Social selling: The new face of trade in UAE

Ritika Sharma / Emirates Business

If you think a salesman glued to his smartphone, busy in social media, is hampering his company’s business, think again; this could not be the case at least in the UAE. A recent survey has revealed that UAE salespeople who spend around 4.8 hours per week on social media are actually boosting the sales for companies.
All thanks to the new concept of trade called ‘social selling’. New research announced by professional network LinkedIn revealed that UAE salespeople spending up to five hours per week on social media could be more likely to hit their
targets compared to their less
social colleagues.
The survey noted that a salesperson spends average 4.8 hours per week using social selling tools. Approximately 89 percent of those interviewed agreed that “social selling”—leveraging your social network to ultimately achieve sales goals—connects them with the right prospects, while 83 percent agreed that social selling is important as a strategy for closing more deals at their company.
Underscoring the rising influence of social media on business sales, 95 percent of the respondents can see themselves devoting at least the same amount of time or more on using social selling tools next year.
Talking to Emirates Business after official announcement of the survey, Dylan Sharkey, Head of Sales Solutions, LinkedIn MENA said, “In the region, social selling adopters are widely spreading across different sectors with many companies aiming to turn “cold calling” to “warm introductions” and ultimately effective sales by evolving its sales practices.”
For the survey, all sales professionals from the UAE were in a customer-facing role and the total sample size of 252 was used. Mid to senior level executives were included in the mix. The survey examined an extensive range of industries including retail, manufacturing, real estate and design.
Explaining how social media is set to change the way we shop, Sharkey said, “The survey has very effectively shown how social media is gaining weight as a sales tool. Nearly all of the respondents think the social selling tools they currently use have good or excellent impact on the sales process. LinkedIn is proud to be spearheading this trend as the survey reveals that 68% use LinkedIn Sales Navigator and 60% use LinkedIn to build and nurture relationships with prospects.”
He added, “Social media is ultimately becoming less of a side game for sales professionals. Companies are finding ways to pull data from social media and incorporate it in their wider business strategies.
Visual and discovery-based search is seeing a rise with salespeople also using visual content to attract
buyers. Social selling is here to stay and LinkedIn is a key player in
connecting professionals to do
business better.”
According to the survey, more respondents cite using social-selling platforms like LinkedIn to build
and nurture relationships with prospects than they use face-to-face meetings or entertaining prospects outside of the office environment. 81 percent of respondents in the survey agree that social selling enables them to builds stronger, more authentic relationships with customers and prospects.