AI Meets Social Selling: Rethinking B2B Sales Teams

Key takeaways

• Social selling is no longer optional – it’s the foundation of trust and visibility in the AI-driven B2B landscape. Buyers now begin their journey through self-guided digital research, often using tools like ChatGPT. Without a strong social presence and digital authority, sales teams become invisible.
• Sales roles are evolving – today’s sellers must become buyer-centric advisors, not product pushers. Success in social selling requires new skills: personal branding, content creation, digital literacy, and deep empathy. Sellers who act as trusted “buyer’s agents” are more likely to win in a market driven by trust and de-risking.
• Empowerment beats enforcement – companies must equip their teams with the mindset, tools, and freedom to build meaningful digital relationships. Top-performing organizations invest in cross-functional collaboration, mentoring, and culture change, transforming their salespeople into authentic, value-creating connectors.

Digital channels, shifting customer behavior, and increasing competition necessitate a structural shift in B2B sales. Companies that want to continue selling successfully must not only strengthen their sales teams technically but also reorient their entire mindset.

From pitch to presence

The change is profound: Where in-person salespeople once dominated, the decision-making process now often begins on LinkedIn or in digital communities. Studies show that over 75% of B2B buyers make their purchasing decisions before speaking with a salesperson¹.

In practice, this means that if you don’t have a digital presence, you simply no longer exist.

Salespeople are becoming relationship architects. Their job is no longer to close deals, but to position themselves as trusted partners from the outset. Building digital authority is becoming a key skill in social selling. What counts is consistency, relevance, and the ability to create added value, without the immediate goal of selling something.

In the past, buying involved research, which meant visiting Google, clicking on a link, and then reviewing a supplier’s webpage. The supplier would have paid an SEO agency to get that Google ranking.

AI is the new front door

Now, buyers go to ChatGPT for their research. ChatGPT will create a short list of suppliers without requiring you to visit Google, browse a supplier’s website, or register with a supplier. This is “zero-click” buying, eliminating the need for many aspects of marketing that were previously considered normal.

89% of B2B buyers have adopted generative AI (genAI), naming it one of the top sources of self-guided information in every phase of their buying process².

While research shows that buyers are starting to trust AI results, they will still verify these results with their network. This is the human element of the sale, and it is here that social selling takes place today.

By transforming your sales team from being “just another bunch of sales people on social,” what you do is get them to network with your buyers, and you do this in a way where you become the “obvious choice.” After all, who are you going to buy from? People you trust and respect are often those with whom you interact socially, and they can see you daily.

The challenge for sellers is that there is no differentiation, and they are invisible to their buyers.

And what should social sellers be achieving? Based on our two-and-a-half-year global benchmark across all our customers, the average SDR will have 1 ICP meeting a day, and AEs will shorten their sales cycles by 30%. A business should expect a 30% revenue increase. In hard times like this, that’s something worth investing in.

“Social selling isn’t a tactic – it’s a mindset shift. In a world where buyers trust peers and algorithms more than sales pitches, relevance, trust, and human connection are your competitive advantage.”

Timothy Hughes

Sales roles are evolving

The social selling approach brings with it not only new tools but also new role profiles. The following changes are particularly relevant:

• Content curation and personal branding: Every sales employee also becomes a micro-communicator. Content, positioning, and visibility in the network significantly influence lead quality.
• Sales enablement and digital literacy: Mastery of platforms such as LinkedIn, Sales Navigator, or CRM systems is a basic requirement, as is the confident use of analytics tools to better understand target audience behavior.
• Cross-functional collaboration: Sales, marketing, communications, and HR are working more closely together than ever before. The boundaries are blurring. Companies that actively promote this collaboration demonstrate a significant increase in the effectiveness of their digital sales initiatives³.

Matt Dixon (one of the authors of the Challenger sale) and Ted McKenna’s book “The Jolt Effect,” a book that had a dataset of 2.5 million sales calls, recommends that buyers need a “buyer’s agent.” It will come as no surprise that buyers want a trusted source of help and a strong relationship.

So what does this look like?

1. You never get a second chance at a first impression – each salesperson must have a LinkedIn profile that is buyer-centric, not sales or company-centric. Sellers need to show buyers that they can be that “buyer’s agent,” and there needs to be social proof that you understand me (the buyer), my company, and my industry. In addition, as buyers, we are not looking for corporate clowns; we want real people with real lives.
2. As salespeople, we have to be connected to our buyers and their influencers’ networks. Think of it as hanging out in a room with all your buyers. If you are not linked to them, then you are invisible. Note: Best practice indicates that as a seller, you should expect a 60-80% acceptance rate on connection requests sent to buyers.
3. You need content – content that inspires, educates, and demonstrates an understanding of the business issues at hand. Brochures, white papers, case studies, and any other materials that claim “buy my product, because we are great” will be dismissed by buyers and will make you look and sound like every other supplier.
4. You need to come to social and be social. LinkedIn is a sales network, not a sales network. If you walked into a room with your clients, you would make conversation, do that on social media.

Enable, don’t instruct

The biggest mistake many companies make is prescribing social selling as a new technology instead of developing a genuine understanding of the changing customer dialogue. Successful companies instead focus on targeted empowerment:

• Training and mentoring formats that focus on genuine customer interest
• Measuring success based on relationship quality, not just leads or conversions
• A trusting corporate culture that encourages initiative and individual experimentation

A good example of this is SAP, which trained over 10,000 employees worldwide in social selling through a company-wide program. Result: 42% more sales opportunities via digital channels⁴.

Making decisions for buyers is scary. What happens if I make the wrong decision? It could cost me my career, which is why, in many cases, no decision is our biggest competitor.

By becoming a “buyer’s agent,” you are working against indecision. First, you are authentic; nobody wants a corporate zombie, spraying corporate content that says the same as your competitors. Share your professional and personal story on social media, demonstrating empathy and emotional intelligence, and buyers will be drawn to you.

By showcasing your business acumen in content, sharing best practices, and presenting your understanding of the industry, you mitigate risk and enhance the value of your solution to the buyer.

The same applies to establishing authority in your business area. For buyers, you become the “go-to” option, and as we mentioned above, you become the natural choice for buyers.

Act now to stay relevant

The transformation of sales is not yet complete – it is only just beginning. Artificial intelligence, predictive selling, and automated network analysis will further deepen the interaction between people and technology in sales.

To remain future-proof, companies should now:

• Strategically approach the skills development of their sales teams
• Consistently break down internal silos between sales, marketing, and IT
• Maintain digital customer relationships with the same seriousness as face-to-face conversations

Visibility, trust, and relevance

Modern B2B sales no longer function through traditional push strategies. Anyone who wants to be perceived as a partner on equal terms today must be visible, credible, and relevant – both digitally and analogically.

While the future of sales and marketing with AI remains unclear, three guiding principles are evident.

1. AI drives the economic value of intelligence to near zero
2. AI is an enabling technology, but also a replacement technology
3. Buyers will always look to humans to de-risk decisions

Because the value of intelligence is now zero, it’s what sets you apart, what differentiates you in sales and marketing.

Most of the investments in marketing to date are now obsolete. Cold calling, email marketing, SEO, and websites (for human viewing) all need to be sunsetted.

You need to empower your sales teams, as well as all of your employees, so that your business is the natural choice.

Sources

1. Gartner, 2023
2. Forrester, “B2B Buyer Adoption Of Generative AI,” 2024
3. McKinsey, “B2B Digital Selling Survey,” 2023
4. LinkedIn Business, “SAP Case Study”

Cover image: LinkedIn Sales Solutions on Unsplash (article is not sponsored)

Disclaimer: The information provided in this article is solely the author’s opinion and not investment advice—it is provided for educational purposes only. By using this, you agree that the information does not constitute any investment or financial instructions. Do conduct your own research and reach out to financial advisors before making any investment decisions.