The 13 Most Shocking Social Selling Statistics

As sales organizations face the ongoing (and increasingly difficult) challenge of dealing with a more knowledgeable & social media savvy buyer, it becomes more important for sales leadership to understand why social selling is no longer an option but a requirement.

Numerous studies prove that a B2B buyer’s decision making process has changed from 5 years ago and is now facing increasing influence from social media and online content consumption. If sales leaders aren’t able to evolve their organizations to keep up with this paradigm shift then they will face heavy competition from the sales organizations that do embrace modern selling techniques and strategies.

Social selling laggards will not thrive in this new social media and content driven environment. If you don’t believe me just look at these 13 shocking social selling statistics.

P.S: If you’re a sales executive pushing for social selling training and social sales initiatives at your business make sure to share this link with your Sales Manager. Get them onboard with social selling before it’s too late…

The 13 Most Shocking Social Selling Statistics

1. On average decision makers consume 5 pieces of content before being ready to speak to a sales rep. (Source)
2. 10.8% of social sellers have closed 5 or more deals attributed to social media. (Source)
3. 72.6% of salespeople using social selling as part of their sales process outperformed their sales peers and exceeded quota 23% more often. (Source)
4. 64% of teams that use social selling hit quota compared to 49% that don’t. (Source)
5. 92% of buyers say they delete emails or voicemail messages when comes from someone that they do not know. (Source)
6. The average cold calling appointment rate is 2.5% (Source)
7. 93% of sales executives have not received any formal training on social selling.(Source)
8. 96% of sales professionals use LinkedIn at least once a week and spend an average of six hours per week on the professional networking site. (Source)
9. 82% of prospects can be reached via social media. (Source)
10. 77% of B2B buyers said they did not talk with a salesperson until after they had performed independent research (Source)
11. 84% of B2B decision makers begin their buying process with a referral. (Source)
12. A warm referral increases the odds of a sales success 2x-4x. (Source)
13. 69% of sales executives believe that the buyer process is changing faster than organizations are responding to it. (Source)

Do you have any intriguing social selling statistics or facts to share? I would love to hear them, please post them below & I’ll use them in a follow up post and attribute it to you & your source.

Sources & More Social Selling Stats Available On The Triblio Blog