Not too long ago, social media was simply a way for people to keep up with friends and family and share photos of their lives.
But as we all know, social media has exploded in the past 10 years. It’s estimated that around 4 billion people will be using some form of social media by 2025.
Numerous different platforms are thriving. And social media has become a huge asset to today’s businesses— across every industry and function.
However, it’s not just marketing departments who should be paying attention to the potential of social media! Today’s most savvy B2B sales professionals are finding great success using these platforms in a strategy that’s been named: Social Selling.
In this blog, we’ll look at what social selling is, why your sales department should be using social selling, and what kind of benefits and results you should expect.
Let’s jump in!
Table of Contents
What is Social Selling?
Defined, social selling is the process of developing relationships on social media as part of the sales process. This type of selling takes place on social networks such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, TikTok, and other channels.
Social selling is becoming extremely popular for quite a few reasons:
- It allows salespeople to target potential customers easier than ever before (in fact, one recent survey showed that 39% of salespeople believe social tools have reduced the amount of time they spend researching accounts and contacts.)
- It helps build trust and rapport with prospects
- It helps salespeople create long-lasting relationships and improves customer retention
- It can also help support the work of your other outbound strategies (like those of your B2B cold calling companies)
Here are a few other important reasons your sales team should be using social selling:
Why should my B2B sales team be using social selling?
It’s easy to get started
One of the greatest things about social selling is that it’s extremely easy for your sales team to get started. Odds are, many of your salespeople are already on social media in some capacity and are familiar with the tools.
Twitter and LinkedIn are two of the most popular platforms for B2B salespeople when it comes to social selling. In order to get started, your sales reps should simply:
- Begin following or connecting with potential prospects
- Set up notifications for their prospect’s activity
- Interact with prospects on the platform (join groups, join discussions, comment and engage with posts)
- And provide value by sharing content that would be relevant to your prospects
If a prospect begins interacting with your salesperson, they can use the platform to reach out and instantly connect, which leads us to our next point:
It shortens the B2B sales cycle
B2B sales cycles are notoriously long, with the average opportunity taking around 102 days to close.
However, in social selling, much of the qualification and trust-building is done outside of the actual sales process, which helps things to move much faster when a prospect decides they are ready to take the next step.
In fact, studies have shown that sales reps who use social selling see 18% more pipeline activity 28% faster than those who don’t!
It’s an Inexpensive Lead Generation Tool
Because social media channels are free to use, using social selling is an extremely cost-effective lead generation strategy.
You’ll simply be paying for your sales team’s time, and studies have shown that the ROI is extremely attractive. In fact, companies have reported that for every $1 spent on social selling, they’ve seen a $5 return on average!
It works
Perhaps the most important reason your company should be using social selling is because — it works!
Consider these stats:
- 72% of the B2B salespeople who use social media report that they outperformed their sales peers, and more than half of them indicated they closed deals as a direct result of social media.
- 3 out of 4 B2B buyers rely on social media to engage with peers about buying decisions.
And these are just a few of the many statistics out there about the power of B2B social selling. So, what are you waiting for?
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Related posts:
- How B2B Sales Teams Can Benefit From Social Selling - May 24, 2021
