Social Selling: the dawn of a new era in Sales
A collective article written by +10 Sales Experts about Social Selling, filled with best practices and tips on how to include thihs technique into your strategies.
About the authors
- Aashish S Khanna — VP Sales & Telco bsn @ Zextras
- Adrian Hands — Partner @Positive Momentum
- Alex Abbott — Conversation Creation Specialist @ Supero
- Alvin Curren — Founder @ Legacy Business Network
- Anastasiia Bahrii — Chief Delivery Officer @ Addlium
- Cristian Dina — Founding Member & Managing Partner @ Tekpon
- Sebastien van Heyningen — LinkedIn Content Strategist
- Harry Monkhouse — GTM consultant @ 6sense
- Holly Allen – AE @ Deel
- Phil Szomsozor — Co-Founder @ Brightside Digital Engagement
- Sandra Long — Professional Speaker & Trainer @ PRC LinkedIn Consulting and Training
Why this article
Social Selling is definitely here to stay: a new way of selling based on in-depth interactions and creativity. Social Selling may seem easy to do for those who see it but it requires skills, empathy and creativity: qualities that only top performing Sales have.
We’ve gathered +10 of them to share with us their secrets and tips.
To post or not to post?
Right now, LinkedIn is THE social media on which B2B salespeople must do their social selling. So we kickstarted our interviews asking the 1-million-dollar question.
How many times do you post per week?
Take your time
Posting requires some basic steps: research, copywriting and, if needed, graphic sketching. Some people are more creative and do great with design tools while others focus on the right words to grab attention.
How much time do experts spend on content creation?
Be honest...
Ever since generative AI came debuted on large scale we see a lot of contents clearly made using exclusively those tools.
But sometimes, leveraging AI brings to unexpected good results.
Do you use it for your posts? We asked our experts
Social Selling automation
We really couldn’t skip this question: as SaaS lovers, we know that for every task, there’s a tool. We asked our experts if they use any…
And if you don’t, start from here.
Read our experts' tips
Click the toggle menu below to read their answers.
Warm-up your leads
Do you carry out warm-up activities before contacting someone on LinkedIn? If so, what are your best practices?
Yes, I go with profile visits, likes on the posts, I also check the quality of comments the contact is making.
Substantial comments, reposting to networks, offering introductions to clients & staff, sending articles and books.
There are different ways to apply social selling as a methodology, depending on your sales and marketing or GTM strategy.
I believe the focus should be on building a sense of community around you, and then thinking about the different layers of influence that exist from your warmest contacts to your strategic network (the people you want to do business with).
Ensuring ones posting and social networking (commenting & liking) is intentional based on who they want to do business with is vital as this will dictate whether you’re buyer is seeing you as the genuine, authentic trusted advisor that you want them to.
I’ll be honest: no, not usually.
Yes, I visit profiles, like and comment posts. Often in my first appeal, I mention their posts to show genuine interest.
Yes, I carry out warm-up activities before reaching out.
I like to engage with their content by liking posts, visiting their profile, and sometimes leaving thoughtful comments.
This way, I create a sense of familiarity before the actual connection request. The best one for me is to meet in person, have a short conversation, take a picture together and post it online.
Sometimes I go out of my way to do this but most of the time I am active on LinkedIn in the mornings.
Commenting and liking on posts does help on people that have bigger followings.
I will look at their profile, find something personalised to reach out about, then go in with a voice note.
It depends.
If it’s with a sales approach in mind, then definitely some warm-up. Usually a like and comment.
Might try and connect around the prospect first, before making the connection invitation.
I don’t make cold contact.
I try to get referred if possible. I also engage with content and start a meaningful conversation around content.
I look at LinkedIn profiles and the latest activity all the time – no matter what activity I am doing such as follow-up emails or calls, Zoom meetings, or live. meet-ups.
I try to. Sometimes, they just don’t have much activity.
In those cases, I leave them alone or connect and request them with 1 customized message.
If you’re targeting someone with an active profile, you don’t have too many options. So use them all.
A profile visit is the natural starting point, but there’s no guarantee that your prospect looks at profile views. Liking or reacting to a post is your next easiest option.
But the most impactful thing you can do is leave them a thoughtful comment on their post, tag someone on their post who can help them, or reshare one of their posts with your thoughts. That’s what gets them to engage back and starts a potential relationship.
Everything starts with an invitation
Do you prefer to include a note in your LinkedIn invitations or leave them blank? If you use a note, what information do you include?
I always leave a note with the reason why I want to connect.
Always have a note, either a simple let’s connect as we share interests, or a mention of mutual contacts.
I always include a note. A relationship first message or reference a mutual contact or connection.
Once again, no notes for me.
Yes (if I have my Premium on, otherwise you have limited personalized notes along with invites).
Usually, I include something that we have in common with this person: we met at the X/attended online event/worked in the same industry/saw their comment or post somewhere.
I actually prefer not to include a note.
I find that a straightforward connection request often works better, as it piques curiosity and leads to a more organic conversation once the connection is accepted.
I leave them blank unless I have been told to connect with them.
My tip: leave them blank, absolutely always!
I always include a note and the contents will have some kind of hook – e.g. common connections or where we met before.
Always send a note. Always.
Most of the time, I leave them blank and let my profile speak for itself.
But I’m not opposed to including a message.
When I do include a message it is either straight to the point & highly customized, or a more general greeting/invite to start a DM conversation. Which one I choose depends on the situation and offer that I am trying to get out there.
Sell not spam
How do you “sell” without coming across as spam? What content do you use? What is your first message after a lead accepts your connection request? And how long after do you send it?
I use specific keywords which attract attention and not repel attention.
The lead needs to be made comfortable and we should not be cannibalising their time so it needs to go slow and steady.
Low-pressure suggestion of video or face-to-face chat only when they have reacted to my activities at all or posted their own piece that we can use as a conversation starter.
After a person accepts my connection request, I usually send a short note a day or so later (depending on how busy I am) saying “Great to be connected, enjoy the rest of your week”.
I am personable and curious about what they’re doing. Ask how things are going… if they need help I offer a free resource.
Social selling is not about direct sales.
It’s about sharing real value before you offer something for profit. In the first message I usually briefly introduce myself and ask permission to share my newly published content in the DMs not to miss it in the Feed.
Also, I propose a LinkedIn profile audit for free. It doesn’t take long for me, and people see value in these recommendations.
Sure, some of them are not ready to go further with my services, but this leaves lasting impression and brings potential referrals. Another value that you can share with attendees of a webinar, for example, it’s a brief recap of the event. Then you can freely continue the conversation.
I avoid coming across as spam by focusing on providing value.
My first message after a lead accepts is usually a question or value added. Either I invite them on a podcast, ask about a conference, or a post.
I always think about what the other person has to win from our conversation.
It’s about building a relationship first. This is how you get replies.
I wait 2/3 days before messaging them but I like to engage with their content or view their profile a few times.
I send a voice note rather than a generic written message, make it personalised, pitch the prospects’ problems rather than pitching your solution.
We advocate a sequencing approach with multiple messages.
People don’t like to be sold to, but they do like to buy.
I don’t have the “gotta sell” mindset.
Instead, I use my philosophy of “Be the Friend First,” which I teach and write about.
Use LinkedIn to create relationships. Sales will come.
Short answer: You don’t.
Try as hard as you want, at least one of your outbound sales messages will be seen as SPAM by the person you’re trying to reach.
To avoid this outcome, be genuine in your daily posts. Don’t just post about your company or solution, every day.
Post about your industry or your function. Post about your personal life or even random things.
LinkedIn is a social media platform after all. People forget that.
When a prospect sees your profile they should see someone actually interested in the problems that your solution solves and also a real human being.
The first message I send after a connection request is accepted is either a super general convo starter “How’s work?” or something incredibly customized that ends with a thoughtful question (and doesn’t include a corny pitch).
Just post it
How important do you think it is to regularly post content on LinkedIn to be effective in Social Selling?
To be effective, I suggest twice a week for posts. Regular comments of value and likes.
Critical – and to do it consistently.
After a sixteen-month study tracking salespeople’s behaviour on LinkedIn I’ve found two activities that influence conversation creation the most, one of them is humanised posts.
Doing so, we see that meetings generated an increase by >10x and almost 40% of calls progress with a meaningful next step agreed.
It helps some. As long as there are some recent posts.
Regular posting is important, but engagement in comments under the posts of your target audience or where it’s active is even more important. You gain better reach to your posts, new connections and authority.
For us, it’s the best working strategy for social selling.
When we start a sales call, the prospect starts saying that he already knows us or that he’s following the company’s journey.
Visibility is everything nowadays.
People trust people who are connected, human, sincere, and vulnerable. Posting regularly on LinkedIn is crucial. It keeps you visible and positions you as an authority in your field.
It also provides value to your network and keeps them engaged. Even if a prospect isn’t ready to buy yet, if he/she sees you posting all the time, they will start building trust and will want to work with you.
I don’t think you can grow a following [network] without posting regular.
SO important!
It’s important to be regular, but the question is how frequent constitutes as regularity.
I have clients who are successful sellers only posting once every two weeks.
It’s the activities around posting – e.g. commenting – that are equally important.
Posting content is great but strategically commenting with real insights is even better.
Incredibly important.
You have to post at least 4 days per week. And when you’re not posting, you have to engage with the content of others. If you’re not doing this, you probably won’t be successful.
Multichannel & Social Selling
Do you prefer to use only LinkedIn strategies or integrated multichannel ones with Email and Cold Calling?
In the case of multichannel, which channel do you start from?
Integrated multi-channel – LinkedIn, Email. I’m not a fan of calling.
Always start with LinkedIn, email second resort, then phone or Whatsapp.
I use LinkedIn to develop my personal brand, grow and activate my network and create content to help me stand out. Email supports communication with a contact once a relationship has been established. I don’t do any cold calling, as it’s not effective for me.
Multichannel with anything possible.
At the moment I use only LinkedIn channel.
I do not believe in cold emailing. As a representative of late Millenials-early Gen Z, cold calling is something weird for me, tbh 🙂
I prefer to use LinkedIn mostly.
It’s a powerful platform for building professional relationships and engaging with potential leads. While I sometimes integrate email and phone calls, LinkedIn is usually my go-to for initiating contact and nurturing connections.
I think a LinkedIn-only strategy has its time and place … really if the person you are targeting only lives on LinkedIn then I like doing this.
Multi-channel is always best!
I highly recommend reading a book called Combo Prospecting.
When using email, LinkedIn and the phone you will see the best conversion results.
I mainly LinkedIn, but also email and phone.
Multi-channel all the way.
Each contact depends on the person. There is not one path. I try to find out what the prospect prefers first.
Multi-channel is the best way to go.
LinkedIn, Email, Phone, even Text. These are all tools that you have in your toolbox. Use them.
The only reason not to use them is if you’re sure that your target market isn’t using them.
For example, you wouldn’t do a LinkedIn outreach campaign to a group of people who just aren’t on LinkedIn.
Cool suggestions from our experts
Do you have websites/resources you want to recommend? Insert the direct link/newsletter to subscribe to here 👇
Recommend WeConnect for connection campaigns at scale, and Teamfluence for network measurement and impact across teams
Website: www.supero.social Newsletter & Podcast: www.beardedsalesguy.social Google or ChatGPT: What is Walking Digital Corridors? and visit: www.walkingdigitalcorridors.co
I’ve just created a survey-type quiz in Google Forms that can help with getting qualified leads. Check it out. If you like you can duplicate it.
Let’s connect on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/anastasiia-bahrii/
Definitely check out Tekpon for great insights on SaaS and more.
And also, I highly recommend following the Tekpon SaaS Podcast.
It’s a fantastic resource where we discuss the latest trends, challenges, and strategies in the SaaS industry with top industry leaders. You’ll gain valuable insights and practical advice that can help you stay ahead in the fast-evolving world of SaaS
Yes, check out this, this and Onrush Consulting.
Follow me on LinkedIn for regular tips and tricks, including video-based how-tos
Here is my newsletter and here is my article about how to prepare your team for Sales Navigator.
Try Selfdisrpt for LinkedIn automation (they support multi-channel outreach btw!).
I’m also a big fan of Richard Van Der Bloom as someone who just understands the LinkedIn algorithm.
That’s all for now, if you’ve found this content useful, don’t forget to share it!