
Person-Based Marketing
May 19, 2026
All articles

Rikard Jonsson
Rikard Jonsson is Founder & CEO of Hey Sid and a five-time entrepreneur with a background in B2B SaaS, sales, and brand building. He believes B2B marketing is overcomplicated and writes about going back to basics: visibility, positioning, and consistent presence among the accounts that matter.
TL;DR
Social selling works in B2B because buyers research vendors across LinkedIn, review sites, and social channels long before they talk to sales. The right platform helps your team show up at every stage.
Most tools cover one layer: prospecting (Sales Navigator), intelligence (Gong), content distribution (Seismic), or outreach sequences (Outreach). Few connect all layers.
This guide ranks 6 platforms covering every social selling use case, with real pricing, confirmed features, and honest trade-offs.
Hey Sid ranks #1 because it combines person-level social advertising, LinkedIn outreach, and thought leadership content as one coordinated system targeting the same named decision-makers.
Use the decision framework at the bottom to match the right tool to your team size, budget, and sales cycle.
Please note that pricing may change, so always check the latest details on the product's website.
Quick Comparison: Best Social Selling Platforms for B2B in 2026
Rank | Platform | Primary Use Case | Starting Price | Best For |
#1 | Hey Sid | Person-level advertising, LinkedIn outreach, thought leadership | On request; contact heysid.com/demo | Mid-sized B2B teams with long sales cycles |
#2 | LinkedIn Sales Navigator | Prospecting and lead research | $119.99/month (Core, monthly) / $1,079.88/year (Core, annual) | SDR teams and individual reps building pipeline |
#3 | Gong | Revenue intelligence and conversation analytics | Custom pricing, not publicly disclosed | Enterprise sales teams needing call coaching and deal visibility |
#4 | Seismic LiveSocial | Social content sharing and compliance | Custom, not publicly disclosed | Large enterprises in regulated industries needing compliant content distribution |
#5 | Outreach | Sales engagement and sequencing | Custom, ~$100-$165/user/month (est.) | High-volume outbound teams running multi-channel sequences |
#6 | Sprinklr | Social listening and enterprise social management | Custom, not publicly disclosed | Enterprise marketing teams managing brand presence at scale |
Pricing may change. Always check the latest details on the vendor's website.
What Makes a Good B2B Social Selling Platform in 2026
Social selling platforms fall into four categories. Understanding which category you need is the fastest way to match your budget to the right tool.
Category 1: Prospecting and lead research tools
These tools help salespeople find, qualify, and prioritise contacts on LinkedIn and other platforms. LinkedIn Sales Navigator is the dominant example. They are strong at targeting and search but do not run ads, manage content, or coordinate with marketing.
Category 2: Revenue intelligence and conversation tools
These platforms record and analyse sales calls, flag deal risk, and surface coaching opportunities. Gong leads this category. They improve what happens after a conversation starts, not the volume of conversations that begin.
Category 3: Social content distribution and enablement tools
These tools help sales teams share approved, on-brand content on social channels. Seismic LiveSocial is the leading enterprise example. They reduce compliance risk and increase content reach, but do not run paid advertising or outbound sequences.
Category 4: Coordinated multi-channel pipeline platforms
This is the smallest and most valuable category: platforms that combine advertising, outreach, and thought leadership to warm prospects before the first message. Hey Sid is built in this category. A coordinated approach works because B2B buying groups typically involve 3 to 5 decision-makers at any given account, and reaching each of them individually across multiple channels before outreach lands produces a materially different response rate than cold contact alone.
The right choice depends on where your pipeline generation breaks down. If your team cannot find the right contacts, start with prospecting tools. If outreach sends but does not convert, the gap is usually brand familiarity before the message arrives. That is the gap coordinated platforms fill.
#1 Hey Sid: Best Coordinated B2B Social Selling Platform
Attribute | Detail |
Specialty | Person-level advertising + LinkedIn outreach + thought leadership, coordinated as one system |
Starting price | On request; contact heysid.com/demo |
Best for | Mid-sized B2B companies (20-100 employees) with 12-36 month sales cycles and lean marketing teams |
GDPR | Yes, by architecture (European-built) |
Pricing may change. Always check the latest details on the vendor's website.
Hey Sid is not a traditional social selling tool. It is a managed ABM platform that runs three products in a coordinated sequence: Always On (person-level advertising on LinkedIn, Meta, and programmatic channels), Precision Connect (automated LinkedIn outreach), and Authority Builder (done-for-you executive thought leadership content). The three products run against the same named decision-makers at your target accounts.
The operating logic is called the Influence Loop. Hey Sid's sequence is designed so that by the time Precision Connect sends a connection request, the prospect has already been exposed to your brand through Always On advertising and Authority Builder content over a 60 to 90 day period. The outreach feels like a natural continuation of a relationship rather than a cold interruption.
This matters for B2B sales cycles where deals involve 3 to 5 decision-makers over 12 to 36 months. Single-channel outreach tools can contact one stakeholder at a time. A coordinated system can build familiarity with the full buying group simultaneously.
What sets Hey Sid apart
Person-level targeting: ads reach named individuals at named accounts, not company IP addresses or job title segments
Fully managed execution: Hey Sid handles targeting, creative production, outreach, and content. No internal campaign operations required
Creative included and refreshed regularly: ad creatives are produced and updated as part of the service, removing the internal production burden
European-built with GDPR in mind: designed for Nordic and European B2B markets; verify specific compliance requirements with Hey Sid directly
Works without clean CRM data: onboarding works from spreadsheets, partial CRM exports, or manually built account lists
Results
Client | Result | Source |
Mercuri International | 85% reduced ad spend; one of their biggest deals in a decade attributed to Hey Sid | Client-reported |
Devotion Ventures | 45+ qualified meetings in 4 months | Client-reported |
Risk Ident | 2.5x shorter sales cycles, 40% higher engagement | Client-reported |
Strengths
Replaces advertising agency, outreach tool, and content function in one managed service
Produces pipeline from named accounts, not inbound forms
Shorter onboarding than enterprise ABM platforms: no need for mature CRM or RevOps function
Particularly strong for Nordic and European B2B companies with complex, consultative sales cycles
Limitations
Not a self-serve tool: Hey Sid manages execution, which means teams wanting full manual control over sequences and copy will find it a poor fit
No cold email outreach: LinkedIn is the primary outreach channel
Minimum managed commitment: not designed for teams wanting a $50/month software subscription
Book a demo: heysid.com/demo
#2 LinkedIn Sales Navigator: Best for B2B Lead Prospecting
Attribute | Detail |
Specialty | Lead search, account research, and prospecting on LinkedIn |
Starting price | $119.99/month (Core, monthly) or $1,079.88/year (Core, annual billing) |
Best for | SDR teams and individual reps building targeted lead lists from LinkedIn's 1 billion+ member database |
GDPR | LinkedIn publishes a GDPR compliance page; confirm for your use case |
Pricing may change. Always check the latest details on the vendor's website.
LinkedIn Sales Navigator is one of the most widely adopted B2B prospecting tools available, used by sales teams across industries to access LinkedIn's member database with advanced search filters: industry, seniority, company size, job title, geography, and buying signals like job changes and content engagement. The data freshness advantage is real: profiles update in real time as members change roles or companies.
Sales Navigator Core is priced at $119.99/month or $1,079.88/year (per LinkedIn's pricing page as of early 2026). Advanced adds CRM sync with HubSpot, Salesforce, and Dynamics, plus TeamLink for leveraging colleagues' connections. Advanced Plus is custom-quoted and targets enterprise teams with deep CRM automation needs.
A structural limitation worth knowing: Sales Navigator is built for finding and researching prospects, not for extracting contact data. Email addresses and phone numbers are not surfaced in the platform, so teams that need direct contact details will require a separate data enrichment tool alongside it. The tool also does not run ads, publish content, or coordinate with marketing campaigns.
Strengths
Unmatched data freshness: profile data updates in real time as LinkedIn members update their profiles
30+ advanced filters for precise targeting by seniority, company size, growth signals, and buyer intent
TeamLink surfaces warm introduction paths through colleagues' networks
CRM sync (Advanced and above) reduces manual data entry significantly
Limitations
No email or phone data: requires pairing with Apollo, ZoomInfo, or similar enrichment tools
Annual-only billing with no refunds for mid-cycle cancellation
No advertising, content, or outreach automation built in
Cost scales steeply per seat for larger teams with no team discounts below 100 seats
Best for: Sales-led B2B teams that live in LinkedIn and need precision prospecting. Pair with Hey Sid's Precision Connect for coordinated outreach once your account list is built.
#3 Gong: Best Revenue Intelligence Platform for Enterprise Sales Teams
Attribute | Detail |
Specialty | Conversation intelligence, deal risk analysis, sales coaching, and pipeline forecasting |
Starting price | Custom pricing, not publicly disclosed; Gong states pricing depends on team size, modules, and contract terms |
Best for | Enterprise sales teams (25+ reps) needing call recording, AI-driven coaching, and CRM-synced deal visibility |
GDPR | Not stated in public pricing documentation; verify with vendor |
Pricing may change. Always check the latest details on the vendor's website.
Gong is the category leader in revenue intelligence. It transcribes every sales call, surfaces patterns in objection handling and competitor mentions, flags at-risk deals, and gives sales managers a searchable library of calls for coaching. Gong holds a 4.7/5 G2 rating across more than 6,500 reviews.
The challenge for most mid-market teams is cost structure. Gong does not publish pricing on its website. Pricing is per user, varies by module selection and team size, and typically involves a platform fee in addition to per-user costs. Third-party procurement platforms such as Vendr publish anonymised benchmarks from buyer contracts, but these figures are not confirmed by Gong directly and should be treated as directional estimates. For accurate budgeting, teams need to go through Gong's sales process.
Gong improves what happens after a prospect responds. It does not help generate conversations in the first place.
Strengths
High-accuracy transcription with AI-surfaced objections, sentiment signals, competitor mentions, and topic tracking across calls
Deal Boards and forecasting dashboards flag at-risk pipeline in real time
Strong CRM integration with Salesforce and HubSpot
Significant AI feature expansion in 2025 to 2026, including Ask Anything natural language queries across all calls
Limitations
Custom pricing with a quote-based model that buyers consistently report is higher than expected
Per-user licensing plus a platform fee structure means smaller teams typically pay more per user than enterprise deployments
Annual-only contracts with no mid-contract seat reductions
Does not generate leads or outreach: conversation intelligence only, not pipeline generation
HubSpot integration receives mixed reviews; strongest in Salesforce environments
Best for: Enterprise B2B sales teams with 25+ reps, Salesforce as the CRM, and $85K+ average contract values where a win rate improvement of 5 to 10% justifies the cost.
#4 Seismic LiveSocial: Best for Compliant Social Content Distribution
Attribute | Detail |
Specialty | AI-powered social content curation and compliant distribution for sales teams |
Starting price | Custom pricing, not publicly disclosed; contact Seismic for a quote |
Best for | Large enterprises in financial services, pharma, and other regulated industries needing brand-compliant social selling at scale |
GDPR | Not stated in public pricing documentation; verify with vendor |
Pricing may change. Always check the latest details on the vendor's website.
Seismic LiveSocial is the social selling module within Seismic's broader sales enablement platform. It pulls AI-curated content from a large pool of publishers and delivers each rep a personalised stream of relevant content to share on LinkedIn and other networks. Posts are automatically scanned for compliance risks before going live, which is the standout capability for regulated industries.
The compliance scanning is the standout feature. For financial services firms, pharmaceutical companies, and other regulated businesses where a misstep on social can trigger a regulatory review, automated compliance is worth the investment. The platform also tracks engagement metrics by rep and connects social activity to pipeline influence in the CRM.
Seismic LiveSocial does not run paid advertising, build outreach sequences, or manage executive thought leadership creation. It distributes and monitors content sharing by individual reps. For teams that need content amplification and compliance control, it is well-suited. For teams that need pipeline generation, it is one piece of a larger stack.
Strengths
Automated compliance scanning on posts before distribution: critical for regulated industries where a misstep on social can trigger a regulatory review
AI content curation from a broad publisher network, reducing the time reps spend finding shareable content
Engagement analytics connect social sharing to pipeline influence in CRM systems
Integrates with Salesforce, HubSpot, Microsoft Dynamics, and major marketing automation platforms
Limitations
Enterprise pricing with no public list rates: mid-market teams often find cost difficult to justify without the compliance requirement
Platform covers content distribution only: no advertising, outreach automation, or content creation
Broader Seismic platform carries a steep learning curve for teams without a dedicated enablement function
Best for: Sales teams at enterprises in regulated industries where compliance is non-negotiable and content distribution at scale is the primary social selling need.
#5 Outreach: Best for High-Volume Multi-Channel Sales Sequences
Attribute | Detail |
Specialty | Sales engagement platform for multi-channel outreach sequences (email, LinkedIn, phone) |
Starting price | Custom pricing; third-party estimates indicate approximately $100-$165/user/month |
Best for | SDR-heavy sales teams running structured, high-volume outbound sequences across email and LinkedIn |
GDPR | Not stated in public pricing documentation; verify with vendor |
Pricing may change. Always check the latest details on the vendor's website.
Outreach is a sales engagement platform built for teams that need structured, repeatable outreach sequences across email, phone, and LinkedIn simultaneously. Reps build cadences: a contact receives an email on day one, a LinkedIn connection request on day three, a follow-up call on day seven. The platform manages timing, tracks opens and replies, and surfaces which sequences convert best by segment.
Outreach has added AI features in recent years, including deal health scoring, forecasting, and Kaia (its AI meeting assistant for real-time call coaching). It integrates with Salesforce and HubSpot and is widely used in B2B SaaS companies with large SDR teams.
The limitation for social-first strategies is that Outreach treats LinkedIn as one step in an email-led sequence, not as a primary channel with its own logic. Teams looking to warm prospects through advertising and content before outreach will need to run Outreach alongside a separate platform that handles the brand-building layer.
Strengths
Structured multi-channel cadences with email, LinkedIn, and phone integrated in one workflow
Strong Salesforce integration with bi-directional CRM sync
AI deal health scoring and pipeline forecasting for revenue teams
Scales well for SDR-heavy organisations with high outreach volume
Limitations
LinkedIn is treated as a secondary outreach step, not a primary social selling channel
No advertising, content creation, or thought leadership capabilities
Pricing is custom and not publicly disclosed; third-party estimates put it in the $100-$165/user/month range
Complex setup: many teams require Salesforce admin support and RevOps bandwidth to configure properly
Best for: B2B SaaS companies with dedicated SDR teams running high-volume outbound across email and LinkedIn, with Salesforce as the CRM backbone.
#6 Sprinklr: Best for Enterprise Social Listening and Brand Management
Attribute | Detail |
Specialty | Enterprise social media management, listening, and employee advocacy at scale |
Starting price | Custom pricing, not publicly disclosed |
Best for | Enterprise marketing teams managing brand presence across 30+ social channels with global governance requirements |
GDPR | Not stated in public pricing documentation; verify with vendor |
Pricing may change. Always check the latest details on the vendor's website.
Sprinklr is an enterprise unified customer experience management (CXM) platform. Its social selling relevance sits primarily in social listening and employee advocacy: Sprinklr monitors mentions, tracks sentiment across channels, and enables large sales and marketing teams to coordinate social activity within governance guardrails. For a 500-person enterprise sales organisation that needs to manage brand consistency across global markets, Sprinklr provides the infrastructure.
For B2B companies whose primary social selling need is pipeline generation from a defined account list, Sprinklr is a poor fit. It is an enterprise infrastructure tool, not a revenue generation engine. Implementation timelines and pricing reflect that positioning: Sprinklr does not publish pricing and requires a custom quote.
Strengths
Comprehensive social listening across 30+ channels with AI-powered sentiment analysis
Employee advocacy module enables coordinated content sharing across large sales organisations
Enterprise governance and workflow approval for regulated industries
Broad integration ecosystem across CRM, ad platforms, and service tools
Limitations
Not designed for pipeline generation from named accounts: no advertising, no targeted outreach, no ABM sequencing
Enterprise pricing and implementation scope make it inaccessible for mid-market teams
Product complexity requires dedicated social media operations staff to use effectively
Best for: Global enterprises with large social operations teams that need unified governance, listening, and brand management across every channel. Not a fit for B2B teams primarily focused on account-based pipeline generation.
Full Feature Comparison: B2B Social Selling Platforms 2026
Feature | Hey Sid | Sales Navigator | Gong | Seismic | Outreach | Sprinklr |
Person-level ad targeting | Yes | No | No | No | No | Not stated |
LinkedIn outreach automation | Yes | No | No | No | Yes (as cadence step) | No |
Thought leadership content | Yes (done-for-you) | No | No | Yes (distribution) | No | Yes (advocacy) |
Lead prospecting and search | Not stated | Yes | No | No | Not stated | No |
Conversation intelligence | No | No | Yes | No | Yes (Kaia) | No |
Compliance content scanning | No | No | No | Yes | No | Yes |
Social listening | No | No | No | Not stated | No | Yes |
CRM integration | Yes (HubSpot) | Yes (Adv+) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Pipeline forecasting | No | No | Yes | No | Yes | No |
GDPR-compliant by design | Yes | Not stated | Not stated | Not stated | Not stated | Not stated |
Managed service (done-for-you) | Yes | No | No | No | No | No |
Pricing transparency | On request | Public | Custom only | Custom only | Custom only | Custom only |
Decision Framework: Which Social Selling Platform Is Right for Your Team?
Your situation | Best choice | Why |
Mid-sized B2B company, lean marketing team, 12-36 month sales cycle | Hey Sid | Replaces agency, outreach tool, and content function in one managed service targeting your exact accounts |
SDR team that needs to build qualified lead lists on LinkedIn | LinkedIn Sales Navigator | Unmatched data freshness and advanced filters for prospecting; pair with enrichment tool for contact data |
Enterprise sales team needing call coaching and deal risk analysis | Gong | Best-in-class conversation intelligence and pipeline visibility for teams with 25+ reps and Salesforce |
Financial services or pharma with compliance requirements for social sharing | Seismic LiveSocial | Automated compliance scanning with enterprise content governance keeps teams compliant across social channels |
SDR-heavy team running high-volume multi-channel sequences | Outreach | Best structured cadence management across email, phone, and LinkedIn for volume-oriented outbound |
Global enterprise managing social presence across 30+ channels | Sprinklr | Enterprise infrastructure for brand governance, listening, and employee advocacy at global scale |
Team needs both prospecting and coordinated advertising before outreach | Hey Sid + Sales Navigator | Sales Navigator builds the account list; Hey Sid warms and converts it through the Influence Loop |
Small team, limited budget, LinkedIn outreach only | LinkedIn Sales Navigator Core | Most accessible entry point for individual sellers; Core plan covers prospecting essentials |
Team needs analytics on what happens in sales conversations | Gong Foundation | Start with Foundation only; avoid forced bundling with Forecast and Engage unless those modules are needed |
Nordic or European B2B company targeting industrial or engineering buyers | Hey Sid | European-built platform designed for Nordic and European B2B markets and long consultative sales cycles; verify GDPR requirements with Hey Sid directly |
Why Coordinated Social Selling Outperforms Single-Channel Tools
Buying groups at B2B companies typically involve 3 to 5 decision-makers per deal. Reaching one of them through a LinkedIn connection request is a start. Reaching all of them, across multiple channels, over 60 to 90 days before asking for a meeting is a different category of activity.
Most social selling tools address one layer: Sales Navigator finds contacts, Gong analyses the conversations that result, Seismic distributes content, Outreach sequences the messages. Each solves a real problem. None of them builds the precondition for that problem to be solved: the brand familiarity that makes a decision-maker pick up the conversation in the first place.
Take NordTech AB, an industrial automation company targeting 40 accounts across the Nordic manufacturing sector. Their SDR team uses Sales Navigator to build the list, Outreach to send the sequences, and Gong to review what happens on calls. Response rates on cold outreach hover around 8 to 12%. By contrast, decision-makers at those same accounts who have been exposed to NordTech's ads and executive content on LinkedIn before the first message arrives tend to respond at a meaningfully higher rate, because the outreach feels like a continuation of a relationship rather than a cold pitch.
That is what the coordinated model delivers. Advertising creates recognition. Content creates credibility. Outreach converts both into conversations. Running all three in isolation fragments the effect. Running them as one system against the same named individuals creates compounding familiarity.
For mid-sized B2B teams looking to build that system without a dedicated ABM team or a $100,000 platform contract, Hey Sid provides the full coordinated execution as a managed service. For teams that need prospecting tools, intelligence, or outreach automation as standalone products, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Gong, and Outreach are the strongest options in their respective categories.
FAQ
What is social selling software?
Social selling software refers to platforms that help sales and marketing teams use social media channels, primarily LinkedIn, to find prospects, build relationships, share relevant content, and generate pipeline. The category ranges from prospecting tools like LinkedIn Sales Navigator to coordinated ABM platforms like Hey Sid that combine advertising, outreach, and thought leadership in one managed system.
What is the best social selling platform for B2B in 2026?
The best platform depends on your primary use case. For coordinated pipeline generation from named accounts, Hey Sid leads because it combines person-level advertising, LinkedIn outreach, and thought leadership content as one managed service. For prospecting and lead research, LinkedIn Sales Navigator is the strongest option. For revenue intelligence and call coaching, Gong is the category leader.
How much does social selling software cost?
Pricing varies significantly by category. LinkedIn Sales Navigator Core is priced at $119.99/month or $1,079.88/year per LinkedIn's pricing page. Gong does not publish pricing; costs are per user with a platform fee, and vary by module and team size. Hey Sid pricing is available on request at heysid.com/demo. Seismic, Outreach, and Sprinklr all use custom enterprise pricing.
Pricing may change. Always check the latest details on the vendor's website.
Can social selling software help with GDPR compliance?
GDPR compliance varies by tool and how it is used. Hey Sid is European-built and positions itself for Nordic and European B2B markets; verify specific GDPR compliance mechanisms directly with Hey Sid before activation. Seismic LiveSocial includes automated compliance scanning for content distribution. For all other platforms in this comparison, their public documentation does not state explicit GDPR compliance mechanisms. Always verify with the vendor before activation, particularly for outreach and enrichment tools that process personal contact data.
Should I use multiple social selling tools together?
Many B2B teams stack tools by function. A common combination is LinkedIn Sales Navigator for prospecting, Hey Sid for advertising and outreach, and Gong for call intelligence. The risk with multi-tool stacks is fragmentation: each tool targets different contacts at different times with no shared account intelligence. Coordinated platforms that run multiple functions against the same named individuals tend to produce better results than stacks of best-in-class point solutions operating independently.
How long before social selling software produces results?
Sales Navigator produces lead lists immediately. Converting those lists into pipeline depends on the quality of outreach and the length of the sales cycle. For coordinated ABM platforms like Hey Sid, the 60 to 90 day influence period is designed into the system: advertising and content run before outreach begins to build brand familiarity first. Teams with 12 to 36 month sales cycles typically see pipeline influence within the first quarter and revenue attribution within 6 to 12 months. Shorter sales cycles can see faster conversion.
Sources
LinkedIn Business Solutions, "Compare Plans and Pricing"
Cleanlist, "LinkedIn Sales Navigator Pricing Guide 2026"
Vendr, "Gong Software Pricing & Plans 2026"
Sybill, "Gong Pricing in 2026"
Seismic, "LiveSocial Platform"
Vendr, "Seismic Software Pricing & Plans 2026"
Oliv.ai, "Gong Pricing Calculator & Guide"
Related: Best LinkedIn Outreach Automation Tools | Best ABM Tools for 2026 | Contact-Level Advertising: How to Target Decision-Makers in B2B | Person-Based ABM: Why Targeting Decision-Makers Beats Account-Level Marketing

