Cold outreach is dead. Outbound doesn’t work. There’s no point in outreach if people think it’s spam. We bet you’ve heard it all before. Or even thought it after another unsuccessful attempt to generate leads. 

Here’s the deal: It’s hard to argue that B2B outreach gets harder for tech teams yearly. But not because you don’t know enough about the latest “hacks” and tactics for cold outreach. 

It’s getting harder because the expectations of your buyers have changed drastically over the years: instead of looking for a solution to buy, they seek trusted experts who understand and support their business objectives. 

They seek a connection on a more personal level. And if your B2B team wants to keep up, it’s high time to consider social selling as the new way to grow the pipeline through long-term relationships. 

In this article, we’ll discover the basics of social selling so you can decide if it’s worth it. 

What is Social Selling? 

Social selling is a long-term approach to building your pipeline through strategic content creation, personalized engagement, and influential networking. 

It allows the B2B teams to build much-needed trust at scale with a broader B2B audience and use LinkedIn as a nurturing platform to identify and connect with warmer leads.

In a nutshell, instead of losing time and money on pitching your service to a target audience that has no reason to trust you, you channel the resources to get your buyer informed (and, more so, curious) about the brand’s solutions and offers.

By using social channels, you can combine genuine communication with subtle brand awareness and be there for your prospects when they’re ready to buy. 

Is “social selling” just a new fancy phrase for LinkedIn lead generation? 

This common (and, sometimes, quite fair) misconception often stands in the way of embracing true social selling. 

LinkedIn has long been known as *the* cold outreach channel for B2B brands, as it’s one of the best places to easily and instantly connect with B2B decision-makers. 

And it’s the same reason LinkedIn is popular with social selling adepts: it’s a more informal setting to build a relationship with a potential client. 

But there’s a crucial difference between social selling and lead generation on LinkedIn: while the latter is a platform-specific short-term tactic to find and approach prospects with your offer, social selling is a more global and long-term strategy focusing on building relationships across all the channels your buyers use with a content creation strategy and personalized engagement. 

Let’s look at a more detailed comparison of some common approaches to B2B outreach.

Why Social Selling? 

Remember the times when you could attribute the prospect’s conversion to a single ad they saw online? If that were ever true, the “simple” tactics to draw your audience’s attention would be well in the past. 

According to the latest data by HockeyStack, it takes 894 LinkedIn impressions per company to visit your website. In a nutshell, it means that today, the customer is ready to embark on a longer journey, making sure they are eventually exploring the solution they know about and trust. 

So, the need to trust the brand, the overall economic landscape, saturated markets, and the buyer’s unconcealed annoyance with in-the-face selling have contributed to the new era of marketing. 

Spoiler: your buyers (rightfully so) want the experience to be about THEM. 

And traditional playbooks can’t always provide that due to limited interactions with a prospect. 

According to TrustRadius, the #1 priority for B2B brands in 2024 is working on their awareness and trust-building to make sure they engage with the buyer way before it’s the shop talk cue. 

Here are some more stats that show social selling is a solid option for B2B cold outreach:

• People settle for a friendly (or at least remotely familiar) face: 78% of buyers who’ve purchased a solution or signed up for a demo had previously heard of the brand. 
• Online presence is key: When doing research, enterprise buyers rely on sources like Google (75%), LinkedIn (30%), TrustRadius (29%), and YouTube (30%).
• Buyers aren’t big fans of sales interactions: 44% of enterprise buyers wish they would be left alone when they’re not ready to talk.
• Relationships matter: 29% of B2B tech buyers said they settled for a specific solution because they had a relationship with the vendor prior to the purchase.

To better understand the value of social selling, picture yourself in a setting where there’s no screen between you and your buyer. Would you start a conversation with a pitch? Would you continue talking for another 10 minutes if you see no response? 

We bet the answer to both of these questions is “no.” So, if online sales are the new normal, why should we treat the buyer’s personal space any different? 

And what about the ROI? 

That’s a good question. Inescapable, even, when we are talking about content in B2B. While everyone is raging about the value of content in building relationships, no one really talks about the impact it has on the revenue. 

But revenue is there. As long as you put the effort in. 

Here’s a great example to back it up. Justin Rowe, founder of one of the leading LinkedIn ads agencies in the US, spent several years sharing high-value, relevant content and strategically building his network. 

Today, with more than 80,000 followers on LinkedIn, Justin has made his personal brand one of the top sources of qualified leads and revenue for the team.

Without putting out organic content, the ad spend alone can cost your business tens of thousands of dollars each month (without the conversion guarantee). But once you combine expertise, nurturing your audience, and sales activation in one strategy, you’re immediately skyrocketing your chances to convert a lead. 

How does Social Selling work for B2B teams? 

Just like any other outreach strategy, social selling starts with your buyer. 

Once you get to know who you’re talking to, the strategy is all about providing value to the prospects and making them associate your brand with a specific solution.

→ You spend some time getting to know what interests these individuals and what is their go-to source for research and peer advice 

→ You share valuable insights through content and indirect interactions with your prospects 

→ You approach the prospects with value-driven and non-intrusive messaging only after you notice they showed interest in your brand

→ You stay in touch with the qualified prospect until they’re ready to talk about using your solution 

But how does a deal happen when all you do is wait around? 

That’s the fun and tricky part: you don’t wait around. You’re being proactive. 

Picture a scenario: You’re a B2B team leader invited to give a keynote speech at a local conference. After the conference, people who enjoyed your speech checked out your LinkedIn. 

Once they visit your profile, they see you’re sometimes posting valuable content, so they decide to stick around, and your updates pop up in their feed. Occasionally, you send a DM with insights the person might find valuable. 

Since your profile is clearly associated with your brand and what you do, you gradually become the person they think of when considering a similar solution or suggesting your services to others. 

And that’s the power of social selling: By seemingly doing nothing, you’re building a recognizable brand and long-term relationships with your prospects.  

To stay proactive, you should take care of these three action pillars: build awareness, nurture engaged prospects, and activate the “warm” audience. 

• Build awareness. To gain trust among prospects, the first step is to show up, share original content, and engage with your ICP. So, it’s essential to develop a content strategy that includes sharing your unique POV with the audience through social media, engaging with your ICP through comments, and growing a qualified network through automation.
• Nurture engaged prospects. Once you’ve established your first touchpoints with the target audience, it’s crucial to keep them “in the loop” or create an ecosystem where they receive value from you regularly, gradually associating your brand with a specific solution. Consider: 
  • Creating content “value loops” like newsletters or closed groups to keep the prospects engaged with your content 
  • Following up with the prospects who interacted with your content 
  • Promoting best-performing content with LinkedIn Ads
  • Promoting your brand to the target audience through podcast appearances or collaborations with fellow thought leaders.

• Activate your “warm” audience. Now that you know there’s an audience segment ready for a conversation with you, it’s starting to activate the sales motion. Identify the most aware and active ICP audiences by discovering high-intent sales prospects and building a dialogue on the common ground you already have.

Should you ditch the sales pitch altogether?

No (or it depends on the pitch). 

A pitch of some sort has its place in a social selling strategy. 

After all, you’re in it for bringing new clients. And your buyers are too savvy to believe you’re connecting with them for the sake of a good old convo. 

At this point, it might even seem a bit hypocritical, right? 

So, the key is to build up the dialogue to the point where it’s okay to talk business: 

→ Investing in the conversations outside the inbox

→ Gathering valuable information and data to share with the prospect (only for the sake of giving value) 

→ Leading the conversation about them and their business interests  

→ Tailoring your offer to meet those expectations and contribute to those interests 

And then, your pitch won’t feel like an unsolicited one because it happened organically at the right moment.

Is LinkedIn the only good channel for social selling? 

We get why LinkedIn might sound like the best option, and it’s hard to deny the platform’s potential.

But here’s the thing you should remember about social selling: 

The best social selling channel is the one your buyers hang out at. 

If some competitors in your industry are using email and it works, it doesn’t always signal it’s the go-to channel for you. Consider the titles, location, and the primary service you offer. 

In the era where your buyers can search for a solution virtually everywhere, optimize the channels they use, try and test reaching out to your target audience on different platforms, and settle on the ones that gain the most engagement. 

Who is social selling suited for? 

While you can’t be 100% sure if social selling will work for your case, our experience with social selling shows that the following criteria are signs you might benefit from social selling the most: 

• Your industry has longer sales cycles and requires ongoing engagement with the prospects.
• Your business is focused on high-ticket sales that require building relationships.
• Your service or solution works best if you educate them on the topic beforehand so they totally understand the value you bring to the table. 
• Your team’s leadership is actively involved in networking, and you plan to foster these opportunities in the long run. 
• Your business strategy is centered around long-term relationships with the client. 

5 things you can do today to start a social selling journey for your B2B brand 

Given what you already know about social selling, we can’t pretend that creating a social selling strategy from scratch is an easy task. 

But it 100% can be less overwhelming if you do it step by step. Here are the first five steps we suggest you focus on. 

#1. Define and optimize key social profiles 

Think of the channels and places your audience might hang out at and see yуour brand for the first time. Make sure your social profiles (both personal and corporate) are up-to-date, engaging, and consistent with your current messaging, value proposition, and vision.

#2. Turn your knowledge into engaging content 

The amount of valuable and actionable content you share with the audience is proportional to the number of opportunities you have to connect with a buyer. Think of the topics that can positively impact your prospect’s growth. 

If you share relevant insights into these topics across the channels, sooner or later, your buyers will start associating your brand with these themes. 

#3. Stay on top of the news, buyer habits, and trends 

Think of the whole “forewarned is forearmed” concept. To make the most out of your social selling efforts, focus on: 

• The industry trends that drive the market and buyer’s decision-making 
• The buyer psychology and relevant triggers influencing their decisions 
• The feedback from your target audience you see online (reviews, social listening, personal interactions, customer interviews, etc.) 

#4. Turn your sales team into an industry-savvy powerhouse

Today, nearly 80% of B2B buyers expect sales reps to act as trusted advisors for their industry. 

Once you train your sales team to be subject-matter experts, they will find it easier to say the right things and share meaningful content with your buyers, building a solid foundation for rapport.

#5. Align the activity with your CRM

Keeping your CRM up to date with ongoing conversations with clients comes in handy when you’re focusing on the long-term connection with the audience.
Your buyer wants to be seen as an individual rather than a number in your prospect list, so nurturing requires knowing a lot more detail about their business, status quo, interests, and previous interactions with your team. 

Also, having more opportunities to track attribution and ROI can’t hurt, right?

Social selling requires a lot of steps. But you don’t have to wait to take the first one. 

Building relationships with your ideal clients is never a fast and predictable journey. 

So, even if you aren’t sure about how your strategy will look as a whole, it’s still a good time to start getting in front of your audience. 

We hope this article gives you a headstart on social selling, and if you’re now wondering if social selling is the right fit for your business, don’t hesitate to reach out.