Managing a sales team can be exhausting. If they are any good they can sell you on why the ‘sure thing’ last month has been downgraded to a 15% long shot for in today’s meeting. Even when they do bring a genuinely qualified lead that will be easy to close, with an identified need and budget, you only have the opportunity to sway the outcome of a single sale.​

So why are you still doing things this way? Well, it’s because you are conditioned to view qualified leads sourced by your sales team as a positive result, rather than wasted time and resources trying to make one sale. If this was 1980, I’d say congratulations. Better yet I’d put on free drinks as your sales team made inroads getting appointments when big companies were spending huge dollars in advertising to achieve the same result.

However, here we are deep into the age of the internet. More connected than we have ever been. Yet so many industry leaders, niche specialists, founders of innovative companies and even marketing managers allow their expertise to stay trapped in their own heads.

LinkedIn may not have the social cache of Facebook, the constant chatter of Twitter or the visual appeal of Instagram, but it is absolutely gaining traction particularly for the B2B sales cycle.

If you are in marketing or sales in any B2B enterprise, you need to stop believing that social media is a fad and pay attention to how buyers are shifting on their journey towards research and information gathering.

For example did you know that 84% of C-level/vice president executive use social media to support purchasing decisions?

If you are in B2B sales you should also be aware that the buyer journey is changing, and they aren't sticking to just one network. However, when buyers are looking for potential suppliers the majority (56%, in fact) use LinkedIn.