Thirty hours door-to-door. A delayed connection in Doha and no spare A380 in sight, however loads of time to suppose. After per week of representing Oktopost on a UK commerce mission to Australia, shaking arms in boardrooms and rooftop receptions, one phrase surfaced: not canapés – Belief.
Not as a delicate metric. Not as a model train. However as a business differentiator. As a result of in B2B right now, the best way we earn belief has modified.
Belief doesn’t reside in your CRM; it lives in your feed
Consumers are not ready on your name. They’re researching in silence.
Ignoring emails. Evaluating choices behind the scenes.
In case you’re not a part of that digital journey, the passive, the silent, social one, you’re not within the consideration set.
And but, so many B2B groups are nonetheless investing within the mistaken locations:
- Pushing content material into inboxes nobody reads.
- Automating outreach to the purpose of irrelevance.
- Paying for “intent alerts” that solely seem after selections are made.
In the meantime, the actual purchaser journey is occurring in plain sight on LinkedIn.
Not paid. Not polished. Natural.
It’s the place sellers earn credibility earlier than the primary name, subject-matter specialists form the dialog, and staff give an organization a human voice.
That’s the place belief begins.
The place belief is inbuilt B2B gross sales
Really helpful for additional studying
Social promoting is trust-building in disguise
Let’s make clear: social promoting doesn’t imply pitching on LinkedIn.
It’s not sliding into inboxes with product provides.
It’s constructing credibility with the general public, so when patrons are prepared, they know who they need to discuss to.
Consider social promoting as the fashionable handshake; it replaces the primary impression made in a gathering room.
When sellers constantly share insights, touch upon trade subjects, and keep seen of their community’s feed, they cease being nameless reps behind chilly emails. They change into recognised, trusted voices.
That visibility is magnetic. It attracts in hidden patrons, who symbolize 95% of the market and are not but in shopping for mode. It additionally positions sellers to be top-of-mind when these patrons are prepared.
So no, social promoting isn’t a “nice-to-have.” It’s how trendy belief is constructed, at scale.
Visibility = Credibility: The mindset shift sellers want
I’d be frightened if I had been in gross sales right now and never posting on LinkedIn.
Not due to algorithms. Not as a result of another person is louder.
However as a result of my purchaser would already be midway via their resolution, and I’d be nowhere to be seen.
That’s the shift sellers should make: from quota-carrying rep to subject-matter professional.
It’s not about turning into influencers. It’s about being recognisable, dependable voices in your subject. The mindset seems like this:
- Deal with LinkedIn as a channel for including worth, not for pitching.
- See consistency as a technique, not a job.
- Perceive that credibility earns consideration, and belief earns conferences.
As a result of visibility isn’t vainness, it’s credibility.
And credibility will get you invited into offers lengthy earlier than an RFP hits your inbox.
Why sellers present up on LinkedIn
As soon as sellers realise that social presence fuels private development and gross sales success, resistance begins to fade.
Right here’s what they acquire:
Tangible advantages
- Elevated visibility with shopping for personas.
- Quicker entry to decision-makers.
- Shorter gross sales cycles as a result of pre-established belief.
- Higher responses from prospects already acquainted with their title are wanted.
Intangible advantages
- Recognition throughout the trade.
- Confidence as thought leaders.
- Alternatives to talk, companion, or collaborate.
- A private model that outlasts any quarterly goal.
When sellers present up, they don’t simply drive pipeline; they drive notion.
The function of promoting and management
Right here’s the reality: most sellers don’t get up wanting to write down LinkedIn content material.
They could not know what to say, how you can say it, or how you can keep constant.
That’s the place advertising and, more and more, AI, are available in.
Advertising and marketing groups already excel at storytelling and positioning. With the suitable enablement, they will flip social into a real gross sales asset:
- Create a content material runway. Present ready-to-share posts, speaking factors, and multimedia aligned with key campaigns.
- Provide writing help. Assist polish posts, ghostwrite when wanted, or host quick workshops on framing concepts.
- Run an advocacy programme. Use platforms like Oktopost to curate content material boards for gross sales groups, enabling them to publish with one click on and making it much less of a chore.
- Have a good time wins. Highlight vendor posts that acquire traction. Recognition fuels consistency.
AI could make this even simpler by summarising long-form content material into digestible posts, suggesting hooks and hashtags, recommending the very best posting instances, and figuring out hidden purchaser engagement behind the scenes.
With these techniques in place, social promoting stops feeling like “further work” and begins feeling like a development channel.
As a result of sellers shouldn’t be left to determine it out alone.
What social promoting seems like throughout industries
Social promoting isn’t one-size-fits-all.
It seems totally different in tech, authorized, and consulting, however the precept is similar: educate, don’t promote.
- Tech sellers share buyer tales, trade takes, and classes from demos as a result of tech patrons crave peer validation.
- SaaS reps combine insights with authenticity, posting quick movies, carousels, and humour to face out in crowded feeds.
- Authorized companions and consultants earn credibility by deciphering new laws or market shifts, positioning themselves as trusted advisors fairly than promoters.
Regardless of the subject, the formulation is fixed: present up early, typically, and with intent.
Tips on how to overcome sellers’ objections
Even with motivation and content material help, objections stay. The Oktopost guide captured the most typical ones I’ve come throughout.
- “I don’t have time.” Make it straightforward. Advocacy instruments ship ready-to-share content material that matches in a scroll break.
- “It doesn’t really feel like promoting.” Precisely. It’s trust-building that makes promoting simpler later.
- “Nobody cares what I publish.” Present knowledge from inside wins, proof builds confidence.
- “I’m not a author.” That’s what AI and advertising help are for; an excellent publish can begin with a considerate remark or query.
- “No one engages with my posts.” Engagement isn’t the one metric. Every publish seen by a decision-maker is a micro-interaction that shapes notion.
The reply isn’t to push more durable; it’s to make participation frictionless, rewarding, and visibly impactful.
The brand new handshake: Belief constructed between the calls
A decade in the past, belief was constructed in the assembly.
Right this moment, it’s constructed between them.
Consumers are digital-first, self-educated, and sometimes invisible till late within the cycle.
Sellers who anticipate inbound leads or depend on chilly outbound are lacking key alternatives.
Those who constantly and authentically present up on LinkedIn construct relationships that advertising alone can’t.
They heat up prospects lengthy earlier than discovery calls.
They shut offers quicker as a result of belief is already in place.
On the finish of the day, belief doesn’t reside in your CRM. It lives in your feed.
How Oktopost helps sellers construct belief at scale
Constructing belief takes consistency. Consistency takes construction.
That’s the place Oktopost is available in.
With Oktopost’s worker advocacy answer, advertising and gross sales groups can:
- Curate and distribute related content material to sellers effortlessly.
- Monitor engagement by purchaser persona to see actual impression.
- Use AI insights to suggest what, when, and how you can publish.
- Gamify participation to make social presence a behavior, not a trouble.
It’s how main B2B organisations like Grant Thornton Australia, Buker, or Hymans Roberson deal with social not as a channel, however as a strategic asset for demand technology, repute, and consumer engagement.
The takeaway? In case your staff isn’t seen the place your patrons are, another person shall be.
Closing ideas
Social promoting isn’t a advertising pattern; it’s the brand new basis of B2B belief.
In a world the place patrons select companions lengthy earlier than they fill out a kind, visibility is not optionally available; it has change into a income driver.
If belief is the objective, visibility is the route. And LinkedIn is the highway that connects the 2.
At Oktopost, we’re serving to B2B organisations make that journey simpler by turning social presence into enterprise impression and gross sales groups into trusted trade voices.
I’m enthusiastic about serving to B2B organisations rework how they join with patrons via belief, visibility, and genuine conversations on social media. With years of expertise bridging gross sales and advertising groups, I advocate utilizing social promoting to drive measurable enterprise impression. – Colin Day, Managing Director, EMEA at Oktopost
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