Written By Dan Cone

You’re Killin Me Don…

Volume 1 -The Basics of Social Selling in LinkedIn

Sending out cold emails and making outbound calls to these cold contacts reminds me of Don Quixote fighting windmills…..

Think about it; you formulate a plan for success in your mind, sending out thousands of emails that do not get opened, and you perceive you are doing something productive to achieve success hoping that buyers are going to read and be amazed by your new pitch. Like Don, you feel pretty good about your efforts for a brief moment, until you come to grips with the reality of the situation; fighting daily to connect buyers with outbound emails and calls does nothing more than keep you busy and create an imaginary “state of hope”.

Let’s be real - B2B contact and outreach is uber-challenging, no matter which tactics and techniques you roll with. In baseball, if you manage to get one hit for every time you strike out twice, you are headed to Cooperstown and the Hall-of-Fame. I view sales contact and outreach in 2024 in a similar context.

Having worked within enterprise technology sales for the past 25+ years I can also confirm that things have changed with respect to business protocols and professional courtesy… So if that is the case, maybe we need to consider a complete reset on our selling motions? Adapt and evolve, or perish, right?

I'm here to suggest that B2B technology firms do a serious review of what is now being referred to as “Social Selling” as a supplement and/or replacement to your current legacy outreach efforts. Here at Amplify AI, we have watched this outreach approach outperform our traditional email and call motion by a factor of four (4X). A 400% increase in response and engagement is substantial. It has our attention and I would submit, it should have yours as well.

Why Social Selling “Smokes” Email and Calling

Let’s start with the evidence supporting Social Selling. Here are three compelling metrics that support the case for Social Selling:

  • LinkedIn measured and found that social selling leaders are 51% more likely to achieve their sales quotas.
  • 78% of social sellers outsold their legacy peers (LinkedIn)
  • 31% of B2B professionals said that social selling allowed them to build deeper relationships with their clients, according to CEO Seismic.

If you’re not familiar with traditional selling as compared to Social Selling, here’s a high-level graphic comparison:

*Source: Seismic CEO

Our Observations:

Beyond the improved results detailed above, here are three additional strategic drivers for Social Selling and investing in this approach:

1. Social Selling Enables CEO and C-Suite Connections: Ever had a reply from a cold email or call to a CEO? Me neither…So, LinkedIn presents an alternate universe, where any individual with a compelling value can connect with CEO and C-Suite leaders.

The key to this is to hit the bullseye with your topic and personalized information on the very first attempt. If you’re approaching a CEO in the security SaaS space, make sure you are speaking in their vernacular and offering a new and compelling thought. No cut-and-paste or generic marketing info allowed! Product info or papers on clients are going to get deleted in a nanosecond, so an investment of a few minutes in your intro content may be required to earn the connection. Pro-tip here: run GPT searches on your industry, its current trends, and details within the specialized sub-verticals of the CEO and secure recent topics and metrics to share. The stats and findings provided represent new insights for you to express a view on and these can guide you with a valuable "seed" thesis for your Challenger statement and associated content for all CEO's within this vertical group.

2. Buyers Are Shopping Providers - Right Now: It’s interesting to point out that while buyers and clients are unlikely to ever read emails or take calls, they are investing time in researching your offerings, they'll just do so without your knowledge. If they are going to investigate your technology firm, they are likely to visit your website first, look for Gartner ratings, review Crunchbase, and then take a look at your LinkedIn profiles as a part of their vetting process. You can control the first and last steps in this sequence, so shouldn’t you take the time to ensure your profiles incorporate these credibility builders:  

  1. Professional photo and headline that describes how you bring value
  2. Participation in all large and relevant vertical industry Groups
  3. Recommendations and Certifications – The recommendations and certifications sections of your profile should garner confidence and be compelling. If you don’t have any, go to work to get some of each.
  4. Volunteer Participation – When folks vet new contacts, like all of us, they are looking for good, trustworthy folks. Leading a Girl Scout troop or Rotary is an advanced radar technique for confirming “upstanding citizens” to your potential connection.
  5. Content Postings – Even if you disregard everything mentioned in the four points prior and only invest in this point, you’ll probably do OK with your C-Suite connections. Unique posted content that you develop is what separates the "Quota Busters" from the "Maybe Next Year" folks. The articles you research, write and post reflect what you think and know as an individual, not as a mere corporate proxy. Articles posted from your company, major pubs, and your marketing department videos take zero effort or individual thought from you and they'll be received as such. Have a take and then take the time to write it down and share it!

3. Get your CEO in the Game: Your CEO should absolutely be the lead dog in your team’s social selling efforts. If the CEO is not the most active person in your company on LinkedIn, then something is wrong with your GTM operation.

Think about this; who speaks first after every major football game? The head coach does. CEO’s have the same responsibility. The CEO represents the company and must be the leader in messaging and industry viewpoints. They should be posting in a way that supports this, and the postings should be consistent and incorporate current thoughts on today’s most pressing industry issues. CEO’s should also make a continuous effort to meet and connect with the CEO’s within their specific buyers, partners, and investors. If the CEO is connected at the CEO level, they can always request help with introductions to key decision-makers in your review. Wouldn’t a referral from the corporate CEO to their teams suggesting your company be a great way to be introduced? Also, wouldn’t it be powerful to have your CEO connected with a potential client’s CEO in advance of a decision? Your CEO could then check in throughout the later stages of the sales cycle on how the team is doing, offer personal assistance, etc. Team ABM selling sounds pretty good to me.

Executive Optimization Drives Sales:

Are you a Sales Rep or a Thought Leader?

*Source: Seismic CEO

How the C-Suite Buys:

*Source: Seismic CEO

So What Do You Do Next?

We’ve offered several best-practice ideas and tactics for Social Selling here. Unfortunately, we won’t have the time or space to detail other areas (including contact optimization strategies), however, these “finer points” are also key drivers to successful Social Selling. If you would care to review these details, Amplify AI is happy to share our findings and messaging “best practices”.

The most important advice that we can offer is to get started now. Take a first step. We are all learning new details and then iteratively fine-tuning our strategies. Just deciding that Social Selling should be a key component of your selling strategy is a great first action. So make that initial commitment and take step one!

*Amplify AI offers social selling and executive optimization tools and services designed to support B2B technology providers. Linked Concierge offers an innovative solution for expanding executive presence and credibility while also expanding executive networks.