Deconstructing Social Selling
Strategy, Implementation & Measurement
Sara Cohen
Customer Success Manager
LinkedIn Sales Solutions
Amy McIlwain
Financial Services Principal
Hootsuite

Agenda
Integrating Social Media into your Sales Toolkit
Today’s Digital Buyer
Social Selling Defined
How to Frame and Implement Social Selling
Measuring the Success of Social Selling
1
2
3
4
5

Today’s Digital Buyer

​ The Times They Are a-Changin’
“
​ - Bob Dylan

5
Insights Show Times are Changing
SiriusDecisions
The greatest barrier for a
sales person not achieving
quota is from the lack of
customer knowledge.
Buyers do not contact
suppliers directly until
57% of the purchase
process is complete
CEB Global
Demand Report
95% of B2B buyers
chose the vendor that
supplied relevant
content throughout the
sales process.
Customer Think
Social selling generates
40% more qualified
leads & opportunities
than cold calling.
Inside View
90% of prospects hit the
delete button when receiving
an email from someone they
do not know CSO Insights
Buyers do not contact
suppliers directly until
57% of the purchase
process is complete
70%+ of the decision
making process is taking
place without sales
being engaged CEB Global

The Buying Process Today
Increasingly
complex
Increasingly
competitive
Increasingly
social
7
Key influencers in B2B
buying decisions
75-90%
B2B buyers are through
the buying process
before reaching out to a
sales professional
75%
B2B buyers use social
networks to research
products

Social Selling Defined

Key Sales Navigator Features that Drive ROI
Search Insights InMail
Find the right person or company
with advanced search filters
Buyers are 71% more likely to
engage with a salesperson if
they mention relevant info
Stay up-to-date on the people and
companies you care about
Reach prospects directly and
accelerate your relationships
If you made a cold call, over
50% of B2B buyers would think
less of you and your company
Reps who exceed quota
perform 52% more people
searches per month

1 Create a professional brand
Find the right people
Engage with insights
Build strong relationships
2
3
4
Key Activities of Social Selling

What is LinkedIn’s Social Selling Index?
Gain visibility into your
accounts
Uncover new
opportunities
Benchmark yourself
against peers and
competitors
First-of-its kind measure that measures your company’s
adoption of social selling practices on LinkedIn

Social Sellers See More Success
45% 51% 78%
Create more
opportunities
More likely to
achieve quota
Outsell peers who don’t
use social media

Integrating Social Media
into your Sales Toolkit

Social is The New Front Door:
It’s where your prospects learn, seek, discover & decide
Brick and
Mortar
Website Social

The Social Selling Organization
Build social presence via
approved content
Linkedin Sales Navigator
Monitor & Engage with
Prospects
Hootsuite Amplify
Hootsuite Enterprise
Find and
Connect with
the Right
Prospects at
the Right Time

“Before LinkedIn and other social networks, in the
sales world, ABC stood for Always Be Closing.
Now, ABC means Always Be Connecting,
because your connections lead to your next lead
and your next close”
Jill Rowley,
Social Selling Evangelist

Benefits to Sales Reps
Discover buying signals
from prospects
Understand market trends
and industry objectives
Increase leads
Convert
more leads
Improve win-rates
Establish as thought leader

Benefits to Sales Organizations
Increased qualification efficiency with better leads
Better relationships lead to more closed business
Drive Pipeline
Reduce customer
acquisition costs
Increase LTV and
deal size
Increase brand awareness through sales team

• Consolidates all social networks & online
communities in one dashboard
• Collaborate between departments
• Filter out the noise through targeted
streams
• Education on social media policies &
guidelines
• Customized set-up for each sales rep
• Track and measure success with
comprehensive analytics and funnel info
back into your CRM
How Hootsuite Can Help
with Social Selling

How to Frame and Implement
a Social Selling Program

Awareness Education Accountability
Customer success framework
Social selling excellence:
Create awareness through
Executive sponsorship
• Executive Education
• Regular Executive Communications
• Social Selling Newsletter
• Executive Profile Reviews
• Learning Center
• Sales Rep Education
• Sales Manager Education
• InStruct
Educate your organization with
dedicated training resources
• Program Planning
• Quarterly Business Reviews (QBRs)
• Gamification
• Metrics/ROI Tracking
• Reinforcement Communications
Drive accountability through
reinforcement and management

Marketing, Sales Operations, HR
Executive Sponsor(s)
Senior Decision Maker(s)
Administrator(s)
Sales Leader(s) / Manager(s)
Team Leader(s) / Buddy's (Optional)
C-level
Cross-functional departments
Find Your Champions
Creating your guiding coalition

Executive Sponsorship Best Practices to Drive Success
Be active on
LinkedIn; share,
comment, post
Continue to send
Executive
Communication
messages
Ask to see
summary reports of
activity & progress
Recognizing and
sharing wins from
the field

You can’t manage what you can’t measure

So
measure
it!
TRACK
SUCCESS:
❖ Social
Selling
Index
❖ Sales
Navigator
Usage
Reports
❖ CRM
Tracking
❖ LinkedIn
ROI
Survey
❖ Success
Stories
SET
A
CADENCE:
• Select
3-­‐5
metrics
you
care
about
• Understand
benchmarks
• Decide
cadence
• Determine
distribuFon
list
• Select
owner
to
pull
reports
• Take
acFon
or
recommended
acFon

How Hootsuite Did It

Measuring the success of your social sales efforts
Walk Walk FlyRun

How Hootsuite Did It
Walk
• Health test to see if reps are
posting, sharing and engaging more
• Social Media Management
Analytics (posting activity & follower
growth)

Questions to Ask Yourself
● Are sales reps’ social profiles complete?
● Are sales reps confident using social media technology?
● Are sales reps getting into the routine of posting/sharing on social?
● Are posts/shares & follower growth trending upwards?

How Hootsuite Did It
Run
• Ensure sales reps are engaging with
the right people and sharing the best
performing content
• Use team based UTM parameters &
Ow.ly links to track leads back to
specific social activities

Questions to Ask Yourself
● Are sales reps sharing the right content to the right people?
● Is team participation increasing overall or is it just a handful of social
advocates?
● Are links shared getting clicks and driving traffic/conversion?
● Is team performance increasingly driving more leads?

How Hootsuite Did It
Fly
• Track your individual sales reps
performance and how social media
activities impacted specific deals
• Assign individual based CRM
campaign IDs & UTM parameters to
each rep

Questions to Ask Yourself
● How is each rep performing and who are the top performers?
● How much pipeline can be attributed to social media activities?
● What social activities drove leads influences closed deals and which
sales reps can be attributed?

Summary of Strategies for Success
Are reps sharing
the right content?
Measure link clicks, web traffic
and conversion metrics, leads
generated
Sales Org Maturity
FlyRunWalk
Are social activities
impacting the bottom line?
Measure leads, pipeline, and
social influence in CRM and
marketing automation tools
Are reps confidently
using social media?
Measure post volume and
cadence, fan/follower growth,
profile completeness

Questions

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