I always have to smile a little when someone tells me, "We tried social selling and it didn't work." My immediate thought? You didn't actually try social selling. You tried what you thought was social selling, and yeah, I'm not surprised that failed miserably
Let’s clear the air. True social selling isn't just sending a connection request and immediately pitching your product. Our definition is simple:
Social Selling: Using your presence and behavior on social media to build influence, make genuine connections, and grow trust. That trust naturally leads to real conversations and, ultimately, commercial interaction.
If you aren't doing that, you aren't doing it right
The Proof is in the Data (A 6-Week Ramp)
When you actually deploy a proven social selling methodology, the results speak for themselves. Take our latest new hire as an example. The industry standard to ramp up a salesperson and get them booking meetings is about 12 weeks.
We cut that exactly in half. By week six, she had already booked her first two high-quality, Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) meetings
Here is how her calendar looked over the next month:
| Week | High-Quality ICP Meetings Booked |
|---|---|
| Week 6 | 2 meetings (Fully ramped) |
| Week 7 | 7 meetings |
| Week 8 | 5 meetings |
| Week 9 | 11 meetings |
| Week 10 | 5 meetings (and still counting) |
Her feedback? "I completely know my ratios now and exactly how many connection requests I need to send. Honestly, 11 meetings in a single week, plus the follow-up write-ups, was a lot to handle. But I'm making incredible headway."
On top of that, she already built a LinkedIn newsletter with 1,000 subscribers (hitting an impressive 10% conversion of her total network) boasting a 50%+ open rate. That is an engaged, warm audience built from scratch
Conclusion
If you want to keep digging in the dirt with cold calling and spamming peoples' inboxes, be my guest. But while you're grinding through the rejections, high-performance companies are already miles ahead of you, booking meetings with buyers who actually want to talk to them
(Oh, and a quick side note for the smart leaders out there: Our Social Selling methodology is the only one fully certified by the Institute of Sales Professionals. I only mention it because it means your L&D department can likely foot the bill. You're welcome.)
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