Social Selling: The Strategic Bridge to New Clients on LinkedIn

I would define social selling as a term used to describe using social media channels in a sales-focused way.

Much like any sales work, the art of 'social selling' revolves around building strong connections and communicating with them effectively. However, it is important to note: being sales-focused certainly doesn’t mean you have to "sell, sell, sell."

In fact, some of the best sales enquiries come off the back of subtle social selling activity. But these enquiries only convert if you have strong sales foundations and a good sales strategy in place.

What is Social Selling (And What It Isn't)

To do social selling well, you must be sales-focused without being pushy. It is not about sending masses of cold sales messages or overtly promoting your services.

Instead, it is about:

• Knowing exactly who your ideal prospect is.


• Understanding why they would want to buy from you.


• Positioning your brand effectively to generate interest.

Think of it as social networking with a strategy.

LinkedIn: More Than Just Posting

LinkedIn is the most amazing and powerful tool to help small businesses gain clients—but only if you use it well. Just "posting" isn't enough. You need to use the platform to build a bridge that opens up opportunities. This requires a strategic approach to both your positioning and how you develop your network.

13 Steps to Mastering LinkedIn Social Selling

For social selling to work effectively on LinkedIn, you should:

1. Have a strategy: Ensure your foundational sales elements are in place first.


2. Position your profile: Optimise your personal and business pages for your target audience.


3. Target with intent: Know who fits your ideal prospect criteria and what you want to achieve.


4. Build a quality network: Include prospects, suppliers, and local contacts.


5. Add connections regularly: Constantly seek out new, high-quality connections.


6. Interact: Communicate by engaging with other people’s posts.


7. Provide insight: Comment on posts outside your immediate network to spark conversation.


8. Ignore vanity metrics: Focus on the quality of engagement, not the number of likes.


9. Create great content: Aim to be interesting, informative, and inspiring.


10. Connect offline and online: Bring your real-world networking onto the platform.


11. Set KPIs: Track your monthly actions to monitor progress.


12. Build rapport: Nurture relationships until they are ready for a 1-to-1 meeting.


13. Move offline: Ideally, take the conversation from LinkedIn to an offline meeting to close the sale.

LinkedIn Strategy for London Businesses

If you feel LinkedIn isn't working for your business, the problem is likely a lack of a sales-focused strategy.

If you are based in London, I can help you build a bespoke social selling strategy for LinkedIn. If you’re located elsewhere, I can introduce you to other specialists. Feel free to contact me via my LinkedIn profile or visit the Brand Planning website.

Sales Before Marketing: The Foundation

To do any form of sales successfully, you must get your sales toolkit right first. I cover the essentials of sales foundations, strategy, and planning in my book, Sales Before Marketing.

Get the strategy right, and LinkedIn becomes the ultimate tool for your small business. You can order your copy here.