionals actively go to learn . This social media platform is the ideal place for B2B sales professionals to apply social selling techniques, because it is almost expected and even welcomed by users .

But if you are more interested in the statistics behind why B2B social selling on LinkedIn matters, here are some impressive figures: 

• LinkedIn has more than  500 million active users

• 40 per cent of active users use LinkedIn every day

• 61 million users are senior-level influencers , and 40 million users hold decision-making positions

• More than 50 per cent of all  social media traffic  to B2B websites and blogs comes from LinkedIn

• Generate brand visibility  by sharing relevant, brand-related content with your audience – you are an extension of your company.

• Content coming from real people will resonate more with prospects.

• Increase traffic to your website thanks to the greater reach of your social selling activities, and turn that traffic into real leads .

The pillars of social selling success

To succeed at B2B social selling, there are four main pillars – defined by LinkedIn – that you should always keep in mind as your core strategy . These pillars are:

Create a professional brand

In today’s world, B2B buyers can be very selective . They may only work with suppliers, companies and services they can trust. That proves difficult , as sales reps try to build new relationships with these buyers.

That is why having a strong professional brand (a personal brand) can show that you are an active participant in your industry and an expert in your field – meaning that you understand their unique problems and challenges exactly.

Building a personal brand on LinkedIn within your industry will lead to more direct enquiries from prospects. You may even notice your response rate start to rise.

Source: www.slideshare.net

Focus on the right prospects

With B2B social selling on LinkedIn you will find that finding and connecting with prospects is more effective than traditional sales techniques such as phoning or emailing. Social media (LinkedIn in particular) makes it much easier to identify the right prospects. Some of these criteria you can filter by, such as job title, function or industry, are available on the LinkedIn platform – or you can use a sales intelligence tool, such as Echobot , which will take you straight to someone’s LinkedIn profile.

Use insights

One of the best ways to start building relationships with prospects is positioning yourself as an expert in your field . To do this, consider sharing relevant industry content , comment on news updates and build your professional brand . If you feel comfortable, consider creating your own posts and articles with a clear point of view.

Make sure you keep up with industry news (especially news that would be relevant to your prospect). 

Tip: start building relationships with people in your prospects’ networks too. This way you can identify other decision-makers connected to your prospects, or check whether the target company has any key new hires.

Build trusted relationships

The best way to start building trust among prospects is to share your perspective. Honesty is key! People can sense an insincere offer, post or comment, which is why they will appreciate frankness about what can be solved and what simply cannot . This can give you the chance to provide them with relevant information while addressing their specific problem. Another great way to build relationships is to make sure that conversations are sincere . To do this, focus first on the prospect’s specific needs, and only then on the sale. 

Understand the algorithm

All of these steps will pay off, because the LinkedIn algorithm prioritises content in the feed  that is most relevant to users’ interests, or content a user is likely to interact with. Building relationships from the start and creating content with useful information will ensure that your posts appear in your prospects’ feeds . Write content that is likely to receive comments , because this metric matters more than reactions and will help you appear in the feed more often.

You should also consider these 4 things: 

• Post regularly at times when users are most active (e.g. during normal working hours). Pay attention to when your target audience is most active and post accordingly. 

• Write shout-outs and mentions – people are more likely to react to a post in which they, or someone they know, are mentioned by name. 

• Use relevant hashtags  that your audience may search for or use themselves. But be careful: don’t use more than 5 hashtags per post! 

• Try just videos or photos ! Sometimes it doesn’t take much to be relevant.

How to start B2B social selling on LinkedIn

Getting started with B2B social selling on LinkedIn is simple if you follow these steps to make sure your profile is authentic and up to date . It is important to take the time to review your profile and optimise it, so that when you connect with prospects you come across as an expert in your field rather than a spammy account.

1. Update your LinkedIn profile

As mentioned above, you should take the time to update your LinkedIn profile . It may feel overwhelming, because there is a lot of information you can provide, but here are some essential elements of your profile that should be accurate and up to date. 

Choose the right profile photo

Your profile photo is the first thing a prospect will see when you send them a connection request on LinkedIn. It is essentially your first impression , and the right photo can make a lasting impact . So make sure your photo is current and looks like you . Also, wear what you would normally wear to an in-person meeting with the prospect in the photo. Finally, don’t forget to smile !

Make your headline more than just a job title

The description at the top of the page is another great way to make an effective and lasting first impression. Plus: there is no rule saying it MUST be a job title . Some of the best profiles use the headline field to describe themselves, how they see their role and why they do what they do . If you are struggling with a catchy headline, simply browse your LinkedIn feed for inspiration.

Examples of catchy headlines:

• Chief problem solver
• Passionate storyteller
• Job creator
• Turning words into revenue
• Helping companies grow
• etc.

Turn your summary into your professional and personal story

Your LinkedIn summary is essentially your personal elevator pitch . It is probably one of the most important parts of your profile. Your summary is your chance to tell your own story. Avoid simply listing your skills or the positions you have held. Try to bring some character and life to why those skills are important to you and why you are passionate about what you do . Don’t forget to talk about how those skills affect the people you work with. 

Don’t be afraid to get personal and invest time in this section of your profile. It is worth the effort and is a great first step in building meaningful digital relationships with prospects. Again: browse your LinkedIn feed for inspiration!

List your relevant experience and skills

One of the quickest wins on LinkedIn is identifying your relevant work experience and skills. This way you can add more context to your summary . It can also help in building credibility among prospects. Showing the companies you have worked for and the skills you have can make your B2B prospects feel they are in good hands  when they decide to buy from you. The main goal is to make sure all your experience and skills are relevant to your prospects’ needs and to the goals of your social selling activities.

2. Engage and be active

Because LinkedIn works much like other traditional social networks, it is important that you are active on this channel . The best way to do this is connecting with other people in your network. These contacts can be colleagues at your company, people in your industry, thought leaders you look up to, or even company pages that match your interests. It is also important to follow your current company’s feed , so you can easily be notified when new content is published. This makes it easy to interact with that content and share it across your network.

Along with following and connecting with the right people, take some time to engage with content. Engagement can be as simple as liking a post that resonates with your thoughts or ideas, commenting with your point of view, or sharing that content with your network with extra commentary to amplify the post and your perspective. 

Our tip is to spend about 5-10 minutes a day being active on LinkedIn.

3. Start publishing your own content

Once you have updated your profile and spent time interacting with your network, you may be ready to start creating and publishing your own content . The more you create and share your content, the sooner you will notice that you are becoming a leader in your industry. 

Source: www.chrismorales.ca

Consider publishing long-form posts . These posts will be a great starting point and let you monitor the responses you get. You may even find that the comments section can inspire your next posts . You can also gauge which topics truly speak to your audience. Expanding your LinkedIn reach with this strategy will keep you connected to your industry and to the topics your network cares about most.

Although this strategy may seem daunting, start slowly by writing down a few of your ideas and choosing one you want to develop . For example, share tips or insights from your everyday work experience. Give your opinion or feelingsabout a situation, followed by practical tips  on how to overcome that experience (e.g. you could write a post about how you stay productive when working from home, or how you mastered the art of the Zoom background).

You will be surprised how supportive the LinkedIn network is , and it will build your confidence to start posting more. What’s more, you may even notice your prospects cheering you on too, letting you start building that relationship seamlessly. 

A final tip for creating great content is to include an image . An image can help users stop scrolling and catch their attention. Make sure the image fits the message of your post and adds to it.

5 tips for B2B social selling on LinkedIn

Now that you have an up-to-date profile and are establishing yourself as an expert in your field and a thought leader, it is time to focus on social selling strategies that work on LinkedIn.

1. Monitor relevant conversations to find prospects

The best way to understand prospects, their needs, their pain points and challenges is to take the time to listen to them. This lets you tailor your message or offer based on what you know about their needs. Social listening is simple. All you have to do is monitor what your prospects and current customers are saying online .

You can also take the time to monitor conversations about your company and brand to see whether there are any problems customers are facing . This is an important step, because it lets you both fix the problems with internal teams and develop messaging to counter any hesitation arising from those problems.

Note that most conversations about your brand are not negative. What’s more, they let you connect with those customers so you can continue to build that trust and keep them loyal to your brand. 

Idea: It is also worth monitoring your competitors to see what feedback their customers give. This lets you add more colour to your pitch when the time comes.

2. Take part and engage in relevant LinkedIn groups 

LinkedIn, like other social media platforms such as Facebook, offers a feature called Groups. Essentially, they give professionals a place to connect around similar areas of interest — whether products, industries or even companies. There are many benefits to being involved in groups, such as networking with other people in your field, identifying new prospects , and even learning new skills .

However, it is not best practice to post adverts or sales offers within these groups. In this channel you should share relevant content with those who will find it most valuable. Alternatively, you may find that there are many great resources for you too . Not only will you notice strong engagement from this audience, but other interactions will prove valuable as well.

3. Earn trust by sharing success stories

Your employer or company may highlight its exceptional services or products, which is normal and entirely expected. But these posts and claims may not resonate with your B2B prospects, who may be more sceptical than convinced that the solution is ideal for them. If you want to build relationships and earn a prospect’s trust, consider using case studies and testimonials as social proof to reinforce your company’s message.

Social proof comes from the success of your existing customers, which makes it even more valuable . You can share links to stories currently on your website, videos, photos and other examples that properly highlight your customers’ success. The most important part of this tactic is tomatch the pain points of the prospect to a customer who has experienced similar challenges.

4. Become an expert

Creating your own content, connecting with the right people and joining LinkedIn groups are only part of a social selling strategy. You also need to earn a reputation as an expert by paying attention and responding to what they share and say, passing on information that solves their problem or adds a new perspective to their thinking . The key here is not to post a sales pitch on every post they share, but rather to offer high-level insight that shows you understand their struggles .

If you feel good relationships are being built on LinkedIn, you can contact these prospects directly. But again, another strategy is to be a helpful guide, sharing insights that show you understand their unique challenges and problems. It is equally important to reply to people who reach out to you . It is easy to focus on prospecting and let replies to comments and messages slip down the list.

5. Take the relationship to the next level

Once you start developing mutual relationships with prospects via LinkedIn, it may be time to consider how you can turn  these into “real” contacts beyond LinkedIn. Social media is an excellent way to develop professional relationships, but don’t forget that the ultimate goal is to turn these digital friends into loyal customers.

Once two-way communication is established, you can suggest a phone call or a coffee meeting . You can even invite them to in-person events or webinars . Your prospect is more likely to contact you off the platform once you have earned their trust and shown that you can offer them great value by helping them reach their goals and solve problems. Don’t forget that the ultimate goal of social selling is to sell, so have a conversion plan once a good connection is established.

Tools for measuring social selling success

Implementing a new strategy means you may need to rethink how you measure success. It is not only important to take part in these activities – you must communicate and quantify their value accurately . There are several ways to measure social selling success on LinkedIn:

Social Selling Index

LinkedIn’s Social Selling Index (SSI) is considered one of the most important measurement tools in the social selling toolkit. This tool helps encourage engagement and lets you set social selling goals worth working towards. Some studies have even shown that sales professionals with high SSI scores can pursue 45 per cent more sales opportunities than their peers who do not take part in social selling activities.

Source: www.linkedin.com

Shield

If you are looking for a solid tool for measuring LinkedIn statistics, consider using Shield . Shield is an alternative to LinkedIn Sales Navigator and is a fairly affordable solution . You can use this tool to find out what content is right for your audience. Shield measures: 

• Content metrics (reactions, comments and shares) 
• Audience demographics 
• Network statistics and growth 
• The best time to publish content

Having this insightful data lets you make smart decisions about what content to create and and when to publish it, to get maximum value from your social selling efforts. 

Inlytics

If you are looking for a tool that not only captures important data but also works as a scheduling tool, consider using Inlytics . This solution includes a comprehensive dashboard that lets you sort data easily . What makes this solution unique is the ability to plan and schedule posts in advance .

This will make your social selling life easier, because you can create your own content in your spare time and be sure it is published on your feed. It lets you focus more on interactions with prospects on LinkedIn, so you can start building those important relationships. 

Inbound connections and professional network growth

Although these tools give insight into LinkedIn activity such as social selling, two equally important metrics to track are inbound connections and network growth .

Network growth indicates the strength of your presence on LinkedIn, while inbound connections can help determine the value of each communication with prospects. The average LinkedIn user has about 930 connections  , so you can use this figure as a baseline to help judge whether you are building the right presence and connecting with the right people.

Content engagement

Because you are investing a lot of time in creating content on LinkedIn, it is worth measuring the performance of that content  to make sure your time is well spent. Measuring content performance is simple. LinkedIn makes it easy to track likes, comments, shares and views of content on your profile. If you notice your content is not getting much engagement, perhaps it is time to change your strategy . Alternatively, if you realise your content is performing really well in your network, consider repurposing it or creating a series focused on that content . 

It’s time to start social selling on LinkedIn

Whether you are new to B2B sales or a sales veteran, adding a social selling strategy to your current activities should be high on your list of priorities . Today’s audiences look for authentic interactions with the companies they choose to buy from, and this is an excellent way to build real and long-lasting relationships. Turn prospects into loyal, returning customers with social selling on LinkedIn.

Tags: B2B, B2B content, Content engagement, LinkedIn, Social Selling, B2B databases, B2B marketing

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Source

• POLISH YELLOW PAGES® (databot.pl) – original blog post

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