How do you get going with your social selling activities on LinkedIn?
Whether you’re doing business development for a staffing agency, selling yourself to your next employer or looking for sponsors for an event there’s no denying LinkedIn is the place to start.
Our friends at LinkedIn Sales Solutions (the good people that bring you the Sales Navigator) have devised a 6-step action plan to social selling success:
1. Set up your foundation
- Your LinkedIn profile is not your resume, it’s your personal brand. Use it to demonstrate the value you bring to your clients.
- 49% of buyers research vendors through their LinkedIn profile and 50% of clients will avoid producers with incomplete.
- Get more LinkedIn profile tips at How to Optimise Your LinkedIn Profile for Social Selling.
2. Build your network
- Three-fourths of B2B buyers now use social media to research purchasing decisions, with twice as many using LinkedIn as any other social network.
- 92% of B2B buyers will engage with sellers who are known industry thought leaders.
- 65% of buyers said the winning vendor’s content had an impact on their purchasing decision.
3. Find the right people
- Use the advanced people search tool on LinkedIn to find professionals within your target market.
- Newly hired decision makers are up to 10 times more likely to make a purchase than established ones.
- Sales reps focused on new business who exceed targets make 148% more connection requests each month than other sales reps.
4. Engage prospects with insights
- 64% of B2B buyers report that they appreciate hearing from a sales person who provides knowledge or insight about their business.
- Sellers who reach out to prospects with relevant insights about heir business are nearly five times more likely to get a response than sellers who reach out cold.
5. Build strong relationships
- Sales reps who exceed their targets engage on LinkedIn with their prospects 39% more than other sales professionals.
- It’s up to you to grab the attention of a prospect and start a relationship; ask yourself what kind of content they would share and even publish?
6. Measure and optimise
- Top sellers on LinkedIn can increase their sales opportunities by up to 45% and are more likely to hit their quotas than other sales professionals.
RELATED: How to Master Social Selling with Tim Hughes of Oracle UK
