Social Selling

What Is Social Selling?

Social Selling is about how you engage with colleagues and customers via social networks that they are on. It is a blend of social media marketing and B2B sales prospecting that helps you develop your personal brand to build trust and rapport with your buyers on a one to one level without having to cold call. There are no “sales pitches” in Social Selling. It’s about creating interest and comments through updates, posts and curating content. It’s also about listening to what your buyers are saying and gathering insights into their needs and wants. Social Selling leverages your social networks such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Google+ to share information and ideas that showcases your expertise and increases your online visibility.

Social Selling consists of four main steps:

  1. Establishing a presence on social networks
  2. Finding the right people
  3. Engaging with those people
  4. Building trust

Our blog insights will help you utilize Social Selling to digitally engage during your B2B buyer’s journey. We conduct Social Selling workshops as well as inhouse team training that is customized to your sales process.

  • Event Marketing: 3 things you can do instead of tradeshows (3/8/2020) - It’s the end of Q1 and your annual event marketing strategy just went out the window as tradeshows and conferences are being cancelled right and left.  Normally your event marketing plan involved several live events such as big industry tradeshows, as well as perhaps some regional seminars, conferences, and workshops. Face it, those tradeshows and […]
  • I Stumbled Upon Your LinkedIn Profile (1/1/2019) - Aak! “I stumbled upon your profile, so I wanted to reach out and connect.” How many of you are getting these types of LinkedIn invites? Some clever “LinkedIn Guru” must have included that gem in their master class recently because it’s become the invitation du jour. Now, if you are searching for prospects just like […]
  • Social Selling 2019: How relevant is the LinkedIn SSI score for sales? (12/22/2018) - I hear quite a bit of grumbling these days from my sales coach colleagues about the dreaded LinkedIn “Pitch and Pounce” (thanks Mike Kunkle for that memorable term!).  What’s driving this trend we wonder? I certainly hope this isn’t an approach that’s being taught by sales or social selling or so-called “LinkedIn experts” because it […]
  • Why is Sales and Marketing Alignment Important for B2B Business? (9/8/2018) - When B2B companies are looking to boost revenue, they need to look not just to sales (more deals!) OR to marketing (more leads!), but sales and marketing alignment.  When numbers are not being hit, it’s seldom rooted in one or the other, but stems from a lack of holistic alignment between them. In other words, […]
  • How I’m attending Dreamforce 17 for free (11/4/2017) - Here is how I’ll be attending Dreamforce 17 #DF17 for free this week!  No, I don’t mean I am sneaking in the back door. I’ll be using Twitter. Here are 5 steps to attending Dreamforce 17 or any other conference, tradeshow or event virtually using your social media skills. Step 1: Research in advance Look […]
  • How to improve your LinkedIn Social Selling Index (SSI) Score (8/20/2017) - I have a Top 1% SSI score and you can, too. Here’s why you should care, especially if you are in sales or marketing.  You make a living generating leads and trying to reach prospects, right?  You want them to trust you?  Your LinkedIn Social Selling (SSI) Score is your indicator of your personal brand […]
  • Social Selling is Not a Magic Potion (7/29/2017) - We’ve seen a lot of so-called Social Selling experts declaring the end of Cold Calling or telling us that if we hit a certain number on our SSI score, social selling will cause buyers to flock to us. Sorry! That’s just wishful thinking.  But does that mean Social Selling has NO VALUE in the Sales […]
  • 5 Secrets to Using Twitter for Inside Sales (5/30/2017) - When we talked with our panel of rock star sales reps recently, they were all about LinkedIn, declaring it “A gift to inside sales.” But when it came to Twitter, they were a bit uncertain.  But anything that can help you learn more about a prospect is useful, right?  Here are 5 ways you can […]
  • How to Plan Your Sales Career (5/28/2017) - The San Diego AA-ISP Chapter’s May meeting asked 5 successful sales reps to share their secrets on how they manage their sales career. Our panel consisted of inside and outside reps and managers at all stages of their careers, working at companies ranging from startup to a large public company. Following are highlights from the […]
  • How Social Selling Boosts SEO (1/1/2017) - Did you know that social media marketing and SEO are tightly interwoven?  Oh course!  But you might not have thought about the impact on SEO from good social selling habits. Train sales to be good social sellers and marketing will see that social selling boosts SEO results, too. Social selling can enhance your organic ranking, […]
  • 2017 Sales Kickoff Meeting—How to Make Yours Have Impact (11/30/2016) - If you are like many Sales Leaders, this is the time of year when you turn your attention to the annual sales kickoff meeting. You picked a date, lined up an offsite meeting space with great food, planned a team-building activity and had travel booked for everyone. All set! Right? Not so fast. Don’t let […]
  • Why I started using LinkedIn Sales Navigator again (11/6/2016) - I started using LinkedIn Sales Navigator again because they’ve finally been adding features that make it more useful for prospecting. Admittedly, some of these were features that LinkedIn had in the basic platform, then removed. Now advanced search and tagging are in Sales Navigator and better than before. Navigator has added a lot of new […]
  • Social Selling Class – 2018 – 19 (8/28/2016) - Our 5, 1 hour online sessions for small groups (1 – 3 people) will deliver: -Overview of Social Selling -A professionally written LinkedIn Profile tailored to your buyer audience (headline, summary and experience) -Keyword optimization for your profile and summary -How to engage in LinkedIn Groups -Using Sales Navigator -Tips on finding and connecting with […]
  • Social Selling, 3 Years Later (7/16/2016) - It’s been 3 years this month since I started teaching Social Selling, and 3 years since the launch of LinkedIn’s Sales Navigator. What’s interesting to me is that there is still such a divide among sales professionals with respect to social selling.  There is the enthusiastic “all in” group who started social selling practices early […]
  • Social Selling Training: Time for a Redesign (5/8/2016) - I wasn’t really shocked or even surprised that CSO Insight’s 2015 Sales Enablement Optimization Study ranked Social Selling Training as ineffective. “Social selling training services were ranked as the training service with the highest need for major redesign (33%)” In the past two years, I’ve seen way too many self-proclaimed “experts” reducing social selling to […]
  • 6 Takeaways from AA-ISP Inside Sales Leadership Summit (4/23/2016) - The AA-ISP Inside Sales Leadership Summit is in its seventh year, bringing together over one thousand individuals dedicated to the inside sales profession.  The two and a half day event is chock full of sessions dedicated to this growing field. There are so many options that it’s impossible to attend them all. Here are some of my […]
  • How to Use Twitter in B2B Sales and Inside Sales (4/23/2016) - You are probably using LinkedIn for B2B Sales and Inside Sales prospecting, but have you tried out the power of Twitter for B2B Selling?  I recently met with a group of Inside Sales professionals and a lot of them felt that Twitter “wasn’t right for their industry” or they weren’t really sure where to start. […]
  • Double check that Twitter Handle! (2/22/2016) - Twitter is a rapid-fire medium, but I’ve found that it is really important to check the Twitter handle you are citing before hitting TWEET. Here are three big reasons: #1 You want them to notice! Part of the reason you mention someone is that you want to give them the nod or get their attention. […]
  • How to Boost Your LinkedIn SSI Score (1/25/2016) - People have been asking me about the LinkedIn SSI Score, what it means, and how do they impact it.  Here is how I got a score that’s nearly double my network average and more than three times the average sales or marketing rep. First of all, you don’t jump to 95 overnight.  I started a […]
  • Hashtag Research Tools for Social Sellers (12/26/2015) - In this blog I will share the results of my search for new hashtag research tools to replace Topsy, my favorite go-to that Apple acquired and recently shut down. But before I start, let’s recap why social sellers should use hashtags: Let’s your targeted audience find your tweets Ties together the conversations of different users into one […]
  • Guide to Building an Inside Sales Team (12/5/2015) - Sales is changing forever because the buyer has changed.  Buyers are more informed and more comfortable with digital engagement as they do more research and buy more products online, and this has extended to their business lives as well. What this means for sales is that there is a new inside sales role emerging that […]
  • LinkedIn Connections, Contacts, and Followers, Oh My! (7/26/2015) - A number of people have asked me, “What is the difference between LinkedIn Connections and Followers?” Such an interesting question! But first, I have to add Contacts into the mix, just to make it more complicated. Here it is, broken down based on how LinkedIn is approaching it currently. And as I always say, it’s […]
  • Hashtags and Handles: Twitter Class for Newbies (7/14/2015) - Twitter for business! If you have been wanting to get started using Twitter in your sales process, but you aren’t sure where to start, this is the class for you. Join us for this live, hands on class and we’ll get you using Twitter like a pro from setting up your profile to using the […]
  • Using Twitter for B2B Sales: Plans for Newbies (4/26/2015) - This week’s post is by guest blogger, Jen Greene.  Before rushing off to sign up for Twitter and add it to your social selling journey, there’s definitely some key things you’ll want to do before spending a ton of time tweeting.  Twitter can really become a deep time sink, sucking up hours of time and […]
  • 5 Amazing Ways to Use LinkedIn for Job Hunting (4/17/2015) - We aren’t going to repeat the basic stuff on using LinkedIn while job hunting.  You don’t need me to tell you to spend quality time writing your profile, or to tell you to look up hiring contacts so you can write personalized cover letters, or to research the interview team before going in to meet […]
  • 7 Hacks to Promote Your Blog Content (3/6/2015) - You’ve written your first blog post. Now you are ready to share that useful blog content with your buyers. Here are some easy steps for beginners to follow to make sure your content gets read and shared! Step 1: Post your content on your blog site If you’ve got a blog site, makes sure it’s got Share […]
  • Social Media Remakes the Sales Funnel (2/20/2015) - Over 5 years ago, the McKinsey group blew up the traditional sales funnel. Pointing to recent innovations in social communication tools and other resource sharing assets (many of which have grown much more prominent since McKinsey wrote their report) McKinsey posed the concept of a Consumer Decision Journey which was a cycle, not a funnel, […]
  • Getting your blog ready for Social Selling; selecting a theme (11/26/2014) - This is the second in our three part series on getting your blog ready for social selling.  All of the large CMS-type systems support some sort of theme, or “skin”. Our examples for this series are all centered on WordPress, but most of what we say here will apply in some way to the others. […]
  • Getting your blog ready for Social Selling; tuning the blog (11/26/2014) - This is the third installment in our series on getting your WordPress blog ready for Social Selling.  Now that you have your new blog, it’s time for some refinements to make it ready to support your new Social approach to selling. Here are some tips you can use today: Publish relevant content frequently—you may need […]
  • The ABC’s of Networking: Always be Connecting (7/27/2014) - Where’s the best place for networking in San Diego? I’ve been asked this question a lot lately so I thought it was worth summarizing the advice I’ve been given on the subject. First and foremost, “networking events” aren’t where you should be doing your primary search for business connections.  There is no magic “Match Dot […]
  • Why You Shouldn’t Relegate Your Social Media to the Summer Intern (7/28/2013) - I hear this comment quite a bit. “Let’s get a summer intern and have them come up with some social media for us.”  Here are 3 reasons why this is not advisable: Social engagement should start at the top of your corporation. Your company thought leaders need to be engaged in the social media conversations […]