Here’s the cold hard sales truth that some of you may need to hear…
If YOUR prospects and customers are using LinkedIn then it is CRUCIAL that you are using it (properly) as well.
- They have a phone, so we use the phone
- They have email, so we use email
- They have an address, so we use post
If they have LinkedIn then guess what, we need to be making the most out of it to leverage it as the powerful sales platform that it is!
Here are FIVE LinkedIn tips that I believe EVERY salesperson should know and be utilising.
(If you enjoy this article please share it to any salespeople you know, thank you!)
1) Your LinkedIn Profile Should Be CUSTOMER Focused
I can almost guarantee that you will have (and have had) prospects and customers viewing your LinkedIn profile. Now around 90% of the LinkedIn profiles I review for sales teams around the world are NOT great. Most will be scaring prospects and customers away, not attracting them and turning them into inbound leads (which is what a great LinkedIn profile should do).
The problem with most profiles is that it is focused on the salesperson and not the customer. It’s written in a way which goes on about how amazing that person is, how many times they smashed their sales targets, how many times they won presidents club etc
THIS WILL SCARE POTENTIAL CUSTOMERS AWAY!
Instead, your LinkedIn profile should be focused on your CUSTOMERS. It should answer questions like this: Who do you help, how do you help them, what do you help them achieve, how have you helped similar companies and how can they get in touch with you if they’d like to explore the opportunity.
2) You Should Be CHECKING Your LinkedIn Profile Views
So we’ve established that there is a very high chance that your prospects and customers are viewing your LinkedIn profile (which will hopefully be customer focused soon). Well, one the best features that LinkedIn offers its users is the ability to see WHO is viewing your profile.
Most salespeople don’t do this, and it is a scary amount of missed opportunity.
I have converted so many views on my LinkedIn profile into sales opportunities and closed deals, including some of the biggest sales of my career.
It’s important to note that not EVERY view will be a prospect or customer, but some will, and after a small amount of pre-qualification you should be able to find potential prospects. When you find those, then you have a unique opportunity to message them and thank them for viewing your profile, then asking a relevant question around what product and service it is that you offer, or ask a question that can lead to that conversation.
3) It’s Not About The Pitch, It’s About The PERSONALISATION
When sending messages to prospects on LinkedIn the focus shouldn’t be on how you pitch your product or service, but how you make it relevant to THEM. It’s all about them.
Messages work on LinkedIn when you make it about them.
What homework have you done to justify you messaging them? What do you think you can help them achieve (and what have you found out that makes you believe that)? What value can you offer them?
The more you personalise it (in a healthy professional non-creepy way), the better the chance you’ll get a positive reply.
4) Your Network Is Your NET-WORTH
The average salesperson in my experience (having evaluated over 1,500 salespeople on LinkedIn) has 1,000 connections on average. That’s 1,000 out of a potential 30,000 connections that LinkedIn allows you to have.
Now before some of you start to try and justify it by saying it’s QUALITY over quantity, you can have BOTH!
Your network on LinkedIn should be filled with prospective customers and existing customers (this alone is usually a much larger number than 1,000). Not only that though, it should include other sales leaders in those prospective companies, not just a single decision maker. Rarely, especially in B2B, is the decision made by just one person. Yet most salespeople focus on one single relationship. Leverage LinkedIn to connect with multiple decision makers, finance, CEO, operations, HR etc.
You should also connect with OTHER people within those prospective companies in all departments and at all levels. These people are sharing unique insights all of the time and can offer huge value to you. They may provide an insight that you can use or they may be able to provide an introduction to the decision maker.
5) LinkedIn Might Be Directing Your Prospects To Your COMPETITORS
Now this is something that very few salespeople realise, but LinkedIn might be directing your prospects and even your CUSTOMERS to your competitors.
You see when you visit someone’s profile, there is a little section that appears on the right hand side which reads “People also viewed”. Now for salespeople, this is a GREAT opportunity to find potentially new prospects that might not have even been on your radar! LinkedIn is showing you similar prospects to the prospect that you are currently looking at.
HOWEVER, many salespeople have this happening on THEIR profile. Which means that when their prospects and customers view their profile (which they will), LinkedIn will show them SIMILAR profiles. I.E similar people, in similar roles, in similar companies.
Don’t worry though, you can easily switch this feature off on your profile! If you go into your settings and go to your privacy settings, you’ll see the option for “Viewers of this profile also viewed”, which you are able to switch off. This will mean that when your prospects and customers do view your profile, your profile is all they’ll see.
There we go!
5 LinkedIn tips that ALL salespeople should know.
If there are some here that you weren’t aware of then I hope you not only read this, but go and make these changes.
LinkedIn is an extremely powerful sales tool (when used properly and alongside other tools like the phone, email and video),
Thank you for taking the time to read this blog!
Do you or your team want to start using LinkedIn to its FULL POTENTIAL?
Well, between now and Christmas I’m running a HUGE offer on my on-demand LinkedIn Masterclass…
You get full access to 60 LinkedIn training videos (over 10 hours of learning), 35 guides, templates & scripts, 7 eBooks and loads more.
It’s normally £499 per person, but it’s now just £99!!
NOT ONLY THAT…
But if you sign up you’ll also get a FREE ticket to my LIVE 2-hour LinkedIn Masterclass in January and a digital copy of my best-selling book “The Million-Pound LinkedIn Message”.
This online course will cover everything you need to know to start generating more from LinkedIn from as little as just 15-minutes per day.
- How to build the ultimate lead-generating LinkedIn profile
- How to find any prospect you want (and connect with them)
- How to send effective LinkedIn messages that get replies
- How to create engaging content that generates leads and sales
- Which tools and tactics are delivering HUGE results in 2020
- How to leverage video for content and messaging
- and LOTS more
To take advantage of this offer simply use discount code OFFER99
Thank you again for taking the time to read this blog! If you enjoyed this post please click LIKE and click SHARE to share it with your network. If you enjoyed it please do take time to read some of my other recent posts:
Just Pick Up The Phone and Call!
The ABC Of Social Selling
The Modern-Day Sales Prospecting Stack
The 10 Things That Will NEVER Change In Sales
About the author:
Daniel Disney is one of the world’s leading Sales, Social Selling, and LinkedIn experts and is the author of the #1 Amazon Best Selling book, “The Million-Pound LinkedIn Message“.
Daniel is currently delivering LIVE LinkedIn Social Selling virtual training sessions for businesses and salespeople around the world. For more information please email contact@thedailysales.net
