Author of "LinkedIn for Personal Branding" l Keynote Speaker l TEDx | LinkedIn Rebranding | B2B Social Selling l My Mantra: "Be a Friend First" | Helping Teams and Leaders l Let’s Amplify Your Event
Helping B2B brands to find their competitive uniqueness | Podcast Host (B2B Marketers on a Mission)
When it comes to social selling, you can think of it as a modern type of relationship building, where you initiate conversations with people you’d like to connect with. The name is misleading, because the one thing you should try to avoid when it comes to social selling is outright selling, spamming, and pitching. You’d want to avoid doing any of these: 1. Not conducting any research on the people you want to reach out to (Just think about the number of times it’s been obvious that people didn’t even check your profile) 2. Using the “spray and pray” approach with automation (This will get you nowhere very fast) 3. Having a LinkedIn profile that looks more like a resume for recruiters 4. Confusing and inconsistent messaging 5. Posting content on LinkedIn that’s generic or not relevant to your target audience 6. Sending spammy or pushy messages to your network when they don’t respond Try doing these instead: 1. Review your own CRM/pipeline, and ask yourself if you are properly engaged and connected with your contacts 2. Have clear goals for your approach in mind 3. Think about who it is you want to reach out to on LinkedIn, and do your research 4. Find out more about your prospects: Why they’re on LinkedIn, what topics they care about, what types of questions or problems they have, etc. 5. Think about how you can stand and be remembered in a good way 6. Lead by helping, not selling: Share valuable insights or resources that your prospects will find useful and can answer their questions or problems 7. Comment and engage with them and their content meaningfully and respectfully (You don’t have to agree with them, but provide a constructive perspective) I discussed these and other social selling topics with Sandra Long in this week’s episode of the B2B Marketers on a Mission Podcast. To find out more, click on the link in the comments below. #b2bmarketersonamission #b2bmarketing #socialselling
Most sellers primarily focus their "social selling" efforts on finding new prospects, while ignoring their own current pipeline. Here's a snippet from my recent conversation with Christian Klepp on the B2B Marketers on a Mission Podcast where I talk about how to go deep with your current prospect list to shore up your pipeline and forecast. #linkedin #socialselling #b2b #podcast
It was an absolute pleasure to have you on the show, Sandra. You can click here to access the full interview: https://www.einblick.co/ep-80-sandra-long-social-selling/
Sandra Long, this was absolutely so spot on! I am sure you don't need me to tell you this. I believe, like you, that engaging is more important than any other social activity to earn conversations with prospects. I like how you also mentioned that the KPI of choice as booked calls. It is the best way to document and validate social activity in my opinion. Great stuff!
very true! Everyone wants to be "thought leaders" but most act as lead-gen leaders ..
Executive Career Transition Coach
2yGreat insights around how to build meaningful relationships, and gain visibility and credibility, with prospects by connecting and interacting with them appropriately & strategically on LinkedIn. Thanks for sharing this valuable content, Sandra Long and Christian Klepp.