“Engaging in Social Selling”
Koka Sexton
Sr. Social Marketing Manager, LinkedIn
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How to Plan, Develop & Optimize
A Content Marketing Program for Tech

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You are the CEO of

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“Visibility creates opportunities.”

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Social marketing & selling
Marketing & sales working together,
complementing each other’s efforts,
to listen to & engage with prospects using
social media & networks to generate leads
& execute sales.
Social Marketing
Social Selling

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Marketing & Sales – The Old Paradigm
1:M 1:1
Marketing Team Sales Team
Awareness Trust
Brand Connection
Buyer’s Journey

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Marketing & Sales – A New Paradigm
1:M
1:F
1:1
Marketing
Smarketing
Nurturing Selling
Marketing Team Sales Team
Awareness Knowledge Trust
Brand Content Connection
Buyer’s Journey

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Change your philosophy
The only true wisdom is
in knowing you know
nothing. - Socrates

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Social buying:
Leveraging professional networks for
buying support to increase confidence in
decision-making

Social buying is widely practiced among B2B decision
makers, especially C-level and VP-level executives
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of C-Level and VP-level buyers use
social media for B2B purchase decisions
of all buyers use social media for
B2B purchase decisions
Source: IDC White Paper Sponsored by LinkedIn, "Social Buying Meets Social Selling:
How Trusted Networks Improve the Purchase Experience" #247829, April 2014
For all respondents, n = 760

Compared with other B2B buyers, buyers who use social
media for purchasing spend 84% more per purchase
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Average spend of
non-social buyers
Average spend of
social buyers
Source: IDC White Paper Sponsored by LinkedIn, "Social Buying Meets Social Selling:
How Trusted Networks Improve the Purchase Experience" #247829, April 2014
For all respondents, n = 760

Social buyers also make 61% more purchases on average
than buyers who don’t use social
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# of purchases made
by non-social buyers
# of purchases made
by social buyers
Source: IDC White Paper Sponsored by LinkedIn, "Social Buying Meets Social Selling:
How Trusted Networks Improve the Purchase Experience" #247829, April 2014
For all respondents, n = 760

And social buyers have a higher level of company influence
than purchasers who do not use social media
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of non-social buyers make
purchases for their entire
company, business unit, or
multiple departments
of social buyers make purchases for
their entire company, business unit, or
multiple departments
Source: IDC White Paper Sponsored by LinkedIn, "Social Buying Meets Social Selling:
How Trusted Networks Improve the Purchase Experience" #247829, April 2014
For all respondents, n = 760

Sales professionals can partner more effectively with social
buyers by increasing social proximity, presence, and capital
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Social proximity
Grow social networks and
contribute to conversations.
Social presence
Manage a professional identity
that is credible, authentic,
accurate, information-rich, and
service oriented.
Social capital
Do your social homework to
ensure relevancy before you
reach out and facilitate peer-to-
peer recommendations.

B2B Purchasers- Likelihood to Engage
92%
More likely to engage vs. cold
outreach
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5X
5X
5X
4X
3.7X
Definitely would engage Probably would engage
17%
69%
63%
88%
86%
0 20 40 60 80 100
Known as a thought leader in their industry
Introduced through someone in professional network
Provide insights or knowledge about your business
Are informed of job within the company
Have a complete LinkedIn profile
Reach out cold
We refer to engage as setting aside time to understand how this sales professional’s service or product would meet your business
needs (i.e. responding to their outreach or accepting a meeting invitation). How likely are you to engage with this person if they…?

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Trusted
by your prospects
and customers
Informed
on key updates at
your target accounts
Focused
on the right people
and companies
• Buyers have 22X more
favorable impression if sales
professionals are introduced vs. if
they reach out cold.
• 92% of B2B buyers would be
more likely to engage with sales
professionals who are known
thought leaders in the industry.
• 85% of B2B buyers have a
better impression of sales
professionals who provide
insights or knowledge.
• 86% of B2B Buyers engage
with sales professionals if they
provide insights or knowledge
about the industry.
• #1 reason why B2B buyers
don’t engage with sales
professionals is because
their product or service is not
relevant to their company.
• B2B buyers are 4X more
likely to engage if a sales
professional is informed of
the buyer’s role in the
company.

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Leverage Relationships
From serendipity to science
Serendipity oror SSccieiennccee??

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Definition of Social Selling
Leveraging your professional brand to
fill your pipeline with the right people,
insights and relationships.

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Why is social selling important?
SSI leaders create
45% more opportunities per quarter
than SSI laggards.
SSI leaders are
51% more likely to hit quota
than SSI laggards.
45%
more opportunities
51%
more likely to hit quota

Companies should be empowering and
enabling their teams to be successful.
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Think like a publisher
Turn your employee’s into the distributors

Add Rich Media to Employee Profiles
Leverage your employee’s profiles
to distribute content.
• Initially sent in batches
• Incremental updates as needed
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Use your status
updates to promote
your network
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Use your status
updates to inform
your network
• Industry news
• Relevant content
• Press
• Blogs
• Content
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Your network
Is your business.

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Why sharing is important?
Sales reps that exceed quota engage with
prospects 39% more than laggards
Sales reps that that exceed quota have
their updates engaged 98% more than
laggards
39%
more engagement
98%
Engagements received
Based on a global study LinkedIn ran in Q4 2013 of Q3 performance for reps focused on new business and reps focused on
existing business. Respondents reported performance; they were matched to their LinkedIn profiles to understand their SSI.SSI
leaders have an SSI > 70; SSI laggards have an SSI < 30

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Lessons Learned
• You are the CEO of ME Inc.
• Buyers are using social media to make decisions
• Social Selling is about building relationships
• Educate your connections