Six social selling techniques that will fill your sales pipeline in record time
Are you using social selling? Discover six techniques you can try that can fill your sales pipeline in record time.
In today’s digital landscape, social media is where people live and breathe. Not only do people use these channels for personal interactions but also for business transactions. That’s where social selling comes in.
The numbers speak volumes. According to 87% of sellers, social selling was effective for their business from 2022 to 2023. Nearly 60% claim their companies made more sales on social media platforms that year.
But what exactly is it, and how does it work?
This page covers what you need to know about social selling, including its key benefits and the social media channels to use. More importantly, learn some effective techniques to help fill your sales pipeline in no time.
Ready? Let’s dive right in!
What is social selling?
Simply put, social selling is precisely what it sounds like – selling on social media channels. However, there is more to this than you might think. It’s reaching out to a wide range of prospects on channels such as Facebook, YouTube, or LinkedIn.
Social selling entails engaging with potential customers and building positive relationships with them. It involves offering real value when promoting your business and products or services on the platform. Ultimately, the goal is to grow your brand and sales on social media.
Social media channels for sales and marketing
Social media is extremely enormous. To date, this site has 5.22 billion users worldwide, comprising 63.8% of the global population. The number continues to increase with an annual growth rate of 5.2%.
Social media is the perfect place to connect with prospects and sell offers. However, choosing the right social media platform is critical to sales success and business profitability. That begs the question:
What online channels should you leverage for social selling?
Below are social media channels to use for selling—and what recent stats have to say:
- Facebook: Rebranded as Meta, FB is best for social selling through Facebook Shops and even customer engagement through usual platform interactions. About one million brands sell on this channel, while over 200 million active users interact on its shops.
- Instagram: IG is ideal for promoting your branded products, such as T-shirts and cups, through compelling images.. It also allows you to engage with customers on this channel. In fact, 200 million users visit a business page daily, while 80% research products or services on the platform.
- X (Twitter): X remains one of the top social media channels out there. But while people use it for random posts and connections, businesses leverage it for brand promotion and customer interactions. As a seller, it’s one of the platforms you shouldn’t neglect at all!
- YouTube: YouTube is known for its video promotion and engagement. It allows online sellers to promote their brands and products or services through enticing clips. About 70% of its users made a purchase after seeing a product video.
- TikTok: TikTok is notable for its short video marketing and user interactions. Despite its recent controversy, the platform is viral among the younger generations, especially Gen Z. E-commerce businesses can leverage this platform for social selling.
- LinkedIn: LinkedIn is used for professional networking, whether looking for job opportunities, building networks, or expanding businesses. Over 95% of B2B content marketers employ this channel for organic marketing, but even B2C companies can use it for direct social selling.
Key benefits of social selling
Let’s keep it straightforward—social selling is effective, as its benefits are manifold. In fact, business leaders claim they get better sales results from selling on social media channels. The proof is in the numbers:
That said, here’s why you should leverage social media channels for sales and marketing:
- Global and diverse reach: As cited, social media has over five billion users worldwide. Selling on some of these channels lets you connect with a wide range of global customers. The more prospects you reach out to, the higher the chance of converting sales.
- Effective product/service promotion: This digital platform paves the way for robust social media marketing. Not only does it let you promote your products or services, but it also helps you interact with prospects. By doing so, you’ll be one step closer to converting sales.
- Enhanced customer engagement: Social media goes beyond selling your products or services. This platform helps you interact with prospects and build good customer relationships. That translates to customer loyalty and continuous support.
- High lead generation: Social selling also lets you generate leads on social media channels. You can create your customer persona–an ideal representation of your target market. Then, you can use analytics tools to target social media users who can be your potential customers.
- Increased sales profits: Social media is the best platform for global outreach, business promotion, customer engagement, and lead generation. The ultimate goal of social selling is to boost sales. By maximizing this platform, you can convert leads into sales—or prospects into actual customers!
Explore some social selling tactics for boosting your sales in the next section.
Social selling techniques: How to fill your sales pipeline
The social selling industry is booming. In fact, the global social commerce market is projected to grow from $913.90 billion in 2023 to $6.24 billion by 2030 at a 31.6% compound annual growth rate (CAGR). That’s why leveraging social media channels for online selling makes sense.
This doesn’t mean, however, that you don’t need to put in the work. For one, avoid common social media mistakes when selling on the platform. Likewise, optimize your social selling tactics to maximize its income potential.
Easier said than done—here are social media techniques to fill your sales pipeline in no time:
1. Establish a consistent brand
Consumers only patronize businesses whose brands are worth trusting. Start by building and maintaining a consistent brand across all your social media pages. This should be part of your social selling strategy, where brand consistency is key to success! Here’s how:
- Ensure consistent branding. Incorporate your brand on social media pages when creating and updating your social profiles. Highlight your brand name, logo, tagline, and other visual elements that set you apart from others.
- Highlight products or services. Put them in the spotlight on your social media pages to entice your target customers. However, focus on the value of what your business has to offer.
- Showcase online social proof. Publish positive client testimonials and customer feedback on your social media pages, as well as share case studies and whitepapers. They can influence consumers’ purchase decisions.
Brooke Webber, Head of Marketing at Ninja Patches, highlights the value of brand consistency for social selling. “Consumers are drawn to brands they can trust, so keeping a consistent look and feel across social channels is huge for building that trust. From the logo to the tagline, your brand should feel like ‘you’ on every platform. Showcase your products’ real value, share testimonials, and let social proof do the talking!”
2. Personalize sales pitches
Jeffrey Zhou, CEO and Founder of Fig Loans, believes in connecting with potential customers on social media. However, he recommends drafting and sending personalized sales pitches to prospects.
Zhou says, “To connect with customers on social media, go beyond the basics. Take time to study your prospects, build target personas, and draft messages that speak directly to them. Personalized pitches show that you understand their needs—so ditch the generic messages and make it personal!”
Zhou suggests taking the following steps to personalize sales pitches for social selling.
- Study your prospects. It takes due diligence to understand your potential customers on social media platforms. Perform market research and analysis using data analytics tools. Needless to say, get to know them!
- Create ideal personas. It’s best to develop various personas based on demographics, psychographics, and other factors. These personas serve as ideal representations of your target market on social media. Target them!
- Send personalized messages. After market research and persona creation, you can now reach out to your prospects. Like customer email marketing, you can send customized sales pitches on social media. No generic pitches, please!
3. Share high-quality content
Content is king in the digital world, which essentially applies to social media. A social media post generator can help you develop and schedule high-quality content, ensuring your brand stays active and visible. As such, it’s best to share pieces of content on your social media pages as part of social selling. Likewise, encourage your prospects and customers to create user-generated content (UGC) for increased brand awareness, consumer trust, and yes, sales:
But when sharing pieces of content on social media, consider the following key attributes:
- Relevance: Whether blog posts, product reviews, or case studies, are they relevant to your business and target market?
- Value: What value do you offer that will make people want to buy your products or hire your services? Highlight this value in the content you publish on your social media pages!
- Entertainment: Does your content provide an entertainment value to your social media audiences? For all you know, it can boost customer engagement.
Sabas Lin, CTO at Knowee, underscores the importance of content in social selling. “Content is everything in social selling – it’s how you build trust and drive engagement. Share high-quality, relevant pieces that highlight your brand’s value and encourage customers to get involved with their own posts. When your content is informative, valuable, and even entertaining, it does the
selling for you.”
4. Build customer relationships
A line is drawn between social commerce and selling. While social commerce focuses on promoting products or services, social selling prioritizes building customer relationships. Ultimately, the latter promotes basic social media engagement, which translates to customer support and loyalty.
Take it from Gary Hemming, Owner and Finance Director at ABC Finance. He believes in using social media channels to engage with potential customers and establish good relationships with them. “It’s better to focus on relationship-building rather than selling the actual products or services for long-term success.”
Hemming suggests the following crucial steps for building customer relationships on social media:
- Respond to comments. When posting on your social media pages, whether ad copies or marketing content, expect some people to comment on them. They are quality leads, so respond to them as quickly as possible.
- Like and share posts. If you have some followers on your social media pages, it won’t hurt to engage with them by liking and sharing relevant posts. They will feel appreciated and valued, which leads to customer support and loyalty.
- Send direct messages. It’s a great idea to reach out to your followers as prospects. But as mentioned, make sure your sales pitches are personalized and offer real value to them.
5. Expand your business network
Reyansh Mestry, Head of Marketing at TopSource Worldwide recommends social selling for business expansion. He believes your business shouldn’t be limited to your e-commerce platform alone. “Harness the power of social media to expand your business, establish a global reach, and widen your customer base.”
For social selling, Mestry suggests the following:
- Participate in industry groups. Once you have social media profiles in place, join online groups relevant to your niche. You can meet industry leaders and business experts with the same vision and mission, as well as connect with potential customers.
- Engage in social media forums. It’s also better to interact with other members on the platform and share your thoughts on online forums. For instance, join forums for the metal industry on social media and share your ERP software solutions, not to mention some best practices.
- Share valuable input. Finally, sharing your voice on social media forums is the best way to establish your EEAT: Experience, expertise, authority, and trust. Share valuable and relevant content and take the lead in any discourse.
6. Measure and monitor your performance
Sales performance measuring and performance should be part of your social selling equation. You need to set your key performance metrics (KPIs) and measure your performance against them. In fact, half of sales professionals establish a sales performance dashboard for performance monitoring and reporting.
For your social selling campaign, perform the following:
- Set key metrics. Consider KPIs revolving around user engagement, customer reach, brand awareness, customer satisfaction, and conversion rates. Make sure to set objectives and key results (OKRs).
- Track sales performance. Leverage digital tools to monitor your sales performance and measure it against the set KPIs. This will allow you to see if your social selling strategies are actually working.
- Adjust sales tactics when necessary. Should there be areas for improvement, make sure to tweak your social selling techniques. You might need to focus on personalizing pitches, publishing quality content, or enhancing your engagement.
Mira Nathalea, Chief Marketing Officer at SoftwareHow, suggests leveraging digital tools and technologies for social media monitoring. “Tracking your social selling performance is essential—it’s how you know what’s working and what’s not. Set clear KPIs, use digital tools to monitor your progress, and be ready to adjust tactics as needed. Measuring engagement, reach, and conversions can show you exactly where to focus to keep improving.”
Leverage the power of social selling
In today’s business landscape, social media is a powerful tool or platform for selling. It is used not only for personal interactions but also for various business transactions. Therefore, maximize the potential of these channels to help boost your sales.
Leverage the social media platforms outlined above, whether Facebook, X, TikTok, or LinkedIn. More importantly, consider our social selling techniques recommended above. With all these practical tips and steps, you can fill your sales pipeline in no time!
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