Month: December 2017

Originally published December 2017. Updated September 2026.

Most sales teams already have LinkedIn open all day. They check who viewed their profile, accept a few connection requests and send the occasional message that starts with “Hope you’re well.” Then they go back to the call list.

That is not social selling. It is social presence, and it rarely moves a deal.

Social selling is something narrower and more useful. It is the discipline of using social networks, mostly LinkedIn in B2B, to find the right buyers, understand what they care about, and earn enough trust that a conversation feels welcome rather than intrusive. Done well, it shortens the distance between a cold name and a warm meeting.

This guide covers what social selling actually is, why it matters more now than when the term first appeared, and how sales and marketing can run it together without turning it into another box to tick.

What social selling means

Social selling is the practice of building relationships with potential buyers through social networks before, during and after a sale.

The definition sounds soft. In practice, however, it comes down to three concrete activities:

• Finding the people who match your customer profile and noticing when their situation changes.
• Understanding what they post, share and respond to, so your outreach speaks to their real problem.
• Earning trust by being useful in public before you ask for anything in private.

What it is not: mass connection requests, automated messages with a first-name merge field, or a sales rep reposting the company’s product announcements. Those look like social selling on a dashboard. Buyers, however, recognize them instantly as selling.

Why social selling matters more now

B2B buyers do most of their research before they ever speak to a salesperson. They read, compare, ask peers and watch who shows up with something worth saying. By the time they fill in a form, the shortlist is often already written.

Meanwhile, buying decisions now involve several people. A single deal might need a finance lead, an operations head, a technical evaluator and an executive sponsor to agree. Each of them is researching separately, and most of them are on LinkedIn.

Buyers are on social networks. So the real question for a sales team is whether your people are visible and credible there at the moment a buyer starts looking.

There is also a simpler reason. Cold outreach is harder than it used to be. Inboxes are full of AI-written sequences that all sound the same. As a result, a message from someone the buyer already recognizes, because they have read her posts or seen her comment thoughtfully on a peer’s update, stands out in a way a cold email cannot.

Social selling vs. traditional prospecting

Traditional prospecting starts with a list and works outward. You find names, you reach out, and you hope the timing is right.

Social selling reverses the order. You start by paying attention. You watch for the signals that suggest someone might need you soon, and you build familiarity before you reach out. The contact still happens. It simply happens with context.

	Traditional prospecting	Social selling
Starting point	A list of names	Signals and shared context
First contact	Cold	Warm, or at least familiar
What the buyer sees first	Your pitch	Your thinking
Timing	Your quarter	Their situation
Measure of success	Replies	Conversations that turn into meetings

Neither replaces the other entirely. Most healthy sales teams need both. Nevertheless, teams that only prospect cold tend to work much harder for the same number of meetings.

The four parts of a social selling system

1. A profile that serves the buyer

A salesperson’s LinkedIn profile is usually the first thing a buyer checks after receiving a message. Most profiles are written like a résumé for the next employer. That is the wrong audience.

A buyer-facing profile says who the person helps, what problem they solve and what they know about the buyer’s world. The headline speaks to the customer, not to recruiters. Below it, the about section explains the problem in the buyer’s words. Meanwhile, the featured section holds something useful, like an article or a guide, rather than a product brochure.

2. The right network, not the biggest one

Connection count is a vanity number. What matters is whether the right people are in the network.

Start with your ideal customer profile. If you have not written one precisely, that is the first job, and our guide on how to create an ideal customer profile walks through it. Then map the roles inside your target accounts: the decision maker, the people who influence the decision and the people who will use what you sell. Connect deliberately, with a short note that explains why.

3. Signals worth acting on

Social networks surface changes that matter for sales. A new executive joins a target account. A company announces an expansion, a funding round or a new product line. Someone posts about a problem you solve.

These are signals, and they are the heart of social selling. A signal gives you a reason to reach out that is about the buyer, not about your quota. Therefore the discipline is to notice them consistently and act within days, not weeks.

4. Content that earns the conversation

This is where marketing earns its place. Salespeople should not have to write everything they share. Instead, marketing supplies the raw material: articles that answer real buyer questions, short insights from customer work, and a clear point of view about the market.

The salesperson adds the human layer. She shares the piece with a sentence about why it matters to this buyer, or she uses it as the reason for a message. That combination, company substance plus personal context, is what makes social selling credible.

How marketing and sales run it together

Social selling fails most often when it is left entirely to sales. Reps are measured on meetings and revenue, so posting and commenting quickly become the first thing dropped in a busy week.

It works when marketing and sales share the job.

Marketing owns the narrative, the content and the profile guidance. It makes sure every rep describes the company the same way, and it keeps a steady supply of material worth sharing. In addition, it can give each rep a short weekly brief: two posts to share, one idea to comment on, and the accounts showing signals this week.

Sales owns the relationships. Reps decide who to engage, how to open a conversation and when to move from public interaction to a direct message or a call.

Together, they agree on what counts as progress. That is where many teams go wrong, so it deserves its own section.

How to measure social selling

Likes and follower counts are easy to track and almost meaningless. The useful measures sit closer to revenue.

• Conversations started with people who match the customer profile.
• Meetings booked where the first touch came through social activity.
• Accounts engaged, meaning target accounts where at least one relevant person has interacted with a rep or the company.
• Time to first meeting for socially sourced contacts compared with cold ones.

LinkedIn also offers its own Social Selling Index, a score that reflects profile strength, network quality, engagement and relationship building. It can be a useful coaching tool for reps. Still, treat it as a habit tracker, not a business result. A high score with no meetings is still no meetings.

For the handoff from marketing interest to sales conversation, our guide on converting MQLs to SQLs covers how to agree on what a qualified contact actually is.

Common social selling mistakes

Pitching in the first message. A connection request followed immediately by a product pitch is the fastest way to be ignored. Lead with relevance, not with the offer.

Automating the human part. Tools can find signals and organize accounts. However, messages that are obviously automated undo the trust social selling is meant to build.

Posting for peers, not buyers. Many reps post content that impresses other salespeople. Buyers, meanwhile, want insight into their own problems.

Treating it as a campaign. Social selling compounds over months. A two-week push followed by silence gives buyers no reason to remember you.

No shared message. When every rep describes the company differently, buyers notice. The fix is a clear narrative that marketing owns and sales uses.

Where to start this quarter

1. Agree on your customer profile and the three or four roles you want to reach inside each target account.
2. Rewrite each rep’s LinkedIn headline and about section for the buyer.
3. Give each rep a list of 20 target accounts and a simple way to watch them for signals.
4. Have marketing publish one useful piece a week and send reps a short sharing brief.
5. Set a weekly rhythm: a few thoughtful comments, one share with context, and outreach only where there is a real reason.
6. Review after 90 days using conversations and meetings, not likes.

Frequently asked questions

What is social selling in simple terms?

Social selling is using social networks, mostly LinkedIn in B2B, to find the right buyers, understand what they care about and build trust before asking for a meeting. It replaces cold, context-free outreach with conversations that start from something relevant to the buyer.

Is social selling just posting on LinkedIn?

No. Posting is one part of it. Social selling also includes building the right network, watching for signals like job changes or company news, engaging with buyers’ content, and reaching out when there is a genuine reason to talk.

Does social selling work for B2B?

Yes, and B2B is where it fits best. B2B purchases involve several decision makers who research independently, often on LinkedIn. Being visible and credible to each of them shortens the path to a first conversation.

What is the difference between social selling and social media marketing?

Social media marketing is mostly one to many: a company publishes content to an audience. Social selling is one to one: an individual salesperson builds relationships with specific buyers. The two work best together, with marketing supplying the content and sales supplying the relationships.

How long does social selling take to work?

Expect early conversations within the first month if the targeting is right, and a meaningful effect on meetings after about three months of steady activity. Like most relationship work, it compounds, so consistency matters more than intensity.

Who should own social selling, sales or marketing?

Both. Marketing should own the narrative, the content and the profile guidance. Sales should own the relationships and the conversations. When either side carries it alone, it tends to fade.

Tomorrow the LinkedIn tab will still be open all day.

The test is whether the next message your team sends from it could start with anything other than “Hope you’re well.”

While sales isn’t the only profession that has to deliver impactful presentations frequently, it’s certainly something sales professionals do regularly. So how can you go about keeping your prospect’s attention and covering all the information you need? Try these five creative presentation ideas I learned from Julie Hansen of Performance Sales and Training to improve your presentation style and gain new and effective presentation skills.

#1 Break Your Talk Down Into Chunks

People are constantly being bombarded with new and exciting information and the average attention span has gone down to five minutes. This means long, linear presentations are no longer the most effective way to present your material. Instead, you should break your talk into three to five minute chunks and focus each chunk on a certain part of the message. Changing chunks is as simple as changing topics or shifting to a new point.

#2 Focus on What’s Most Important

Your prospect has already read your website and reviewed enough information to determine whether you’re likely to be able to help them, so skip the parts of the presentation where you introduce your company. Just like movies and novels start with the most compelling part of the action, your presentation should start by answering the main questions that they’re likely to have. Focus on what’s going to be most important to them.

#3 Customize For Your Audience

Different buyers of the same product will be interested in different features or aspects. Take the time to think about what might be driving their purchasing decisions and customize your presentation to talk to the specific prospect. This is more than putting their logos on your standard slide deck. This is doing your research and getting into their heads to be able to answer those most important questions first. Ask yourself how your features will impact them. When you understand your customers, you can help connect the dots between the problem they have and the solution you’re offering.

#4 Know Your Key Point

What is the one thing you want your audience to walk away from your presentation remembering? For a sales professional, it’s probably that you can help them solve a certain problem. If you know the key point you want them to take home, you can then build the rest of your presentation about that topic and present it in a number of different fashions to improve its stickiness.

#5 Keep Your Audience Engaged

When your audience is actively engaged with your presentation, they are much more likely to remember the details of the material you’re presenting. There are many different ways to engage your audience, asking questions is only one. Simple engagement such as slides, videos, and stories is the first step. Active engagement such as questions and contests are even better. You can add these engaging sections in between the different chunks of your talk to help break it up and keep your audience attentive.

With these five tips, you’ll be sure to keep your audience engaged and spark an ongoing conversation about how you can help your prospect. While we can’t replace the charisma and art of the sales professional in the field, Team StepUp can support your company with great branding, insightful content, and lead generation. We can also help with automation – get a taste of how automation can improve efficiency with our free guide to email follow-up. These and other automation tools free your sales team to do what they do best – take the story of your company and share it with your best prospects, personally.

Where does team motivation come from? In our blog post last week we talked about training for sales teams, which when done right can definitely contribute to motivation. Some motivational speakers might argue that a great video or talk can give your sales team the motivation they need to grow.  Warren Greshes, of Speaking of Success, would disagree. Greshes argues that it is next to impossible to externally motivate someone and the only effective way to motivate anyone was to figure out their personal motivating factors.

Rather than trying to motivate someone externally through inspiring them or pushing them, it’s better to help them become intrinsically motivated. As a sales leader, your job is to give your team the tools and techniques they need to be successful. First, you have to start by finding out everything about each person on your team, from their personal goals to their wants and needs, just like you would if you were trying to sell to a client. Once you have that information, you have the key to motivating them by showing them how working for you moves them closer to their personal goals.

Go Through a Goal-Setting Process

It can take some time to go through a goal-setting process, but help them draw up a one to five year plan with specific steps attached. You may have to connect the dots and help them see that the lifestyle or personal goals they have are obtainable and exactly how much selling they’ll have to do to achieve those goals. Everyone is motivated by something different, so you’ll need to sit down with each person and discover what motivates them and what their goals are.

In some situations, you may need to help them draw the lines between how they envision their future and how their career success will get them there. If they know what kind of lifestyle they want in five years, then you can turn that into specific numbers of sales calls or meetings they need to make each quarter to make it happen. In other words, you translate their efforts into the money necessary to create the lifestyle they want. Money by itself doesn’t motivate, it’s the lifestyle money enables. It’s important to understand that business and personal goals work together to create motivation.

Tie Long Term Goals to Short Term Action

Once you know the goals, you can reverse engineer and write down milestones you want to meet every month to build up towards your final goal. Then write your goals down, set the metrics you want to meet, and track everything. Tracking allows you to manage someone by showing them what else they need to do to meet their goals and keeps you from having to micromanage your sales team.

Sustaining motivation over time is done by showing people how their actions are moving them forward. A five year plan is great, but you should break that into smaller milestones so that you can measure your progress and celebrate your results more frequently. Once you help your sales team members make a plan, you’ll want to revisit it every quarter to make sure they can see how they’re moving forward and make changes as life changes.

Your sales team is your client, so in addition to helping motivate them to work, you also want to provide them the training, tools, and support they need to reach their goals. You can start by sending them the link to our guide on email follow-up, which sets out key tips and tools for customising and automating email follow-up and making efficient use of the leads your sales team gets.  You’ll have to motivate your sales team, but we can make sure they’re getting the content, leads, and digital support they need to turn those goals into reality.