Revenue and sales
Social selling is the use of social networks by salespeople to build relationships of trust with prospects, before and during a deal.
The aim is not selling online but becoming the reference the customer picks when the time to decide comes. It stems from the fact that buyers, especially in business-to-business, reach their first meeting with a salesperson having already done much of the buying journey on their own: whoever wants to be there must be found earlier. LinkedIn turned it into a measurable discipline in 2014 with the Social Selling Index, built on four activities: establishing a professional brand, finding the right people, engaging with insights and building relationships. It differs from social commerce, which is direct selling inside social networks, and it works only if the company backs it with content and a method; otherwise it stays the initiative of a few salespeople.
An example
Every week a salesperson posts an analysis of their sector on LinkedIn, comments on the posts of the purchasing managers they follow, and is contacted by a company that has been reading them for months when a tender opens.
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