Social Selling Interview with Amar Sheth
This article was updated on April 10, 2026 with an up-to-date FAQ section.
EExecutive Summary.
In today’s sales environment, utilizing social media is no longer optional, it’s mandatory. Social Selling, the usage of social media platforms to develop sales relationships and drive revenue, has become its own sales discipline in recent years.
Like any developing discipline, Social Selling will have those who excel and those who fall behind. It’s not as straightforward as sending your newest lead a friendly e-mail; it requires strategy, persistence, and practice.
In this Social Selling Interview with Amar Sheth, this Social Selling guru and principal at Sales for Life explains what Social Selling is, why it’s important, and how it can complement your existing sales strategy.
Your Key Take-aways.
- What is Social Selling?
- Social Selling can complement your existing sales strategy.
- Social Selling is crucial to influencing buyers.
- Don’t hesitate to share content.
- Trends and tools in Social Selling.
Hi everyone, and welcome to this sales acceleration Social Selling Interview with Amar Sheth! Thank you for speaking with us today, Amar. It’s great that you agreed to share your Social Selling insights with our SalesWings community. Tell us a little bit about yourself and your passion for Social Selling.
Amar Sheth:
“My passion for social selling stems from the fact that there is a shift in buying behavior.
Never before in the history of the world have buyers had the opportunity to conduct research and due diligence about companies, their products, reviews, testimonials, and more.
It’s argued that 57% to 70% of the B2B buying process now happens without a sales person’s involvement. I don’t know if that stat is true (as it really depends on which industry and country you’re in), but the fact of the matter remains that buyers today are doing some to much of their research online.
And this presents risks to the traditional sales approach we all take.
Communications have always disrupted sales process before; whether it was the phone or e-mail, social media is simply a new communications medium we must all now use and master to maximize our sales success.
Social Selling doesn’t require you to stop doing anything you’re currently doing (or using). It’s a complement to your existing sales process.”
If you were to provide us with a Social Selling definition, what would it be?
Amar Sheth:
“According to research, B2B Sales Professionals today spend less than 30% of their time selling. Our time is the most valuable resource available.
Therefore, at Sales for Life our approach to Social Selling is to use social media platforms in a prescriptive way to drive more pipeline and revenue. I think fundamentally this is the correct definition.
If we’re not using social media in sales to generate more pipeline and revenue, then is it worth our limited time?”
You often mention the transition from the sales cycle to the buyers’ cycle. Is Social Selling the key to intervening in the cycle and influencing buyers?
Amar Sheth:
“Because buyers are conducting research and due diligence on their own, our approach of moving them down a prescribed sales funnel is outdated. Buyers will move in and out of a traditional funnel quickly these days.
And therefore, social is one key to influence the buyer. We’re all trying to influence buyers in some way, shape, fashion and form. Using social media and social selling techniques is an additional approach to your repertoire.”
There is an abundance of content out there. Users may not even read a fraction of it. How do you go about dealing with the massive amount of information, and what tips do you have for finding sources of great quality content?
Amar Sheth:
“For me, everything around content has to do with the buyer. Here are the questions you must ask (and answer):
- What is the buyer reading to help shape priorities?
- How can you access this information?
- What opinions and facts do you have about this information?
- How can you share this with the buyer to demonstrate and convey your expertise and experience?
It’s correct that buyers today are reading only a fraction of what they find. So my tips to sales professionals are:
- Find the content your buyers are using
- Organize it and retrieve it quickly using Content Aggregators
- Share content often.
The last point is the most important, as sales professionals feel that sharing too much content is equated to spam. This is a myth that is inhibiting your success.
Share good content that the buyer finds helpful and engage in dialog. Isn’t this the whole purpose of sales, to have dialog?”
Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook are some of the “traditional” social media salespeople use to approach their leads, stay connected, and grow their network. Do you think there is space for new strategies within these social media platforms? Should salespeople expand beyond the traditional platforms and try new means of interaction?
Amar Sheth:
“Here’s the good news: there are tens of thousands of sales people that have adopted a prescriptive approach to generating more pipeline and revenue using social media. My advice is to start here and master the process.
Remember, your time is limited. You need a simple way to start that doesn’t take a lot of it. (Here is a quick way to start that process)
Once you master the basics and can generate real pipeline and revenue, I’d suggest continuing learning to advance your knowledge.
It need not be more complicated than this!”
What’s the next big thing in Social Selling?
Amar Sheth:
“The next “big thing” in social selling is the realization that social isn’t just sales people using some “tips and tricks” once in a while. Social selling requires the full participation of Leadership, Enablement and Marketing.
After working with hundreds of organizations, we can confidently make that statement. Without the involvement and participation of these three key stakeholders, social selling programs are likely to have a false start, hit plateaus early or, worse, fail completely.
Social Selling is now the business of the organization as a whole, not just sales.”
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You are regularly uploading videos in YouTube to share your content. More and more sales experts make similar attempts. From your personal experience, when does it make sense to use video marketing, since there is quite a bit of investment involved?
Amar Sheth:
“We use video to convey our message because it’s a dynamic and fluid communication medium. People would rather watch a 2 minute video than read a 500 word blog sometimes.
I’d suggest using video to enhance a message that needs it. Plus, it’s never a bad idea for people to see you and feel a connection.
Video recording equipment is getting cheaper by the day as well. Companies can build solid video capabilities for less than $1000 at times.”
How important is the role of sales tools in Social Selling, and are there any tools and features you cannot live without?
Amar Sheth:
“There are tools I can’t live without including, LinkedIn, Twitter, my content aggregator (i.e. Feedly), sharing apps (i.e. Hootlet), etc.
However, I caution all sales professionals to focus on utilizing the tools they’re already accustomed to for pipeline and revenue generation.
My approach is:
Users already use automation tools to share content, retweet, send messages and reply. Do you foresee that in the future automated Social Selling tools will replace most part of the human interaction involved in Social Selling?
Amar Sheth:
“I believe that automation of content sharing will persist and expand as more sales professionals become aware of this.
However, I hope we never automate engagement fully. Some engagement automation tools already exist and there is value in them. But, engagement and interaction should always be done by the user her/himself.”
One final question… since the topic of the interview is Social Selling, we did some social research of our own. The findings claim that you are an awesome baker. What is your baking specialty you are most proud of?
Amar Sheth:
“My peanut butter & chocolate chip cookies are WORLD FAMOUS!!! ☺“
Thank you very much for the fruitful discussion!
Amar Sheth Contact Details
- Twitter: @AmarSheth
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/amarsheth
- Website: www.salesforlife.com
- E-mail at amar@salesforlife.com for free social selling strategies to help boost pipeline!
Frequently Asked Questions
- How should a social selling program define success?
- How does social selling fit a B2B sales strategy?
- How should social selling teams use LinkedIn InMail?
- Which LinkedIn prospecting actions should managers standardize first?
- How often should reps use content sharing for sales?
- What metrics prove social selling is working?
- How much automation belongs in a social selling program?
- Who must support a social selling rollout internally?
How should a social selling program define success?
Social selling works best when you define success as more qualified conversations, stronger buyer engagement, and measurable pipeline influence over time.
That means avoiding vanity metrics as the main scorecard. Follower growth and likes can signal activity, but they are not enough on their own. A stronger definition ties social activity to prospecting consistency, buyer responses, meeting creation, account engagement, and revenue contribution. The base article is directionally right: social selling should complement the existing process, not sit beside it as a side project.
Tip: write a simple measurement framework that connects rep behaviors, buyer signals, and pipeline outcomes before you scale training.
How does social selling fit a B2B sales strategy?
Social selling strengthens a B2B sales strategy by helping sellers influence buyers earlier, add context to outreach, and stay visible between formal sales touches.
It’s most effective when it supports core motions such as account research, warm introductions, relevance in messaging, post-meeting follow-up, and expansion within existing accounts. That makes it an operating layer across the buyer journey rather than a separate channel to manage in isolation. For program managers, the goal is to turn social activity into repeatable behaviors that improve conversation quality and timing.
Tip: use this social selling integration guide to map social actions to each sales stage.
How should social selling teams use LinkedIn InMail?
InMail should be reserved for timely, personalized outreach that reflects visible buyer context and gives a clear reason to reply.
The strongest messages are short, specific, and grounded in what the rep observed, such as recent activity, a role change, a company initiative, or a likely challenge tied to the buyer’s role. What usually fails is the opposite: generic messaging, long company intros, and spray-and-pray outreach that could go to anyone. For a program manager, InMail should be coached as a precision move, not a volume tactic.
Tip: use these InMail tips from social selling experts to create a team standard for personalization and follow-up.
Which LinkedIn prospecting actions should managers standardize first?
Start with a small LinkedIn prospecting routine that reps can repeat daily without guessing what good looks like.
In practice, that usually means standardizing four basics: defining the ideal customer profile, building focused account and stakeholder lists, engaging with relevant buyer activity before outreach, and sending personalized connection requests or follow-ups tied to real context. You need to know what buyers read, where they participate, and how to start dialogue instead of pitching too early. Program managers usually get better adoption from short routines than from complex playbooks.
Tip: coach managers to inspect list quality and message relevance before pushing for more outreach volume.
How often should reps use content sharing for sales?
Content sharing for sales should be frequent enough to build relevance, but selective enough that every share feels useful to buyers.
Many sellers under-share because they confuse consistency with spam. A better standard is to share content that helps buyers think, decide, or respond to a business priority, then encourage reps to add a short point of view rather than dropping links without context. The real challenge is curation, not volume, because sellers need fast access to content matched to account needs and buying stages.
Tip: build a small library by persona, problem, and funnel stage so sharing becomes easier to sustain.
What metrics prove social selling is working?
Proven social selling metrics connect rep activity to buyer engagement, opportunity creation, and revenue, not just reach or posting frequency.
A practical scorecard often includes profile views from target accounts, acceptance rates on relevant connection requests, meaningful conversations started, meetings booked from social touches, content engagement from named accounts, and pipeline sourced or influenced. If your team also tracks website visits or account engagement after social outreach, that can sharpen prioritization and coaching. The key is to measure leading indicators and business outcomes together so you can see whether behavior change is moving revenue signals.
Tip: review one adoption metric, one engagement metric, and one pipeline metric in every program readout.
How much automation belongs in a social selling program?
Automation belongs in the workflow, but human judgment should still own engagement, conversation quality, and buyer-facing personalization.
Automating content distribution or task management can help sellers stay consistent, yet fully automating engagement risks generic messaging and lower trust. The safest use of automation is around scheduling, curation, alerts, and prioritization, while reps keep control of comments, direct messages, and follow-ups that require nuance. That balance protects authenticity without forcing teams to do everything manually.
Tip: document which tasks may be automated, which need approval, and which must always stay human.
Who must support a social selling rollout internally?
A durable social selling rollout needs support from sales leadership, enablement, and marketing, not just enthusiastic individual reps.
Leadership sets expectations and accountability, enablement turns the motion into training and coaching, and marketing helps supply relevant content and positioning. Without that alignment, programs often start with energy, then stall when there is no reinforcement, no shared message framework, and no way to scale good habits across teams. That’s why social selling should be treated as a cross-functional capability inside the broader revenue engine.
Tip: launch with a shared operating group that agrees on content standards, manager coaching, and measurement before expanding participation.
This interview was brought to you by SalesWings, our Predictive Lead Scoring solution (for a free trial click here). We hope you found this Social Selling Interview with Amar Sheth helpful! Our Focus Question for our discussion below (feel free to leave other comments too!):
- What new Social Selling tools are you implementing in 2016?
