Author of "LinkedIn for Personal Branding" l Keynote Speaker l TEDx | LinkedIn Rebranding | B2B Social Selling l My Mantra: "Be a Friend First" | Helping Companies, Events, Universities, Leaders, ERG's, and Employees
I just read LinkedIn's Sales blog today about seller mistakes. ❌ According to LinkedIn - here's Sales Relationship Mistake #2: "Talking all about yourself and what you can do". And this reminds me of my own LinkedIn Social Sales training........and what I learned from Dale Carnegie long ago. Who would think that someone in 1932 could still be teaching us all today? Dale Carnegie taught us to focus on the other person. He said, "in order to be interesting you need to be interested". I ❤️ that quote. We see this mistake every day on LInkedIn when we get those connect and pitch messages. Immediate pitch content is such a turn-off to most of us. In my training, I teach "Be the Friend First," which essentially means to be the kind of person that YOU would want to know and refer. If you just focus on yourself, your products, and your achievements, many people will start to ignore you. LinkedIn makes it easy to leverage the "Be the Friend First" Strategy with all the amazing content and messaging features. The problem is that most sellers don't know how to use these features to build relationships. ( hint that's where I come in) Of course, it's important to be authentically interested in other people. Those sellers always win in the long run. What do you think of this seller mistake mentioned by LinkedIn today? Do you see it happening? Do you get those pitch-type messages? --------------------------------------------------------- Please follow 👉 Sandra Long and ring the bell 🔔 👉 Post Road Consulting: LinkedIn and Social Selling Training 👉 and #SalesBySandra #linkedin #sales
All. The. Time. Be a human first, put others interests first, and that is how you make friends and influence people. But we all need to be reminded because our brains are wired to tune into WIIFM . ..
Sandra, I believe this is still a very common practice and just as offf-putting as it was in 1932! Think of all the self-serving messages we receive when we fitst connect on LinkedIn! Think of all the website focused on the company's capabilities and status, etc. Putting the other person first is much, more effective in starting out a new relationship. Dale Carnegie Training has that right!
Julie Hansen
1y
I think it could be Sales Relationship Mistake #1 - not #2! LOL It's such a turn off and it carries over from LinkedIn into sales calls and presentations. It's how we've been taught for decades and apparently a hard habit to break.
JANINE HOGAN
1y
People tend to not trust people .. until they become friends. We put ou trust in our friends. Why? Because we know them, have experiences with them, and can relate to them. The world 🌎 is full of friends we haven’t met yet! Even in business, trust is built the same way as it is in friendship. Thanks Sandra Long!
I think that the core of the problem for sellers is that it's so much easier to talk about themselves and their products and services. Lot's of extra work to keep the conversation focused on the prospect or customer. Very interesting points Sandra.
I get those every week. Thanks for this reminder.
Thanks for the valuable reminder, Sandra. And, so true that Dale Carnegie’s principles from “How to Win Friends and Influence People” are as relevant and effective today as they were way back then!
Well said Sandra Long! Great thoughts!
Transforming the Perception of Chaos into Profitable Confidence | Chief Confidence Igniter | Transformative Keynote Speaker | Authentic Selling Alchemist | Championing Workplace Confidence | Confident Living Catalyst
1ySandra Long I love the principle of being a Friend first. This is a tenuous skill to teach as at its core is the authenticity of relating. My thoughts are, how do you teach someone whose only desire is more sales to "be a friend"?