Sandra Long’s Post

Listen to this advise on how to do it right with #SocialSelling and #LinkedIn #Messaging.

I analysed the last 500 LinkedIn messages in my inbox today and the stats were quite shocking... ❌ 87% of the messages were NOT personalised Nothing about me No research done No relevance The message was all about them, their product and how "amazing" it is ❌ 77% were SALES PITCHES Pure copy & pasted poorly written spammy sales pitches ❌ 99%, yes 99% were WRITTEN messages Only one of the messages was an audio voice note ZERO were video messages Some of the highlights included: 🤦 "Hi Daniel" being the entire message sent 🤦 "Life Changing Opportunity" being the title for a spammy sales pitch And one of the worst spammy sales pitch messages came from someone working at LinkedIn! 🤦🤦 This is why messages and DM's on LinkedIn are a HUGE opportunity Because most people are doing it WRONG! (even LinkedIn themselves) Here are my big tips to send BETTER messages that get replies and create opportunities: 1) Do some research on your prospect first. Read through their profile, look through their activity, try to find something relevant about them 2) Make your message about THEM. The more you make it about them, the more likely they'll be to read it and reply to it 3) Audio voice notes and video messages are such a big opportunity because so few are using them 4) Focus on how you can HELP them, and what you can help them achieve. They don't care about your product, they care about what it will do for them 5) Don't keep following up with the same style of message. If they don't reply to your written message, follow up with a voice note Your goal isn't to pitch your product Your goal is to start a CONVERSATION Don't go out there trying to sell to anyone and everyone Talk to people, network, build rapport, ask questions Come on salespeople, you can do better here! #socialselling #sales #LinkedInmessages

One of the best ways to cripple your prospecting efforts on LinkedIn... have a small network on the platform. . . Here are 5 things you can start doing today to build your network and establish long term success in Sales. . . 1) Optimize your LinkedIn Profile... standard l, yet highly u leveraged. Just optimizing your profile with a professional headline, profile pic and banner already sets your apart from 90% of LI users. . . 2) Connect with Care: Your goal should not be to connect with anyone and everyone. BE STRATEGIC. Here are three types of people you should consider connecting with first ✔️ People you currently work with or worked with in the past ✔️ Sales Leaders ✔️ Thought Leaders in Your Space . . 3) Engage with people: LinkedIn is a social network. Engaging with others by liking, commenting and posting your own content is going to put your profile in front of more people so when you share your message... more eyes see it... and when more eyes see it... more people potentially in your pipeline. . . 4) Be proactive with your outreach: Take this opportunity to actively reach out to and connect with others. Be genuine and be thoughtful. Best result... add a small note as to why you want to connect AND MAKE IT PERSONAL. find something on thier profiles that you can relate too and make that your connection point. . . 5) Post relevant content in the industry your selling into! The best way to build credibility is sharing your thoughts. Don't just post an article that you think is relevant... read it and write 1-2 sentences on what you thought was interesting or stood out. . . Building your personal brand on LinkedIn will help you both professionally and personally if you start early. . . This is a long term play and I promise you will thank yourself in two years by starting today! . . Cheers! . . #personalbranding #socialselling #linkedincreator #prospecting #prospectingtips #selling #sdr #bdr #accountexecutive #techsales

Let's chat about prospecting... because its changing. 📞💻🤝 So, you've been told to make X number of dials, send Y amount of emails and casually drop in LinkedIn connections like "Hey, I just met you and this is crazy, but we know the same people, so connect maybe?" Sound familiar? Well, my friends, the game is changing and it's time we tune our strategies to align to the change. 🧐🔎 Start with researching a point of view (POV). Use this newfound knowledge to ask well-informed questions. This way, you come off more like a resource than a pushy salesperson. Prospecting isn't the monster under your bed, it's just an old friend who's got a new haircut. We just need to understand it's new style and go with it. Remember, it's not about trying harder, it's about showing up smarter. So, suit up (why not?), keep your cool and let's redefine this thing they call prospecting together! What's your go-to prospecting strategy? #SalesStrategy #Prospecting #BusinessDevelopment #LinkedInNetworking

NO ONE RESPONDED! ABSOLUTELY NO ONE! I hear this frustration all the time when it comes to LinkedIn. Let me paint a picture...you find someone who looks like a great prospect. They fit your ICP perfectly. You send them a connection request, but they don't answer. If they do, you drop a little pitch about your offering. THEN they don't respond! So you are kind of stalking them by doing random likes, comments on old posts, and profile views. But the same outcome...no response. Well, there is a better way, and that's what I'm going over in my next masterclass. 1. 5 simple strategies to help you find prospects more likely to buy, increase your response rate and finally start landing appointments even if you've never tried LinkedIn before. 2. How to find the RIGHT prospects for your business who are active on LinkedIn, open to learning, and more likely to buy from you no matter what the economy is like. 3. How to comfortably capitalize on your existing LinkedIn network to land meetings even if you have less than 500 connections and feel your network is not big enough. 4. Be confident in knowing EXACTLY what to say as you reach out to prospects for the first time without feeling salesy or spamming and getting responses from them. 5. The BEST tools and methods to increase ENGAGEMENT --- after this, the statement "I never get engagement on LinkedIn" will be a thing of the past.  6. What to do if you feel like you've tried to build a relationship with prospects, commenting, sharing articles, and basically contacting until you wear them out. If this sounds like something you can benefit from...come through. #linekdin #prospecting #sales https://lnkd.in/ef_4y2fs

Monday PSA for anyone who sells anything: I just read an interesting post from an individual who was ranting about cold outreach. Over the past year this person received 659 cold calls and emails 😱 The part that struck me wasn't the number of cold calls end emails they received (cold outreach is a low-barrier-to-entry sales strategy so I'm never surprised by how ubiquitous it is) but rather their statement that "Non-response is sometimes a response" The operative word here is sometimes. Radio silence could mean many things including and not limited to: - the recipient's inbox is crazy and they missed your outreach - the positioning of your ask didn't speak to them so their brain catalogued the outreach as unimportant or not urgent - they read your email just as they were going into a meeting and forgot to respond - their response is sitting in their drafts folder and they thought they sent it - their days are back to back meetings and they haven't had time to prioritize a response The point here is we never know why someone hasn't responded to our outreach, but to assume it's because they simply aren't interested is convenient...especially if you *hate* doing outreach. Do yourself a favour and do not internalize statements like this. Instead, focus on ways to make your outreach fun and easy. Here are some tips: 🎯 Opt for targeted outreach to warm prospects instead of cold outreach 💡 Research your prospect - reference mutual connections/previous meetings or conversations and lead with a compelling and clear CTA that answers the only question prospects ever care about: What's in it for me? 🚫 Let rejection and or radio silence roll off your back. If you are reaching out to warm prospects in a respectful manner with the intent to serve and support let that be enough. That is enough. If someone has an issue with that you don't need to take that on. If you want help with your targeted direct outreach send me a message. Happy selling! #sales #selling #smallbusiness #entrepreneurs #salestraining #outboundsales #inboundsales

How to squeeze more juice from your LinkedIn connection requests. Approximately 50% of people accept your connection request when it's sent without a personal message. That's assuming you have a professional-looking profile and your target personas spend a decent amount of time here. But what should you do with the rest? Most of the salespeople I know just leave those sent requests dormant. But there's a simple way to withdraw them; 🡆 Click on the 'My Network' icon 🡆 Click on 'Manage' in the pending invitations section 🡆 Switch to the 'sent' tab 🡆 Scroll down to the bottom 🡆 Withdraw any requests older than 3 weeks You won’t be able to resend a new invite to this person for 3 weeks, so schedule a task to do so. Bonus Tip 🎁 Some people are picky over whether or not you send a personal message with a connection request. That's likely going to be a portion of the 50% who didn't expect. So when you send your second attempt, give it a little personalisation. It's what I like to call 'Adaptive Prospecting'. Have a look at your sent requests today, and let me know in the comments how many you have that are 3+ weeks old 👇 #sales #prospecting #linkedin