LinkedIn has released its 2017 ‘State of Sales’ report, which has revealed some really fascinating insights.

One insight that will be particularly interesting, is that there is a strong trend of buyers pre-qualify sellers by looking at social media profiles before deciding to buy. This is especially prevalent with B2B relationships.

In fact, the report shows that there is much better chance (data below) that the buyer will interact with a salesperson if the salesperson has a personalised profile on trusted social networks like Facebook and LinkedIn.

So, while companies are using online sales technology to find leads, those leads are doing it right back and using it to judge whether or not you’re someone they’d like to do business with you.

This pre-qualifying is done to establish buyers’ trust in the seller, which, it turn out, is more important than price or even ROI.  See below:

Note how trust in the relationship – something which the report showed is gained through pre-qualification on online platforms like social media – is a whopping 39%: more than ROI!

Why Should You Care?

The face of sales is changing as social media becomes a bigger part of everyday life: not only do you have access to more information about your customers, but they also have more access to information on you.

Buyers are increasingly turning to professional social networks to help them make their purchasing decisions.

VP of Marketing at LinkedIn Sales and Marketing Solutions, Justin Shriber says that “it’s less about communication [via social channels], and more about info on the individual [so] I can trust you.”

Overall, the report found that 69% millennials are more likely to speak with a sales person who has a social media presence. That number falls with other generations though:  it’s 58% for Gen X (born roughy between 1965 and 1976) and 33% for Baby Boomers (born roughy between 1946 and 1964).

Tags: buying, linkedin, report, social