The Ultimate Guide:

Getting Started
with Social Selling
INTRODUCTION
Digital disruption has revolutionized
the sales and marketing landscape.

In the traditional model, marketing tells a targeted group

what to want. Then sales tells them why they want it and
takes the order.
“It all starts with listening. If you don’t
find those opportunities, being able
This model is less effective now that buyers are more active
to execute on those opportunities
in information gathering. They know what they want and
is irrelevant.”
why. When today’s buyers have questions, they search
for answers online instead of relying on information
— Jay Baer, Marketing Speaker,
from a salesperson.
author of Youtility

Sales and marketing must align themselves to a new

shared set of goals to reach buyers.

01 The Ultimate Guide: Getting Started with Social Selling

 Chapter 1: Why Social Selling?

Buyers use social media to research

purchases and evaluate brands.

72% of buyers use social

media to research before
making a purchase. They’re
looking up product and
72% brand information. They’re
checking references.
They’re asking the opinion
of their connections and
your customers.

Source: DemandGen 2013 B2B

Buyer Behavior Survey

Your social media presence

is your introduction to
these buyers. In fact, 81%
are more likely to engage

81% with a strong, professional

brand. The social selling
model ensures that your
company’s brand will
encourage buyers to
seek you out.

Source: LinkedIn Global Survey of

1,500 B2B Decision Makers and
Influencers, May 2014
03 The Ultimate Guide: Getting Started with Social Selling
CHAPTER 1:
WHY SOCIAL SELLING?
Multiple decision makers are becoming
more prevalent.

The single-threaded approach—a salesperson forming a

relationship with one decision maker—is becoming less
effective. Research shows the average B2B opportunity
has 6.8 decision makers involved. Helping buyers reach
a decision requires multiple points of contact in the
company. Instead of following through with only one
prospect, sales professionals must go deeper into the
buying team’s structure, creating and building many
relationships. Social selling enables you to leverage
extended networks to find those multiple contact points. B2B
OPPORTUNITY

Source: CEB 2016

04 The Ultimate Guide: Getting Started with Social Selling

CHAPTER 1:
WHY SOCIAL SELLING?
Disruption can be a good thing.
“The key to digital transformation is
re-envisioning and driving change in
There’s no denying that it takes some work to restructure an
how the company operates. That’s a
entire business around social selling. It’s just easier to keep
management and people challenge,
doing what you’ve always done.
not just a technology one.”

Fortunately, digital disruption means it’s no longer an option

—Capgemini Consulting, Digital
to maintain the status quo. Traditional sales and marketing
Transformation Report
methods are becoming less and less effective. Businesses
that embrace social selling are increasing organizational
success. It’s time to adapt and thrive.

Sales and marketing both can use social selling to influence

the buyer at any point of their journey. Read on to learn the
value of social selling, who owns it, and how to implement
it to achieve optimal organizational alignment and social
selling success.

05 The Ultimate Guide: Getting Started with Social Selling

CHAPTER 2:
THE VALUE OF
SOCIAL SELLING

Social selling is the new norm. CASE STUDY PARTICIPANTS:

But it’s a tool, not a magic wand.

PAYPAL
Deciding to follow a social selling model is a good start. Founded in 1998, PayPal continues
Making it really work involves fundamental changes in to be at the forefront of the digital
philosophy, definition, and structure. payments revolution. In 2014,
customers exchanged $64.3 billion
The good news is that when social selling is implemented dollars through PayPal’s services.
properly, it can become a driver of success. The following
case studies show what can happen when a company truly
embraces the transformative power of social selling.
ADP
For 60 years, ADP has led the way
in defining the future of business
outsourcing solutions. They’re a
global provider of cloud-based
Human Capital Management.

07 The Ultimate Guide: Getting Started with Social Selling

 SALES LEADER CASE STUDY:

PayPal’s Challenges: Results:

• Identify key decision-makers • S
 ocial networking has become one of the strongest
lead sources for marketing
• M
 anage multiple stakeholders across
the prospect company • M
 ore relevant points of contact keep momentum
through the sales process
• M
 aintain momentum through a lengthy
sales process • 2
 0-30 of the deals being worked on at any time
influenced are sourced by LinkedIn’s sales tool,
Social Selling Solutions: Sales Navigator

• F
 ind connected decision makers through LinkedIn
profiles and Advanced Search
“Using the network effect that LinkedIn offers, PayPal has
• U
 se social networking and research to map the
been able to book meetings where colleagues have
buying committee of prospective client organizations
already worked with prospects or even played hockey at
the same club in the past, and that kind of background
can provide us with a great icebreaker as well.”

—Dan Horlor, Merchant Sales Manager, PayPal

08 The Ultimate Guide: Getting Started with Social Selling

 SALES LEADER CASE STUDY:

ADP’s Challenges: Results:

• Deliver better qualified leads to sales • Leads worked by sales increased 21%

• Improve salesperson productivity • Win rate of leads increased 103%

• Generate net new sales revenue • Total amount of won deals increased 26%

Social Selling Solutions:

• A
 DP aligned marketing and sales to adopt a
common definition of a good lead

• A
 DP’s marketing team targeted content to
stakeholders at various levels

• A
 utomated lead nurturing and scoring to engage 48% Revenue increased 48%
year-over-year
leads more quickly

• S
 pecialized sales professionals qualified the leads
to ensure the sales team was handed only the most
likely prospects

09 The Ultimate Guide: Getting Started with Social Selling

 Chapter 2: The Value of Social Selling
As the case studies show, social selling provides
real advantages for every stakeholder.

87% 70%
For the Buyer

of customers had a favorable impression of customers want

of a salesperson who was introduced to problems solved, not
them through their network to be sold to

• L
 everaging networks for introductions eliminates
cold calls.
For the Sales
• Insights gained from social conversation help to
Professional
personalize pitches.
• Prior sales drive 70% of future leads.

• B
 etter lead generation and
qualification for a more-equipped
65% sales team
For the Marketing
• M
 ore relevant content directed
Professional at specific stakeholders
of buyers agree that a
• Y
 our brand is viewed as a
vendor’s content has
significant impact on problem-solving resource,
buying decision a magnet for customers

Source: DemandGen 2014 Buyer Behavior Survey

CHAPTER 3:
WHO OWNS
SOCIAL SELLING?
CASE STUDY PARTICIPANTS:

Social selling isn’t just for the sales team. For the model to
work most effectively, it should be implemented holistically PITNEY BOWES:
across sales and marketing. Pitney Bowes is a global technology company with more
than 1.5 million clients. They specialize in customer
When sales and marketing are clearly communicating with information management, location intelligence, customer
one another, both teams’ efforts are amplified. Instead of engagement, shipping and mailing, and global ecommerce.
struggling for control, they’re finding synergies together.
The following case studies show what can happen when
sales and marketing understand what they own in the ORACLE
process and have aligned social selling goals. Oracle engineers hardware and software to work together
in the cloud and in your data center. Oracle enables its
400,000 customers in more than 145 countries around the
world to accelerate innovation and create added value for
“All it takes is hearing one too many times ‘Where are their customers.
the good leads?’ from sales and ‘You don’t follow
up on everything’ from marketing to know there’s an
opportunity for better alignment.”
CONCUR
— Greg Forrest, Sr. Manager, Marketing Operations Founded in 1993, Concur is a leading provider of integrated
& Demand Center, Concur travel and expense management solutions. Their services
are trusted by more than 20,000 clients and 25 million users
around the globe.
12 The Ultimate Guide: Getting Started with Social Selling
 SALES LEADER CASE STUDY:

Challenges: Results:
• O
 ne of the world’s top 100 software providers, but • R
 aised awareness of Pitney Bowes’s software products
low brand recognition generates leads directly

• C
 old contacts and outbound marketing steadily • F
 aster sales cycle, no fewer than 18 deals in Pitney
growing less effective Bowes’s pipeline sourced by LinkedIn

Social Selling Solutions:

• P
 itney Bowes implemented broader marketing activity “The trigger for us adopting LinkedIn Sales Solutions
on LinkedIn to support their sales team’s social selling. across sales and marketing came from a sales kick-off
event, when a customer on one of our panels explained
• S
 trategically use LinkedIn’s networking and sales tools
how much he valued LinkedIn as a source of buying
to generate warm connections.
insight. That was when we realized we needed to get
serious about how we used the platform.”

— Jeremy Harpham, Product Marketing Manager,

Pitney Bowes

13 The Ultimate Guide: Getting Started with Social Selling

 SALES LEADER CASE STUDY:

Challenges: Results:
• Quickly connect with buying committees • E
 stablishing relationships through shared connections
on LinkedIn led to a 30% increase in engagement with
• G
 enerating lead lists was inefficient and
key connections.
time-consuming
• S
 ales cycles shortened by 20% due to relationship-
• Long sales cycles
building through social networking.

Social Selling Solutions:

• U
 sed LinkedIn’s tools to empower marketing to quickly
generate lead lists

• C
 reate warm introductions and better relationship-
building through social networking

30%
increase in engagement
with key connections

14 The Ultimate Guide: Getting Started with Social Selling

 SALES LEADER CASE STUDY:

Challenges: Results:
• L
 ack of communication between sales and • Predictive model primed for future success
marketing teams
• 20% year-over-year growth
• S
 ales frustrated by perceived lead quality; marketing
frustrated at perceived lack of follow-up from sales

• L
 ack of shared goals and KPIs stunted efficiency “The results of this alignment have had a profound cultural
and growth potential impact on revenue. We now have a predictive model and
a united team to drive the business every day.”
Social Selling Solutions: — Greg Forrest, Sr. Manager Marketing Operations
• C
 oncur held workshops to define and agree on stages & Demand Center, Concur
and process.

• T
 hey agreed on definitions to create a scoring system
for leads.

• T
 he company put their staff through extensive training
to align goals and KPIs.

15 The Ultimate Guide: Getting Started with Social Selling

CHAPTER 4:
HOW YOU CAN
OPERATIONALIZE
SOCIAL SELLING

Sales: Transform Your Team’s Online Brand

1. Help your team stay authentic online. Concentrate less on

the sales angle and more about sharing quality content
and building connections.

2. Encourage your team to develop robust and professional

online profiles—complete with professional photos—on
Twitter, LinkedIn, About.me, etc. Completed profiles that
tell a customer-centric story enhance your brand.

3. Make sure your team optimizes their time on social

networks. Focus on finding good prospects through
advanced searches, making connections, and sharing
quality professional content.

17 The Ultimate Guide: Getting Started with Social Selling

 Chapter 4: How You Can Operationalize Social Selling
Marketing: Discover Micro Markets

Start meaningful one-to-one or one-to-many dialogue 4. Evaluate honestly.

with prospects. • Monitor your activity to identify its impact.

• Make adjustments accordingly.

1. Tap into what you already know.
• Explore where your best, new, and lost customers • L
 isten to feedback and comments from
spend time on social media. your prospects and customers.

• Ask them where they get their information.

2. Study profiles to create personas.

• Use potential prospects’ social media profiles and
content to create personas for specific micro markets.

• E
 nsure that valuable content has been created to map
to those social groups.
Global Personal Technology company Lenovo initiated an
3. Start the dialogues. end-to-end customer lifecycle program for differentiated
• Join the social groups where you want to market. micro markets.

• P
 rove your worth by participating with your own Their efforts tripled their reach, doubled conversions,
expert opinion. and increased campaign-attributed revenue by 60%.

• If the group forbids overt marketing, reach out to Source: The Demand Gen Pro’s Cookbook, 2014
a trusted customer advocate.

• Provide high-value information.

18 The Ultimate Guide: Getting Started with Social Selling

 Chapter 4: How You Can Operationalize Social Selling
Sales: Incentivize Teams to Adopt a
Social Selling Ethos

1. The Social Selling Index (SSI) measures progress across

the four pillars of social selling. High SSI is a strong
indicator of success potential. Monitor your team’s SSI
and suggest ways in which they can improve.

2. Instill a social selling culture: encourage your team to Leading data integration software company
complete profiles, leverage Advanced Search to find Informatica’s social selling initiative (using LinkedIn’s
quality leads, share engaging buyer-centric content, Sales Navigator) led to better prospects and fewer
and build lasting relationships with contacts. hours of fruitless research.

3. Celebrate your early adopters and share successes. Let One salesperson’s sales attainment rate grew 300%
the SSI gurus on your team serve as an example for those in three months, as her SSI increased from 55.3 to 78.9.
who are still struggling.
All of Informatica’s sales professionals currently
above quota have a high SSI.

Source: Informatica Case Study

19 The Ultimate Guide: Getting Started with Social Selling

 Chapter 4: How You Can Operationalize Social Selling
Marketing: Empower Your Sales Force
to Have Intelligent Conversations

Make your sales organization a partner on all programs Give sales visibility into their prospect’s digital
and campaigns. body language.

• H
 elp them identify what professional groups their • B
 y integrating your marketing automation system into
targets tend to populate. your sales force automation system you can give sales
visibility into which marketing activities their prospects
• P
 rovide thought leadership content to enable
are engaging with.
educated discussions on social media.

Help sales understand the best use for all content you offer.

• K
 eep templates up-to-date so they remain a valuable
sales asset. Digital Body Language:
How frequently a prospect interacts with your
• Provide suggested tweets and posts.
company and content is key to determining
• Make recommendations on complementary content. true buying interest.

20 The Ultimate Guide: Getting Started with Social Selling

 Chapter 4: How You Can Operationalize Social Selling
Sales: Provide Guidelines to Maintaining
Meaningful Relationships

Encourage your team to:

1. Build lead lists with LinkedIn’s Advanced Search to

focus on those with whom they can make the strongest
connections.

2. Request introductions through their extended

networks. Send personalized InMail as a follow-up
to a warm introduction.

4. Build global connections through insightful engagement.

5. Identify problems or pain points in a prospect’s

organization and share relevant content.

6. Monitor LinkedIn profiles to engage with clients when they

change jobs, have work anniversaries, post updates, take
part in discussions, or make new connections.

21The Ultimate Guide: Getting Started with Social Selling

 Chapter 4: How You Can Operationalize Social Selling
Marketing: Implement Tracking

Tracking Conversations
Use social media to track the conversations that people
are having around your brand and your industry.

• F
 ollow your prospects and their companies on
social media Cloud ERP software company Deltek needed new
processes to better handle metrics.
• A
 nalyze what they are talking about and the content
they’re sharing The organization implemented the Oracle Marketing
Cloud’s marketing automation system that fed data to
Tracking Content an enterprise data warehouse, where it could be fed to
Create tracking links to see how often your content is a business intelligence platform to generate insights.
getting shares, clickthroughs, and downloads. Create
tracking links for: Regular meetings with all stakeholders ensured the
new metrics were satisfactory.
• Blog content Marketing Ops saw a 30% increase in measurement
• Demand Generation content effectiveness after implementation.

Source: The Demand Gen Pro’s Cookbook, 2014

• Event registration

• Content for prospects

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 Chapter 4: How You Can Operationalize Social Selling

Optimizing your teams for social selling

primes your business for success.

Marketing can leverage social networks to find micro

markets for targeted dialog, then track social activity for
brand awareness and engagement with content. With the
insights social media profiles provide, qualifying leads is
faster and more comprehensive.

Sales reps who respond quickly to

9.5% trigger events via social media saw
a 9.5% increase in annual revenue.

Sales can position themselves as a magnet for customers

by developing a professional brand. Then they can leverage
networked connections to get warm introductions to
prospects. Monitoring their prospect’s profiles helps
them address specific pain points with timely insights.
That personalized attention helps the salesperson build
a lasting relationship with the buyer.

It costs 75% less to generate leads

75% via social media than any other channel.

23 The Ultimate Guide: Getting Started with Social Selling

Source: Social Selling Reduces the Cost Per Lead, 2014
Source: 5 Qualities Successful Salespeople Share, 2014
CHAPTER 5:
MAKING SOCIAL SELLING
THE NEW NORMAL

Case Study: Comunycarse’s Social Selling

Transformation

Comunycarse is a Spanish content management and IP

communication company with a pioneering new technology.
Their new product is high value, highly disruptive, and has a
long consideration period.

This innovation provided an opportunity to restructure

Comunycarse’s troubled sales and marketing teams. The
organization had to find a new model if it was going to
continue to grow.

25 The Ultimate Guide: Getting Started with Social Selling

CHAPTER 5:
MAKING SOCIAL SELLING
THE NEW NORMAL

Comunycarse’s Challenges:
“Prior to bringing in LinkedIn’s Sales Solutions,
the different elements of our business
Comunycarse’s existing approach was to buy into databases were working very separately, and there
for leads and rely on repeated cold-calling for sales. The lack was quite a lot of frustration between sales
of quality leads—and even keeping the databases updated— and marketing as to why our activity wasn’t
was a source of tension between sales and marketing. generating quality leads.”

The organization needed higher quality leads and strategic — Victor Magarino Penalba
follow-through to kick off the launch of their new video Sales & Marketing Director, Comunycarse
business intelligence technology.

The team was also seeking solutions to improve conversion

rates for their more established businesses.

26 The Ultimate Guide: Getting Started with Social Selling

CHAPTER 5:
MAKING SOCIAL SELLING
THE NEW NORMAL

Social Selling Solutions:

Comunycarse has traded outdated databases for a living “It’s all about reaching the right person with
document that never goes out of date. LinkedIn’s the right one-to-one message.”
Advanced Search enables the marketing team to identify
key decision makers. — Victor Magarino Penalba

Warm connections through the team’s extended

network and personalized outreach via InMail lead to
a higher response rate.

The ability to generate better leads has led to a redesigned

incentive system based on quality rather than quantity.
Sales teams are rewarded for the number of relevant,
qualified connections they establish and the number
of meetings booked with senior decision-makers at
relevant organizations.

27 The Ultimate Guide: Getting Started with Social Selling

 Chapter 5: Making Social Selling the New Normal
Results of Comunycarse’s Switch to
Social Selling:

Organizing the entire sales and marketing teams around

social selling has led to a completely new way of generating
and following up on leads. It’s improved workplace morale
and provided new opportunities. 20% increased conversion
rates by 20%
Using LinkedIn as the spearhead for the company’s business
intelligence is generating 2-3 strong leads every week.

All in all, Comunycarse’s social selling transformation

increased conversion rates by 20%.
“We’ve been able to bring everyone together. We’ve
built multi-functional teams around LinkedIn, sharing
one another’s connections…It’s facilitated a new way of
working—and it’s had a big, positive Impact on morale.”

— Victor Magarino Penalba

28 The Ultimate Guide: Getting Started with Social Selling

ARE YOU READY TO DISRUPT
YOUR BUSINESS AS USUAL?
Social selling can have a profound positive impact on your
business if it becomes your new norm. To get started, make
sure Sales and Marketing are aligned with standard definitions,
shared KPIs, and a shared statement of purpose. Powerful tools
like LinkedIn Sales Navigator can provide even more help in
achieving social selling success.

With social selling guidelines implemented across your teams,

you’re positioned to generate better leads, nurture prospects,
and form lasting relationships with clients. You can turn digital
disruption into a social selling revolution for your business.

To Learn More
lnkd.in/startnow

29 The Ultimate Guide: Getting Started with Social Selling