Social selling in B2B: What is it and what it is not?

Due to the growing popularity of LinkedIn, many different definitions of social selling have been created in Poland. Some say that by using LinkedIn, we can sell services or products. Still others say that social selling is about publishing. Others have been using this tool for a long time, but according to them, it is ineffective because no one replies to their messages. I have decided to deal with the issue of what is and isn’t social selling in B2B. So, in this article, I will answer three key questions:

• What strategies can we use on LinkedIn?
• What is and is not social selling?
• What is a social selling program characterized by?

STRATEGIES USING SOCIAL SELLING IN B2B

Below you will find several ready-made strategies that you can successfully use during your presence on LinkedIn.

SOCIAL SELLING TO PERSONAL BRANDING

What activities affect LinkedIn Personal Branding?

• A completed, professional customer-oriented profile (ie, a completed profile that "speaks" to the client and not the employer.)
• Regular publications (posts, LinkedIn articles, external links) —Create content (articles, reports, summaries, e-books, webinars and others) that is attractive to your target group and supports purchasing processes. It is the role of marketing to deliver such content.The content is intended to educate customers, support the transition to the next stage of the purchasing process and build positive feelings about the salesperson as an expert and as a human being.
• Commenting in the right places to attract people from the target group (eg, profiles of people from related industries or company profiles of websites that focus our audience's attention or in groups — if they are active).

I have no doubts about the effectiveness of Personal Branding on LinkedIn. I have hard experience that just publishing can cause customers to contact us themselves. I have worked as a B2B salesperson for many years and I know that acquiring customers is not the easiest thing to do, which is why the more I appreciate the snowball effect that happens when using LinkedIn.

At the same time, because I regularly work with salespeople (in competitive industries), I know that it is not possible for all groups to participate at the same time.

SOCIAL SELLING = NETWORKING ON LINKEDIN

It is about building relationships with various people and various roles (not necessarily representatives of a specific target group). Networking on LinkedIn, in which a salesperson talks and builds relationships with people of different profiles — without focusing on the target group — can end up being a big waste of time for the salesperson.

Too much involvement may require spending a lot of time on LinkedIn, and consequently the salesperson will not have enough time for other commercial activities (a painful example from my experience). It is important to stick to the set goal and be aware of the target group.

SOCIAL SELLING = PROSPECTING

Activities focused on the target group using LinkedIn and treating this portal as one of the tools to reach the customer is Social Prospecting. The inclusion of activities on LinkedIn should be adapted to the current situation and arranged in the right proportion — taking into account the space for prospecting as well as the condition and stability of the funnel.

It is important for the salesperson to be able to secure the flow to the funnel by other methods in the first stages of the LinkedIn adventure, in which they are gaining experience. Why? It is not true that in social selling it is enough to convert LinkedIn to a phone. Social selling processes look different from the traditional sales process of a few years ago.

In the first stages of the sales process, there is an element of nurturing customers until they are ready for talks / purchases. We then become a source of valuable content that the client searches for or reads about on the Internet. It takes time to build your position correctly.

In social prospecting and today's prospecting in general, you need an appropriate set of competences. Above all, you’ll need to act with sensitivity as well as without any signs of intrusiveness (the so-called "Prospecting with Class”). In addition to the ability to use social media and content, it is important to act in a way in which the client feels that we can look at his challenges and goals, and not only at his offer (Customer-Centric).This doesn't mean the salesperson is not keeping the process in hand. On the contrary, the salesperson is aware of the process and proposes to proceed to the next steps based on the signals. They are able to upset the client's status quo when they see that the project is going in the wrong direction for the client (Challenger). The partnership relationship is built on the level of merit characteristic of the salesperson.

SOCIAL SELLING = ACCOUNT-BASED SALES

When using the Account Based Sales strategy, we are dealing with targeting specifically defined (often large) organizations that have been designated by the company as being part of strategic activities. Often the beginning of this sales strategy is implemented on the marketing side as Account Based Marketing activities.

What exactly does this mean for the salesperson? Standard activities at the Strategic Account Management level are extended to LinkedIn, and work on the client may affect different people in the organization. For example, the president builds relationships at the president's level on the client's side, financial director with finance, etc.

Depending on who sits on the purchasing committee, all work is coordinated by a salesperson using knowledge of social selling and building relationships on LinkedIn.

SOCIAL SELLING = SOCIAL INTRO

When using the Social Intro approach, we look at the network of the entire organization (especially Management) and check which companies (our potential clients) have relationships with people inside our company. A salesperson is somehow introduced to the company by, for example, a financial director who has a good relationship and knows the financial director of our potential client.

For such a presentation to make sense, certain conditions should be met:

• Well-filled, professional and reliable profiles of both sides of the recommending and recommended person.
• The recommending person must have full comfort (trust in the recommended person) and must have an appropriate relationship with the potential client.
• Both parties must develop communication together - the presentation takes place on LinkedIn (so that the potential customer can see the profile) by creating a group conversation.

SOCIAL SELLING = EMPLOYER BRANDING

Due to the fact that this area is not my specialization, let me not elaborate on this topic. I will just say that publishing employees as Company Ambassadors is a strong point in building the employer's brand. It can therefore be said that the natural "side effect" of the social selling program is the achievement of Employer Branding goals.

The above points and the assumptions of modern sales I have indicated have an impact on the effect of activities and social selling in B2B. Such multi-dimensionality means that the accidental use of LinkedIn cannot be called social selling.

WHAT IS NOT SOCIAL SELLING?

Mass sending of invitations and quick sales messages, without taking care of the image and without keeping the "feel". Such activities are certainly not professional social selling.

All kinds of intrusive messages in a transactional form such as: "Our organization” … “we take care of” ... “we are a leader” ... “is there a chance for a non-binding meeting?” etc. are picked up as spam and the salesperson is labeled a "Spammer".

Completing activities on a well-completed profile is only one part of the puzzle. Although as part of my work as a consultant there are cases where only changes to the profile have generated inquiries from customers, a large part of the work in social selling is done by regular publications and a process approach in which LinkedIn is part of the sales process.

The mere publication of content on LinkedIn from a personal profile can be called long-term brand building (such action is part of social selling programs and is practiced by designated roles in the organization such as experts or managers).

Publishing content on a company profile is Social Media Marketing as far as I am concerned. Additionally, the company profile also becomes part of the content that can be shared by people conducting social selling activities.

SOCIAL SELLING DOES NOT REPLACE THE ENTIRE B2B SALES PROCESS

Read: You can't sell on LinkedIn in "big B2B". However, this does not mean that it does not play a very important role. Because social selling:

• Lists / supports the first steps of the process, which is to lead to a live meeting or a phone call.
• Enriches the sales process of the merchant at subsequent stages of the process. Publishing and sending valuable content can support customers in their decisions and is a valuable form of follow-up for the customer. Also, it can be one of the elements of building the value of the offer in the eyes of the customer.

SOCIAL SELLING IS NOT A CURE FOR EVERY LEAD CHALLENGE AND CANNOT WORK SEPARATELY NOR ALONE

Social selling should be treated as an element of the entire sales and marketing strategy. Activities on LinkedIn are unevenly effective for different industries and product groups. Also you cannot compare the effects achieved by social selling trainers to the effects achieved by salespeople from other industries.

There is a large discrepancy in the effectiveness and manner of work here. The social selling industry is an emerging industry with a high level of "sexy". Therefore, the highly saturated industries in which products or services are not "sexy" will have a completely different effectiveness.

SOCIAL SELLING IS NOT MAGIC - NOTHING HAPPENS ON ITS OWN

Clients don't knock on the merchant's door with their wallets in hand — it’s not a “piece of cake”. Social selling processes require a different perspective than more traditional sales methods. You need a well-thought-out strategy to integrate LinkedIn into all activities. You must take into account any changes and adjust your expectations accordingly right from the start.

Concrete activities must be implemented in a process-based manner — with both regular preparation (through marketing) and publishing (through sales) of valuable content (the recipients of which are the customers themselves).

Social selling in B2B is the use of social networks (mainly LinkedIn) to implement process activities and sales strategies using an individual profile — a personal brand that is built by the content and knowledge of the salesperson.

HOW IS THE SOCIAL SELLING PROGRAM CHARACTERIZED?

The above definitions apply to specific activities at the unit level. If we go one level higher and look at social selling activities from the perspective of the program, we can distinguish two situations …

1. Random and "ad hoc" actions of individuals from the organization without the support of marketing and specific assumptions and goals (ie, on their own).
2. Organized social selling activities in the form of a program based on the following pillars: BUY-IN, SALES, MARKETING AND TOOLS&SUPPORT

 ALSO, WE OFTEN RUN INTO TWO NAMES FOR THE PROGRAM:

A Social Selling Program - These are the activities of sales representatives from private LinkedIn profiles to support sales processes and goals:

• Look for new sales opportunities
• Build relationships at various stages of the sales process
• Use your relationship with existing customers on LinkedIn to attract new customers

An Employee Advocacy Program - promotes the company through the private LinkedIn profiles of its employees for various purposes (not only in the context of the sales process). For example, this program can build the image of the brand and the company, increase website traffic and/or increase employer branding.

Employee Advocacy program participants can be different people from the entire organization and often in the social selling programs, they support salespeople. My experience shows that in order for social selling activities to take place regularly and in the long term, you need the support and involvement of other people in the organization. So, any Enterprise Level Social Selling program will also be an Employee Advocacy Program at the same time.