Social Selling: From LinkedIn to Industry Communities

When direct phone contact becomes ineffective, alternative communication channels, such as social networks, take center stage. In Russia, social selling is often mistaken for spam in private messages. However, this is not the case. In reality, social selling is about building a specific manager’s digital asset. A manager’s reputation and visibility begin attracting clients even before they make a call or send a message.

Professional networks in Russia are split across several platforms, each operating differently. Contrary to popular belief, LinkedIn has not disappeared. Despite access limitations for some B2B niches, it still works. If your client is a technical director, foreign trade manager, HR manager, or IT specialist at a large integrator, they most likely have a profile there. At the same time, Russian platforms are developing. TenChat and Setka. For now, their value lies not in algorithms, but in user verification. Currently, this is a legitimate way to see a company’s structure and find the real decision-maker without going through a secretary. However, access to a director’s profile does not grant permission for aggressive sales tactics. Effective tactics are based on the principle of a soft touch: adding contacts with personalized justifications, but without immediate commercial proposals. The goal is to enter the client’s information field without selling in the first message.

Telegram stands apart and is gradually becoming the main channel for B2B communication in Russia. However, as with cold calls, sending private messages to unfamiliar contacts can also be perceived as spam. Therefore, it is more effective to engage through industry communities and chats where real business conversations take place. Experienced salespeople don’t barge in with offers. They use guerrilla tactics, participating in discussions by answering questions and sharing their expertise. This approach is more time-consuming.

One example of such a strategy involves a supplier of server equipment. In a specialized IT channel, a discussion flared up about problems with supplies through parallel imports (this was three years ago when it was especially relevant). Rather than writing an advertising message, the company’s manager described in detail the mechanics of working through transit countries and pointed out non-obvious risks. They suggested ways to solve existing problems, and many chat participants likely used their advice. While it may seem that they lost some potential clients, their analysis attracted the attention of a retail chain’s technical director, who was looking for a partner with logistics expertise that could guarantee certain things under current conditions and take on part of the problems, rather than just another supplier. The dialogue that began in the comments moved to private correspondence and ended with a contract. In this case, the sale occurred not because the manager was persistent, but because the company demonstrated the right competence at the right time.

Cold email outreach

Email remains one of the most effective B2B communication channels — but only if recipients don’t perceive the message as spam. The difference lies in the context and personalization, not the formal features. Spam is an offer sent indiscriminately to everyone. A business email shows that the sender has studied a specific company and understands how their solution or service can help with its current situation.

The first and most challenging issue in any outreach effort in Russia is legally obtaining contacts. Today, buying ready-made databases with executives’ email addresses is ineffective due to poor data quality and risky from the standpoint of personal data legislation. Using gray schemes exposes a company to regulatory action. Therefore, the only workable and relatively safe approach is to collect data from open sources (OSINT). Email addresses are often published on official websites, in the press or partner sections, in tender documentation, or in industry registers. Additionally, email addresses in the corporate world are often formed according to a single standard. Knowing the first and last name of the decision maker allows one to reconstruct their email address with a high degree of probability.

Once a contact is found, deep personalization comes into play. The era of template emails with generic phrases about a “dynamically developing company” is over. The line between spam and a high-quality cold email is precisely the presence of context. To overcome “banner blindness,” the first sentence must contain a hook based on prior research (see above). This could be a problem mentioned in a recent executive speech or a reference to tasks listed in an open job posting. Such an opening signals to the recipient that time was spent studying their business.

The message itself must also be carefully considered. In the first email, don’t try to close the deal. Your goal should be to sell the idea of a conversation. Instead of “buy” or “view a presentation,” use something softer, such as “discuss an approach.”

The technical side is equally important. The fastest way to ruin a domain’s reputation is to upload a cold list to mass mailing services, such as Unisender. These services are good, but they are designed to work with consenting subscribers. Their algorithms, together with email providers, instantly detect cold traffic. The result can be grim: your domain ends up on blacklists. After that, not even routine accounting emails will reach recipients.

In the Russian context, safe cold email outreach involves manually sending emails or doing so in a way that is as close to manual as possible. Use plain text emails without complex layouts, images, or lots of links. The simpler, the better.

How to Make the Client Call First

In the complex sales paradigm, client attention cannot be bought; it can only be exchanged. If a cold call is an attempt to borrow trust without collateral, providing value becomes an investment that establishes the foundation for future dialogue (see the Telegram case described above). In the Russian B2B market, where skepticism toward direct advertising is traditionally high, exchanging expert materials for contacts is still an effective strategy. However, it is important to dispel two misconceptions. First, the expert material must genuinely provide value and be expertly crafted (not made up). Second, someone who downloads your file is not necessarily a “hot” client. At best, they are an executor who was asked to look into an issue or an enthusiast seeking to solve a local problem.

It is precisely this second misconception that explains why sales departments fail when they try to sell directly to someone who simply “downloaded a file.” The correct strategy is different. Downloading an industry report, a profitability calculator, or a checklist for audit preparation may be a signal that a problem or task exists within the company. It suggests that the company may have a problem or task that someone is trying to solve. The person who provided their contact information may become your “guide” inside the company. As you know, the key word here is “may.” This explains all subsequent actions.

The manager is calling to gauge interest, not to make a sale. The engineer who downloaded the technical documentation may not control the budget. However, he knows if there are plans to modernize production. Armed with this information, you can approach the decision-maker. That’s when everything changes. Instead of a cold script, the director hears: “I discussed problem X with your technical specialists, and we found a potential solution.” This approach works much better.

The logical next step in this story is event marketing. Today, webinars and business breakfasts, lunches, and dinners are experiencing a renaissance, transforming from image activities into communication tools—not sales tools, as many believe. Live interaction, even via computer screen, fosters a sense of familiarity. However, the participant list is still a field for work, not a list of buyers. While there may be decision makers among webinar attendees, more often it is their employees.

After a webinar, don’t bombard everyone with presentations. Call specific people. Talk about what interests them. Don’t talk about your product. “Ivan, you were at yesterday’s logistics broadcast. Did you notice that we discussed the issue of shipment accounting? Is this relevant to you right now?” This is no longer a cold call. Even if you reach a rank-and-file employee, you can still reach the decision-makers through them. Their interest is your advantage. In complex sales, this is often the only effective approach.

Combined Tactics

In B2B sales, relying on a single communication channel—whether phone, messaging, or email—is a mistake. First, within one company, there are usually several decision makers, not just one. According to observations, an average of two to three people participate in decision-making in small businesses, two to five in mid-sized businesses, and four to thirteen in large businesses. Each of these decision makers has their own perspective on business processes within the company and operates in dense information noise, so a single message is likely to go unnoticed or be ignored.

Effectiveness is not ensured by the number of attempts in one channel but by a competent presence across several channels, covering the maximum number of decision makers. This methodology is called omnichannel. Its essence lies in softly surrounding decision-makers with an information field even before active negotiations begin.

The process does not start with a call but with research. First, the sales manager studies the company profile, recording its financial condition and possible pain points. In parallel, they initiate “digital touches.” These may include liking posts on TenChat or leaving thoughtful comments in Telegram channels where target employees of a potential client are present. The goal at this stage is to establish a presence in the decision maker’s field of view.

Once the groundwork is laid, the next step is taken, such as sending the personalized email (or sequence of emails) discussed earlier. Rather than a price list, it contains a specific hypothesis or case relevant to the recipient’s business. This email is not so much a sales tool as it is a legitimate reason for the next step.

The manager only picks up the phone now. However, this is no longer the kind of irritating cold call you’re used to. The script has changed radically. Instead of a company presentation, the call begins with a specific question about the fate of the materials that were sent. Saying, “Ivan Ivanovich, I sent you logistics optimization calculations a couple of days ago, and I’m calling to see if you’ve had a chance to review them,” sounds completely different. It shifts the conversation into a working discussion since the call has a clear, polite purpose. Additionally, the caller is someone with whom the recipient is already familiar (remember the likes, comments, and conversations on social networks?). Then, a different script and questions are used for a call to another decision maker or their subordinate, and so on.

If a dialogue begins but a decision is not made immediately, communication shifts to messengers, but only with the client’s permission. This is the next stage of the cycle where the manager provides additional value, such as an article or a comparison table, to reinforce their status as an expert.

Evolution instead of revolution

The telephone has not ceased to function as a communication technology; it has simply lost its status as a universal master key. In markets with low prices, simple products, and a large customer base, telemarketing is still relevant, especially when inexpensive personnel are available. The law of large numbers and processing speed apply there.

However, in project sales, IT integration, consulting, and the supply of complex equipment, relying exclusively on cold calling is no longer effective. This model burns through team resources, demotivates qualified employees, and carries legal risks that often outweigh potential profit.

The main objection for any manager when abandoning cold calls is the fear of losing momentum. At first glance, the alternatives described here seem to take an unacceptably long time. Compared to an operator who makes 100 calls a day, a head of sales may perceive a decrease in activity. But this is an illusion. What should be compared are not the number of actions but the financial results at the end of the quarter. One prepared contact that results in a deal is worth hundreds of empty conversations with secretaries. Moreover, modern tools make it possible to scale this “manual” work without a loss of quality. Many labor-intensive stages today can be successfully automated while remaining invisible to clients.

The B2B market has definitively transitioned from a transactional model, in which the winner was whoever shouted the loudest, to a relationship model, in which the winner is whoever understands the client’s business better. The era of aggressive pressure is fading. It is being replaced by a time of expertise and relevance. Stop “burning” your contact base in the hope of random luck. Start building relationships systematically using technology to increase the precision of your offers, not for spam. Only then will the sales department stop being a call center and become a driver of revenue.