Social selling is the practice of salespeople building relationships on social platforms as part of the sales process. In B2B SaaS that mostly means LinkedIn: following target accounts, engaging with their posts, sharing helpful material and reaching out with context rather than a cold pitch. LinkedIn also publishes a Social Selling Index score inside Sales Navigator.
What it looks like day to day
- A complete, buyer-focused profile that explains who the rep helps.
- Following and commenting on posts from people at target accounts.
- Sharing practical content, including the company’s own, with a personal take.
- Sending connection requests and messages that refer to something specific.
- Using tools like Sales Navigator to track account changes and job moves.
How it fits with marketing
Marketing can make social selling easier by producing content that reps want to share: short, useful posts, document carousels and customer stories. Some companies run employee advocacy programs that suggest posts. Content that reads like an advert in a personal feed tends to do poorly, so give reps material they can adapt.
Measuring it
Track the conversations and meetings that start on social, opportunities where a rep’s social activity touched the account, and self-reported attribution. Vanity metrics like follower counts say little about pipeline.
Example
Commenting before connecting
Hypothetical company Stonebarrow’s account executives each follow the leaders at their target accounts and leave substantive comments for a few weeks before sending a connection request that mentions a specific post. Reply rates on those requests are tracked against cold requests.
Common mistakes
Pitching in the connection request
Opening with a sales pitch tends to get ignored. Lead with relevance and value.
Questions
It overlaps, but social selling emphasizes building familiarity first, so that outreach is warmer when it comes.
It is a LinkedIn score based on profile and activity factors. It can be a useful prompt for habits, but it is not a measure of pipeline, so do not manage reps to it.
