By: /

Professional social networks such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram… are starting to take more and more place in the business world but also play an important role in the B2B market.

Companies use professional social networks in order to develop their image, increase their customer portfolio. As you will have understood, companies that practice social selling gain visibility against competitors who do not use this practice.

But what exactly are we talking about when we talk about the subject of B2B social selling?

What does Social Selling mean?

A term that can be translated as “selling on the social channel”, social selling brings together all the practices that consist of using professional social networks to increase sales, communication and develop customers.

This digital approach is the new sales technique between professionals via social networks.

How do you set up social selling within a company?

Concretely, it is a question of raising awareness, training and initiating its employees in the use of social networks, to make it a real channel for detecting opportunities, for business development. More visually, social selling is the digital version of prospecting, identifying opportunities, follow-ups and networking, but via social networks.

As a general rule, this strategy is based on 3 key stages:

• the training of sales teams in the use of professional social networks (a neat public profile giving credibility to the collaborator, the publication of posts to animate their existing network and encourage interaction, the creation of a new network, techniques to convince strangers to accept your request to add etc);
• the implementation of a social selling strategy in line with the company but also the expectations of its network (sharing of content from companies, white papers, webinars, writing articles, daily interactions);
• monitoring and identifying opportunities via its network with a more individual and tailor-made approach

Many KPIs can be put in place to monitor the success of a social selling strategy, such as the number of contacts per salesperson, the number of views of the collaborator’s profile, the number of posts, the average number of interactions, and obviously the number of opportunities and sales that result.

What is its use?

Social selling has changed traditional codes and methods of sales and communication. He is a real asset in Business to Business (B2B).

It optimizes listening, expertise and facilitates the exchange of good practices between several people connected to each other, while developing its network.

It is an excellent tool for communication, prospecting and sales that allows you to expand your social network and your connections.

Social selling also makes it possible to reduce the so-called aggressive methods of sending repeated catalogs, offers without having been solicited, and spamming. This sales technique is “healthier” and more appreciated. Digital prospecting becomes an asset.

Social selling comes in the face of strong competition.

In what situation can it be used?

The very regular use of social networks is an essential and vital tool to enhance and develop the image of your company and increase its notoriety and your audience.

Just over 81% of B2B companies spend a lot of time on social media before closing a deal, however, few think about optimizing their professional social media accounts using their social selling.

According to 40% of marketing teams who use their social selling, decision-making and selling are faster and smoother . 57% of purchasing decisions are made via social selling, so well before contacting a salesperson.

LinkedIn, an example of a professional social network, is an ever-growing and evolving database for your leads and negotiations.

The company that uses social selling must be diligent about its presence on professional social networks. His presence must be almost daily to reap the benefits.

What are the advantages ?

Social selling comes in the face of strong competition on several levers.

It allows you to develop:

• Commercial prospecting (developing your client portfolio)
• The sale (significantly increase your sales)
• Communication , the relationship of trust and exchanges with professionals
• Generate leads, i.e. a set of methods and tactics that attract qualified and quality contacts to boost sales

How much does it cost ?

Social selling has a more than advantageous cost, because it costs almost nothing or almost nothing from a tools and software point of view . Social selling represents a low cost expense, for example, to access LinkedIn Sales Navigator via a subscription, access will only cost you the sum of €59.99 for one month of use. Most registrations for an account on a professional social network platform are free, only professional access has a slight cost, like the example mentioned above with Linkedin.

Then, the cost to be expected is that of training employees in the new tools, and the rest falls fully within the functions of the salesperson or business developer, since their very use of social selling is an integral part of their missions. Social selling can offer additional added value to your business for a low cost… In reality, it is no longer a new phenomenon but the norm today for exploiting the Web channel to develop your B2B business.