What Is Social Selling? An Overview of the Techniques, Benefits, and Challenges of this Modern Sales Methodology

Social selling is a sales technique that leverages social media platforms to connect with potential customers, build relationships, and drive sales. By using social media, salespeople can interact with prospects in a more personal and targeted way, which can lead to increased trust and ultimately more sales. Social selling is a relatively new sales strategy that has emerged alongside the rise of social media platforms like LinkedIn, X/Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram.

The goal of social selling is to build relationships with potential customers by providing them with valuable information and insights, rather than just trying to sell them a product. By engaging with prospects on social media, salespeople can establish themselves as thought leaders in their industry and build trust with potential customers. This can lead to increased brand awareness, more leads, and ultimately more sales. 

Social selling can be a powerful tool for salespeople, but it requires a strategic approach and a deep understanding of social media platforms and the needs of potential customers.

Looking for your next sales role? Find it on RepVue.

Fundamentals of Social Selling

Definition and Concept

At its core, social selling is all about leveraging the power of social media to connect with prospects in a more personal and meaningful way.

One of the key benefits of social selling is that it allows salespeople to bypass some of the traditional barriers to entry that have historically made it difficult to connect with prospects. With social media, salespeople can reach out to potential customers directly, without having to rely on cold calling or other more traditional sales tactics.

To be successful at social selling, it’s important to approach the process with a clear strategy in mind. This might involve identifying key influencers within your target market, creating engaging content that resonates with your audience, or using social listening tools to monitor conversations and identify potential opportunities.

Implementing Social Selling

To implement social selling, you need to develop a strategy, choose the right platforms, and create engaging content. Here’s how to do it:

Developing a Social Selling Strategy

Start by considering your target audience and buyer personas. This will help you understand their needs, preferences, and pain points. Then, identify the social media channels where they are most active and engaged. Based on this information, create a content calendar that aligns with your sales goals and objectives.

Your social selling strategy should also include a plan for engaging with prospects and customers. This can include commenting on their posts, sharing their content, and responding to their messages. You should also monitor your social media channels for mentions of your brand and respond promptly to any inquiries or feedback.

If you have a personal presence on social media, consider whether you want to establish a separate account/brand for professional use. Even if you do go down this route, you should assume that your personal account will be discovered by prospects — so keep all of your posts professional if you plan to do a lot of social selling.

Choosing the Right Platforms

Not all social media channels are created equal. Each platform has its own strengths and weaknesses, as well as a unique audience. To choose the right platforms for your social selling efforts, consider the following:

• Which platforms are your target audience most active on?
• Which platforms align with your brand’s values and messaging?
• Which platforms offer the best features and tools for social selling?

For B2B sales, LinkedIn may be the best platform, depending on the vertical. Finance has a large presence on X/Twitter. Many industries have specific channels on Reddit. Based on your answers to the questions above, you can narrow down your list of platforms to focus on. 

It’s important to note that you don’t need to be active on every social media channel. Instead, focus on the ones that will have the most impact on your sales goals.

Creating Engaging Content

To attract and engage your target audience, you need to create content — or work with the marketing teams within your org to create content — that is relevant, valuable, and shareable. This can include blog posts, infographics, videos, and social media posts. When creating content, keep the following tips in mind:

• Focus on your target audience’s needs and interests.
• Use visual elements to make your content more engaging.
• Use storytelling to connect with your audience emotionally.
• Include a clear call-to-action to encourage engagement and conversions.

By following these tips and best practices, you can create content that resonates with your target audience and drives sales for your business.

How does quota attainment at your company compare to competitors? Find out.

Social Selling Techniques

Social selling techniques can help you discover prospects, develop a connection with them, and engage with potential leads. Here are some techniques to help you get started:

Building Relationships

Building relationships is the foundation of social selling. By developing strong relationships with potential clients, you can establish trust and credibility, which can lead to more sales. This can include commenting on their posts, sharing their content, and responding to their messages.

Leveraging Social Listening

Social listening is the process of monitoring social media platforms for mentions of your brand, products, or services. By listening to what your prospects are saying about your brand, you can gain valuable insights into their needs and preferences. This can help you tailor your messaging and approach to better meet their needs.

Building Your Personal Brand

Building your personal brand is the process of creating and maintaining a strong online presence that reflects your values, expertise, and personality. A strong personal brand can help you become established as an authority in your industry and attract more prospects to your business. This can include creating content that showcases your knowledge and expertise, engaging with your audience on social media, and participating in industry events and conferences.

Measuring Social Selling Success

To determine the effectiveness of your social selling strategy, it is essential to measure your success using key performance indicators (KPIs), analytics, and tools.

Key Performance Indicators

KPIs are measurable values that indicate how well your social selling strategy is working. Here are some essential KPIs to track:

• Engagement rate: Measures how often your audience interacts with your social media posts, such as likes, comments, and shares.
• Conversion rate: Measures how many of your social media leads become customers.
• Customer lifetime value (CLV): Measures the total value a customer brings to your business over their lifetime.
• Return on investment (ROI): Measures the financial gain or loss generated by your social selling strategy.

Do you know your worth as a salesperson? Compare sales salaries here.

Challenges and Considerations

Maintaining Authenticity

One of the biggest challenges of social selling is maintaining authenticity. Your prospects are likely bombarded with sales messages every day, and they can quickly become immune to generic pitches. 

To be successful, you need to build genuine relationships with your prospects. This means taking the time to understand their needs and interests, and tailoring your messages accordingly.

It is also important to be transparent about your intentions. (At RepVue, we’re big proponents of transparency all around.) Don’t try to hide the fact that you are selling something. Instead, be upfront and honest about what you have to offer. This will help build trust with your prospects, and make them more likely to engage with you.

That said, usually the best way to have success with social selling is not to sell — at least, not for a while. Focus on making content that is topical, helpful, and genuinely interesting to your prospects. By doing this you will find that it’s much easier to have a sales conversation when that time comes.

Navigating Privacy Concerns

With the increasing focus on data privacy, it is important to be mindful of the information you collect and how you use it. Make sure you are following all relevant laws and regulations, and be transparent about how you are using your prospects’ data.

To navigate privacy concerns, it is important to be respectful of your prospects’ privacy. Don’t collect more information than you need, and make sure you are using it only for the purposes you have disclosed. Additionally, make sure you are using secure methods to store and transmit data, and that you have a plan in place in case of a data breach.