Current malpractices handicapping social selling's potential - Forrester - August 2019

Current Malpractice Handicaps Social Selling’s
Potential
Shift Your Mindset And Programs To Social Engagement
by Mary Shea and Matthew Camuso
August 5, 2019 | Updated: August 6, 2019
Licensed for individual use only
forrester.com
Key Takeaways
B2B Sellers Fail To Update Their Nautical Charts
Traditional sales tactics have desensitized buyers
to blast emails and cold calls. B2B sellers will
destroy the potential of the channel if they migrate
these legacy behaviors to social networks.
Lack Of Leadership Support Undermines
Sellers’ Best Social Intentions
Not all the blame falls on sellers. Many marketing
and sales leaders don’t give sellers clear and
defined strategies, ongoing training, and best-in-
class tools for sellers to excel.
Right The Ship By Going All In On Social
Engagement
Buyers demand meaningful interactions in both
virtual and physical settings and expect sellers to
be knowledgeable and empathetic. B2B sellers
must shift their mindsets from transactional
to relational and their actions from selling to
engaging to realize the full potential of this
powerful channel.
Why Read This Report
Sellers are flocking to social networks, but the
authentic connections and measurable impact
we have been optimistic about since we wrote
our first report on social selling in 2016 are at
risk. Many miss the mark by focusing on selling
versus engaging. B2B marketers and sellers must
now right the ship before social becomes another
channel sunk by sellers’ poor behavior.
This PDF is only licensed for individual use when downloaded from forrester.com or reprints.forrester.com. All other distribution prohibited.

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Table Of Contents
Many B2B Sellers Still Miss The Mark With
Social
Sellers Need Training And Tools To Navigate
Social Successfully
Buyers Seek Meaningful Social Interactions
And Relevant Content
Stop Selling And Start Engaging
Recommendations
Marketers And Sellers Must Go All In With
Social Engagement
Supplemental Material
Related Research Documents
Embrace B2B Social And Meet Buyers On Their
Terms
The Forrester New Wave™: Sales Social
Engagement Tools, Q2 2019
GDPR And The B2B Seller
For B2B Marketing Professionals
Current Malpractice Handicaps Social Selling’s Potential
by Mary Shea and Matthew Camuso
with Caroline Robertson, Lori Wizdo, Jacob Basseches, and Kara Hartig
Share reports with colleagues.
Enhance your membership with
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© 2019 Forrester Research, Inc. Unauthorized copying or distributing is a violation of copyright law.
Citations@forrester.com or +1 866-367-7378
2
Many B2B Sellers Still Miss The Mark With Social
B2B sellers face an onslaught of new and emergent challenges (see Figure 1). Traditional sales tactics
no longer work because desensitized buyers never or take days to respond to emails and refuse to
answer calls from numbers they don’t recognize. But savvy sellers who effectively engage on social
networks are seeing meaningful results. These modern sellers create 45% more opportunities and are
51% more likely to achieve quota than those who do not embrace social.1
Unfortunately, as sellers
flock to the channel, questionable sales practices prevail. Common mistakes B2B sellers make include:
›
› Treating social networks like promotional channels. Social networks should foster authentic and
meaningful interactions among people with common interests. Many B2B sellers misunderstand
these networks’ purpose and etiquette by only sharing generic marketing and sales messaging.
According to Sally-Anne Schmick, global social media strategy manager at Zebra Technologies,
“Sharing solely promotional brand content won’t stick; it actually drives followers away.”
›
› Asking for something before establishing trust. Building trust, showing empathy, and delivering
value are the hallmarks of modern B2B sellers. Unfortunately, sellers who are new to interacting
on social networks often take the same misguided approach they utilized for email outreach circa
2009. Cold pitches or meeting requests by direct message before establishing trust or delivering
value are doomed to fail. Jill Rowley, former social selling advisor, likens this approach to “making
a withdrawal before you’ve made the deposit,” while Gabe Villamizar, global sales evangelist at
Lucidchart, describes it as “the fastest way to fail.”
›
› Underresearching a contact. Business professionals disclose a lot of information, perspectives,
and passions in their social content. But all too often sellers don’t take advantage of this (see
Figure 2). Justin Shriber, LinkedIn’s VP of marketing, shares: “Buyers are too familiar with sellers
reaching out in uninformed self-serving ways. They often aren’t sensitive to what buyers care about
or don’t learn basics about the buyer themselves.”
›
› Engaging in random acts of sharing. While early-stage buyers want to self-educate and remain
anonymous, they are also keen to engage with sellers who share relevant and timely material.2
But
sellers who aimlessly post or tweet won’t convince any buyer to engage with them. Rob Danna,
senior VP of sales and marketing at ITA Group, believes, “Indiscriminate behavior on social will
autocorrect as the community polices to the norm.” But if social platform policing — in the form of
reporting, blocking, and unsubscribing — does not curtail this behavior, sellers who share without
deeply understanding their territories, accounts, and contacts will do more harm than good.

3
FIGURE 1 B2B Sellers Face Existing And Emerging Challenges
“What are the top three challenges your field sales reps face with regard to
buyer/customer engagement?”
(Top three responses accepted)
78%
49%
28%
26%
21%
16%
Base: 120 global marketing and sales leaders
Source: Forrester’s Q1 2017 International B2B Marketing Panel Online Survey
Buyers have multiple stakeholders involved in
the decision process with different agendas
Buyers/customers are taking longer to
make their decisions
Buyers/customers won’t take sales phone
calls from sales reps
Buyers/customers want to meet in person less
Buyers/customers just want to talk about
pricing/product
Buyers/customers view interactions with
sales reps as low value

4
FIGURE 2 Indiscriminate Social Practices Risk Buyer Alienation
Source: LinkedIn website
Sellers Need Training And Tools To Navigate Social Successfully
Blame for poor social behavior is not for sellers to shoulder alone. Insufficient training, lack of access
to best-in-class tools, and ad hoc approaches all contribute to the problem. In a recent study, only
25% of B2B companies reported consistency in equipping their sellers with social engagement tools
to effectively interact with buyers, and an even smaller faction — only 8% — said they had optimized
social engagement practices for their sellers.3
B2B companies contribute to sellers’ inappropriate
behavior and disappointing buyer experiences by:
›
› Failing to invest in comprehensive training. Training typically falls short on multiple fronts. Most
internal trainers run out of material in three or four sessions. And training from the professional
services arms of technology partners typically focuses only on functionality and utilization. SAP
realized training needed to be an extended organizational effort. According to Kirsten Boileau,
SAP’s global head of digital enablement services (marketing automation, digital marketing, and

5
digital selling): “We knew we needed to monitor, incentivize, and provide feedback that limited
training would not provide. So we built an ecosystem of over 250 volunteers who would act as
coaches supporting local training, tutorials, and workshops.”
›
› Underinvesting in seller-focused tools. Organizations with existing employee advocacy programs
often extend licenses to sellers.4
But vendors that focus on advocacy and communication often
lack the full range of functionality and subject matter expertise to fully support sales users.5
Other
organizations don’t invest in tools at all or allow individual sales users to purchase licenses, which
means they are unlikely to be well trained.
›
› Taking an ad hoc versus programmatic approach. General perceptions still prevail that a couple
of Navigator licenses and handful of socially visible sellers constitute a program. But unfortunately,
one-off practices don’t deliver material impact. According to Justin Shriber, “An ad hoc approach
will always have limited impact since it fails to capitalize on the team-based selling that Sales
Navigator facilitates.” Companies that take a programmatic approach benefit from “comprehensive
insights that are accessed from the entire buyer community.”
Buyers Seek Meaningful Social Interactions And Relevant Content
Sometime between 2006 and 2010, the phrase “social selling” surfaced to describe digital interactions
between sellers and buyers over social networks.6
Although always a misnomer, the terminology
caught on quickly because it helped B2B marketers and sellers understand the sales use case
for social. But six years later, so much has changed. New social networks emerge almost daily,
buyers are beyond empowered, and LinkedIn Sales Navigator licenses are table stakes at most B2B
organizations.7
Today business buyers expect relevant content to find them and are more likely to
engage with informed and empathetic sellers who share it (see Figure 3).
To better reflect today’s reality, Forrester is replacing the phrase “social selling” with “social
engagement.” Forrester defines social engagement for sellers as:
The purposeful use of social networks by sellers to provide value to customers and prospects as
part of their sales process.

6
FIGURE 3 Empathetic And Informed Sellers Get Through To Buyers
“How important are the following statements related to your engagement with
sales reps during the buying process?”
Base: 141 global B2B technology decision makers at companies with 500+ employees
Source: Forrester Consulting’s Q1 2018 Global Marketing Content Credibility Study
5 = Very important 4 = Important
21%
33%
20%
21%
38%
42%
30%
45%
48%
36%
63%
63%
65%
69%
74%
Sales reps are knowledgeable about my
specific business
Sales reps are knowledgeable about my industry
Sales reps have relevant examples or case
studies to share with me
Sales reps understand my issues and can
explain where they can help
Sales reps are knowledgeable about their
company and products
Stop Selling And Start Engaging
In the classic business book Good To Great, Jim Collins introduces the concept of a “stop doing list” —
activities to stop doing because they don’t directly contribute to the mission and goals at hand. To be
successful on social, B2B sellers must stop selling and:
›
› Follow the 80/20 rule. The best sellers connect like-minded people, do digital good deeds, and
curate content from relevant thought leaders. Companies must share branded and promotional
material in moderation. Zebra Technologies’ Sally-Anne Schmick says: “It’s important to not just
be bulletin boards for Zebra; we suggest that 80% of content be nonbranded. Even if the content
doesn’t relate perfectly to Zebra, if it’s relevant and helpful to our customers, that’s what matters.”
›
› Engage with authenticity. Sellers who understand the nuances of social engagement share creative
and engaging content. And they allow their personalities to shine through without diluting their
company’s brand (see Figure 4). According to Eric Steele, Forrester’s director of new business, “The
best sellers have an authentic voice on social, and they represent their company’s brand promise.”

7
›
› Curate relevant content. Sellers can leverage tools to help them find the right content to
share. Sales social engagement vendor Grapevine6 embeds AI in its social engagement tool to
help sellers quickly understand what their contact is interested in and then serves up relevant
recommendations of corporate and publicly available content for the seller to share (see Figure 5
and see Figure 6).
›
› Become relational rather than transactional. Modern B2B sellers don’t close deals over Twitter
just like traditional reps don’t close deals on the golf course — they network. Successful sales
social engagement is a long-term play. Sellers must shift their mindsets from transactional to
relational. Steele says, “The best sellers are constantly engaging and building relationships with
others.” After they have earned the right to do so, they can leverage messaging functionality to ask
for introductions and references.
›
› Build up a bankroll of goodwill. Not every interaction will advance deals or translate into mutually
beneficial business outcomes. But there’s a goodwill piggy bank that builds up over time, and the
benefits should be roughly mutual. One technology company measured 112 social interactions
between its sales rep and prospect company contacts over the course of a multimonth cycle.8
Deals of all shapes and sizes take many twists and turns, and anyone who has carried a bag knows
it’s essential to have a bankroll of goodwill from which to draw when needed.

8
FIGURE 4 Allow Your Personality To Shine Through
Source: LinkedIn website

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FIGURE 5 Understand What Matters To Your Contacts
Source: Grapevine6 contact dashboard

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FIGURE 6 Share Relevant Content With Your Contacts
Source: Grapevine6 contact dashboard
Recommendations
Marketers And Sellers Must Go All In With Social Engagement
Let’s face it; social selling was doomed from the start. The phrase “social selling” promulgated a
mindset of making a sale instead of building relationships. Lack of organizational strategy and support
has also contributed to sellers’ behavior that repels rather than attracts buyers. Fortunately, it’s not
too late. Marketers and sellers can right the ship by working together to develop a holistic social
engagement program that encourages and enables empathetic, informed, and meaningful interactions
between sellers and buyers. This reboot requires an all-in approach to reframe mindsets, retool skills,
and embrace and sustain new behaviors. To create an effective sales social engagement program, B2B
marketing and sales leaders must:
›
› Determine goals and develop a program. Like any other strategic business or technology
initiative, sales social engagement programs need oversight, coordination, collaboration, and
consistency. All stakeholders, from executives to sellers, need to align on what success looks

11
like and have a path to get there. According to Gabe Villamizar: “When launching a social selling
program, marketing and sales both need to discuss. Agree, and set specific social KPIs that will
dictate whether social is truly impacting the bottom line.”
›
› Equip sellers with tools. For your sellers to engage efficiently and effectively on social channels,
they need access to the right tools.9
Assemble marketing, sales, and IT counterparts to inventory
existing social tools, applications, and licenses for your sellers, and understand technology
overlaps, gaps, and needs for new tools or increased scale. Focus on solutions that provide the
range of functionality and expertise tailored to sellers.10
›
› Understand and train sellers. A launch-and-leave approach will lead to a drop-off in user
adoption and perpetuate bad behavior. Commit to continuous training for your sellers. And when
designing the curriculum, understand that not all sellers are created equal. Take the time to
understand your sellers’ experiences and skills and then train and support them accordingly. A
celebrity will need a different type of support than a social novice.11
›
› Fuel engagement with quality content. One of the biggest stumbling blocks when launching a
sales social engagement program is underestimating the amount and variety of content sellers
will need. Offer videos, infographics, and other short-format assets as well as articles and papers.
Supplement corporate marketing assets — through either your sales social engagement tool or
other sources — with access to external aggregate content.
›
› Establish a baseline to measure progress. Understanding how sales social engagement
programs contribute to business objectives is essential to sustaining commitment. SAP created a
performance index to measure the impact of its social selling program. Michael Labate, SAP’s head
of operations, program development, and social selling, explains: “We measure performers against
one another to create an index of market performance. This establishes a standard of measurement
and averages with which individuals and managers can compare themselves.” SAP then uses this
index to measure social selling ROI on conversions, velocity, and other metrics.

12
Supplemental Material
Companies Interviewed For This Report
We would like to thank the individuals from the following companies who generously gave their time
during the research for this report.
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Grapevine6
ITA Group
LinkedIn
Lucidchart
SAP
Zebra Technologies

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Endnotes
1
Source: LinkedIn Sales Solutions (https://business.linkedin.com/sales-solutions/social-selling/the-social-selling-index-
ssi).
2
See the Forrester report “Credible, Empathetic Content Wins Over Elusive B2B Buyers.”
3
Source: Forrester’s Q3 2018 Global B2B Marketing Sales Enablement Online Survey.
4
Source: Interview with Cameron Brain, CEO at EveryoneSocial, May 21, 2019.
5
See the Forrester report “The Forrester New Wave™: Sales Social Engagement Tools, Q2 2019.”
6
Social selling as a discipline took shape in the mid-2000s when professionals began to experiment with what they
were starting to call “Sales 2.0.” Source: Koka Sexton, “The Rise of Social Selling,” LinkedIn, December 6, 2013
(https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20131206192029-2633896-the-rise-of-social-selling/).
Nigel Edelshain coined the term “Sales 2.0” in reference to the theory of Web 2.0. Source: Pamela Vaughan, “What
the Heck is Sales 2.0 (& Why Should I Care)?” HubSpot Blog, February 11, 2010 (https://blog.hubspot.com/blog/
tabid/6307/bid/5582/what-the-heck-is-sales-2-0-why-should-i-care.aspx).
Web 2.0 was, at the turn of the 21st century, the term used to describe the type of digital landscape that some saw
emerging — dynamic, collaborative, and above all monetizable. Source: “Sales 2.0: How Businesses are Using Online
Collaboration to Spark Sales,” Social Media Today, April 10, 2009 (https://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/sales-
20-how-businesses-are-using-online-collaboration-spark-sales).
7
There has been 10% annual growth in the number of mobile apps downloaded year over year. Furthermore,
LinkedIn has a potential reach of advertising of 615 million users. Source: “Digital 2019: Q2 Global Digital Statshot,”
DataReportal, April 25, 2019 (https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2019-q2-global-digital-statshot).
8
Source: April 4, 2017, “Taking Flight With Social Selling” Webinar (https://www.forrester.com/webinar/Taking+Flight+Wi
th+Social+Selling/-/E-WEB23283).
9
Source: Forrester’s Q3 2018 Global B2B Marketing Sales Enablement Online Survey.
10
See the Forrester report “The Forrester New Wave™: Sales Social Engagement Tools, Q2 2019.”
11
See the Forrester report “Embrace B2B Social And Meet Buyers On Their Terms.”

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