Social Selling Today Is More Hype Than Reality: Here’s Why

Social selling. If you’re in sales, you’ve seen the phrase written in blog posts, heard it tossed around at networking events, or listened to a newly-hired colleague talk about how amazing it is. With the amount of buzz surrounding the phenomenon, there’s no escaping “social selling” for today’s sales rep.

But adoption of social selling isn’t keeping pace with the hype, according to HubSpot’s State of Inbound 2015-2016 report.

The chart below shows salespeople’s top priorities over the coming year. Note the ranking of social selling.

Social selling was named a priority for only 8% of our survey respondents. Clearly, there’s a mismatch between what social selling influencers are recommending and what’s actually happening in real sales teams.

In light of this data, you might be tempted to dismiss social selling as just another overhyped fad that will fizzle out over time. But in my opinion, this would be the wrong thing to do -- and maybe even the worst thing.

Social selling is an incredibly valuable practice. The low prioritization among sales teams doesn’t speak to a problem with the value of social selling (or lack thereof) -- it speaks to a problem with salespeople’s perception and use of social media.

To me, social selling usage today is a classic example of sales reps trying to use new technology to execute outdated processes. Salespeople too often treat social platforms such as LinkedIn or Twitter as additional channels on which to spam prospects. Instead of cold calling 30 prospects, they’ll send 30 cold direct messages on LinkedIn and call it “social selling.”

But modern buyers don’t respond to this type of outreach -- regardless of what platform the rep uses to get in touch.

Sales is undergoing a radical transformation. Buyers are empowered with more information than ever before. Therefore, it’s not enough for salespeople to send information. Reps must redefine their value in terms of their individual insights and authority. And sending spam -- whether it’s through LinkedIn, email, Twitter, or the phone -- won’t help you prove your worth.

Buyers have changed and so salespeople need to change as well. New technology is here, which means that old processes need to be updated to keep pace -- at all levels of the sales organization.

I see two big opportunities in how salespeople can use social media to better align with their buyers. From my perspective, these two use cases form the true definition of “social selling.”

First, use social media to boost your personal brand. If you spend 50 hours a month cold calling, I would challenge you to take back 10 of those hours per month and redirect the time to social media. Figure out what blogs your prospects read, the LinkedIn groups they’re in, and what influencers they follow on Twitter. Then get involved -- read what they read, comment on what they post, and retweet posts they’d be interested in. If you do this for a couple months, you will start to be perceived as a thought leader and trusted advisor in your industry. Leads will start approaching you instead of the other way around.

Second, use social media to gain context around the people and accounts you’re trying to engage. Observe their behavior on social channels. Get a feel for what grabs their attention, and what types of problems they’re grappling with. Discover if you have any common connections, or interests. Then leverage this context to personalize and customize your sales messaging. Prospects today already have product information; what they don’t have is a salesperson’s analysis of what this information means specifically for them.

It’s not time to label social selling a fad -- it’s time to start incorporating social selling into sales the right way. And that means we need to revise our processes to truly embrace the power of social media, and ultimately become more helpful to our prospects.

For more insights on the practices, challenges, and trends in modern sales, download the State of Inbound 2015 for free.