Personal Branding

The key to social selling success is fishing where the fish are. You might be fishing where the fish are, but you do know what to do when you get a nibble on the line?

Many sales meetings are full of fish tales about the one that got away. These fishing holes are filled with sellers, who did not use social selling techniques.

There are customers willing to engage, or bite on an intelligent insight, but many sales professionals do not understand the social sellings signals. Their missed quotas, management excuses and intrusive and brand-centric emails are partly related to connecting with the customer at the wrong time with the wrong message!

Do you know an under-performing sales person who misunderstands what those ‘nibbles’ look like?

5 Reasons Why It’s Important To Pay Attention To Social Selling Triggers

1. Get on their buyer’s journey radar
2. Nurture a relationship with a prospect, who is not ready to make a decision
3. Sustain your relationship with your customer
4. Accelerate the sales process by adding value with content and insight
5. Develop your reputation

Here’s Some Research To Hook You Into The Decision-Maker

• 84% of C-level/vice president (VP) executives use social media to make purchasing decisions. (Source: IDC)
• Social networks, like LinkedIn, are the #1 influencer in the final stage of the purchase process. (Source: IDC)
• The average B2B buyer, who uses social media for their purchase decision, is senior, has a larger budget and has a greater span of buying control than a decision maker who does not use social media. (Source: IDC)
• B2B buyers find the greatest benefit of social media is gaining greater confidence in and comfort with their decision (Source: IDC)

The big insight from this research is your customers use social media and expect to engage – either with you or your competition!

The big question is, do you know when and how to engage with your network? Do you understand the sales triggers giving you the permission to connect?

Here are the 30 social selling LinkedIn sales triggers to help you identify when to reach out a be a part of the customer conversation.

30 LinkedIn Sales Triggers To Help You Achieve Social Selling Success

1. Your LinkedIn profile is viewed
2. You receive an invitation to ‘LinkIn’
3. Contact accepts your invitation to ‘LinkIn’
4. Contact changes a job
5. Contact gets a promotion
6. Contact has a birthday
7. Contact has a work anniversary
8. Contact is mentioned in the news
9. Contact updates something in their profile – photo, summary, etc.
10. Your LinkedIn blog post is liked
11. Your LinkedIn blog post is shared
12. LinkedIn blog post is commented on
13. Daily update is liked
14. Daily update is shared
15. Daily update is commented on
16. Group post is liked
17. Group post is shared
18. Group post is commented on
19. Group member makes a comment in a group
20. You are endorsed for a skill
21. You are recommended by a contact
22. You have an opportunity to ask for a recommendation from a contact
23. You are invited to join a LinkedIn group
24. A shared group member reaches out to you
25. You receive and InMail
26. A contact’s contact likes a LinkedIn update post
27. A contact’s contact comments on a LinkedIn update post
28. A contact’s contact shares a LinkedIn update post
29. Your contact writes a LinkedIn blog post
30. LinkedIn’s People You May Know feature presents a contact which is connected to someone in your network

Do you have another social selling sales trigger to add? If so, please comment below or reach out to me at MarketingThink.com!

So, do you really understand how to use your expertise and reputation to hook into the buyer’s journey? Customers provide 30 ‘tugs on the fishing line’ on LinkedIn – or, in other words, social selling triggers. Pay attention to them to you know when you can begin to ‘reel in the fish!’

Oh, now the next thing you need to figure out is how to respond to every sales trigger!

P.S. Your Next Steps! I am the author of MarketingThink.com, a social media and social selling coaching blog. Please sign up for email delivery of my posts and pass this sign-up link to your friends and co-workers, who you think might benefit from reading these ideas.

P.P.S. If you want to get hold of me directly, please send me an email to moran.gerry@gmail.com or contact me directly on MarketingThink.com. I read every email.

If LinkedIn was like Tinder, would your customers swipe left or swipe right?

I know a few Millennials, and scarily a few Gen X friends, who use Tinder to, well, hook up. If you don’t have a great pic, then you are immediately ‘eliminated.’ Sort of voted off the relationship island before you ever washed ashore.

 

Your picture is the first step to moving toward ‘hooking up’ with your customers and prospects.

If they swipe left, then you’d be left in the dark and your chances to connect with them and their network would end right there.

If they swipe right, then you are headed in the right direction with your relationship – as a thought leader, subject matter expert, or as a sales person!

The Research Tells Us A LinkedIn Profile Picture Can Open Many Doors

• Profiles with pictures generate 11X more views than those profiles without a photo. We know it’s a numbers game, so the more people who look at your profile, then the greater chance you have at connecting! (Source: LinkedIn)

• LinkedIn profile photos with smiles or laughs get the most views, love, and attention. (Source: PhotoFeeler)

• Who’s Viewed Your Profile remains the #1 feature for the second year running with 76% of respondents picking it as a favorite feature. (Source: Forbes)

This research paints the picture that you need to have a great LinkedIn profile picture to make a connection with your customers! Without a photo, you are not part of the billion annual LinkedIn searches. If you have an atrocious photo, you will win a place on my LinkedIn profile photo Wall of Shame. And, those who have seen my personal branding workshops know the only thing that honor generates is laughs!

3 Things You Can Do To Get Your Customers To Swipe Right!

1. Take A New Picture Every Year. Connect your network to your freshest face every year! And, make sure to laugh or smile in your photo!

2. Take a professional-like photo. If you cannot secure a professional headshot, then enlist a friend to use an SLR or high-quality smartphone to snap 100 photos, so you can choose the best one.

3. Run your photo by 5 people in your network. Forget about asking your Mom or brother what they think. Ask someone in your network what they think of your smiling face in your new photo. This request will get the best and most authentic view of you.

The Big Picture Lesson When It Comes To Your LinkedIn Profile Picture

The bottom line is that you need an excellent picture to succeed on Tinder or LinkedIn! Focus on taking the best one so you can get the most action! That’s it.

P.S. Your Next Steps! I am the author of MarketingThink.com, a social media and social selling coaching blog. Please sign up for email delivery of my posts and pass this sign-up link to your friends and co-workers, who you think might benefit from reading these ideas.

P.P.S. If you want to get hold of me directly, please send me an email to moran.gerry@gmail.com or contact me directly on MarketingThink.com. I read every email.

P.P.P.S. Thanks to Kyle Tuverson (@ktuverson) who suggested this blog post’s idea.

Are you in touch with your LinkedIn personal branding strategy?

My great grandmother used to tell me, “Gerry Moran, you need to take advantage of every LinkedIn opportunity to reach out and touch your contacts. Build and nurture solid relationships by paying attention to the relationship triggers, authentically messaging and paying attention to the little things.”

 

These B2B relationship-building tools and touchpoints are at your fingertips in your LinkedIn account. You just have to understand how to participate actively!

LinkedIn gives us the opportunity to combine good connections and good ‘manners’ to increase your relationship currency.

You can be in control of your perception and enhance the value of your relationship currency on LinkedIn by doing these little things.

8 Nice Touches To Make With Your LinkedIn Strategy

1. People Who Know People Are The Luckiest People In The World. Sharing your interests and needs, whether you are a marketer or sales person, with your network will increase your chances of connecting with their network. Many of my posts shared by my contacts reach people who are not in my direct line of networking site – but they will be soon.

2. Customized Invitations. My great-grandmother would never have sent out an invitation without a personalized message. As old-school sending personalized invitations might sound, it goes a long way in making an impact on the early stages of a relationship. It’s a great way to make a solid first impression – especially since about 95% of Linkedin invitations come with a default message.

3. It Takes Two To Play Tag. Tag you are it! The responsibility of conversation and relationship-buillding with social interation lies with the last person touched. Benefit from this relationship sustaining strategy by sending a customized note including invitations links to your blogs, reading content, etc.

4. Get Outside Your Comfort Zone. Connecting with 2nd and- and 3rd-level contacts is an excellent way to build a larger network resembling your current network. Introduce yourself to 2nd- and 3rd-level contacts, referencing the 1st-level contact you have in common. Ask a smart question or share so content you think they might find helpful based on what you know from your relevant contact. It’s human nature that people like to help, so put yourself in the position to be helped!

5. Contribute To The Greater Good Of The Community. Birds of a feather flock together. Add insight and valuable conversation to 2-3 LinkedIn groups to meet new connections and sustain relationships. Join groups where your target audience hangs out, answering questions and contacting people who have issues with which you can help.

6. Pay Attention To Who’s Checking You Out! Someone who checked you out must be interested in you, right? You need a quick and relevant response to help spark what might be the beginning of a relationship. Have 2-3 ready-to-send responses customized for each type of opportunity.

7. Pay Attention To Current Relationships. People love and need to be acknowledged for their birthday, work anniversary, press mention or any other business-related event. Take the time to use the Stay In Touch feature (in the Connections drop-down menu). Congratulate 1st-level contacts who have updated their profiles – especially if they’ve changed jobs and/or companies – to learn about new opportunities for doing business together.

8. Add Value Every Day To Your Relationship. Move from spammy me-centric messaging to relationship-building and value-add content. Sharing meaningful content with your network encourages them to share with their network, so you continually have the opportunity to meet new people.

Do you have a nuance or a nice touch you use to be successful with your relationship building on LinkedIn? If so, please share below. Or, contact me directly on MarketingThink.com or LinkedIn and start building our relationship! I can also be reached on Twitter and Google+.

As my great-grandmother always said – “it’s the little things that count up to the right relationships and big sales results.”

“Hello, can you tell me who the decision-maker is for enterprise software decisions?” Sound familiar – whether you are making or receiving a call? Now that sounds like searching for a needle in the proverbial LinkedIn haystack.

Is that effective prospecting or cold calling? Does effective prospecting mean conducting a broad search on LinkedIn and using that list to make cold phone calls? No!

A Case For Social Selling – Cold Calling Facts

• 200 million Americans have registered their number on the FTC do not call list.
• Doesn’t work 90.9% of the time, reports Harvard Business Review
• Costs at least 62% more per lead, states HubSpot, The State of Inbound Marketing
• Cold calling has a rate of less than 2% of phone calls resulting in a meeting, states Leap Job
• 88% of buyers will have nothing to do with cold callers, finds Huthwaite
• 94% of buyers couldn’t remember a single prospector or message they had received during the last two years, reports Huthwaite

Use Advanced LinkedIn Search Features To Increase Social Selling Productivity

If you understand how keyword modifiers for Google searches and HootSuite listening work, then you will understand the power of these terms for LinkedIn. Keyword modifiers and Boolean terms make your searches work a little bit harder – not by changing the keywords, but by filtering what’s included or not included. Think about the question you want to answer before diving right into a Boolean search – and you will be much more productive.

5 Strategic Ways To Use LinkedIn Advance Search

Begin your search simply entering keywords into the search field at the top of any page or in any search field in the Advanced Search section. You can use search strings for better results. Before you enter these terms into the search field, ask yourself the following questions and then use the relevant Boolean terms.

TIP: Any one of the following searches will help you recruit for local events. However, because you find a key contact does not mean you should send them an immediate InMail. Engage with them first on LinkedIn, Twitter and on their blog, and then recruit. InMail SPAM is worse than email SPAM – so avoid it at all costs.

1. “Am I searching for a relevant customer based on two or more descriptive terms or words – e.g., public sector AND HR?” If so, the AND modifier will tie these two word together and provide you with a tighter set of search results.

TIP: “+” can be used interchangeably with AND.

2. “Am I looking for customers with 1 of 2 differentiating characteristics or types of experience – e.g., CFO OR CIO OR CMO?” If so, then the OR modifier will help you search for anyone of a specific set of terms, which is crucial to help your access to the buying team within a target account.

TIP: Save up to 3 people searches using Linkedin’s standard service – you will have 10 saved searches if you are a Navigator user.

3. “Do I know the type of customer for whom I’m prospecting, while at the same time knowing for whom I am not searching – e.g., (software AND Marketing) NOT SAP?’ If so, then the NOT modifier enables you to weed out the superfluous search results automatically. This strategy will increase your selling efficiency!

TIP:  Think ‘niche’ when it comes to search. The smaller and more accurate your prospect list is, the better.

4. “Is there an exact phrase that my prospect set uses to help me quickly assess their viability – ‘Head Of Social Media,’ for example?” If so, then the QUOTES modifier enables you to look for an exact phrase or buzzword in the title, summary, job description, etc. to help you increase your sales productivity.

TIP: Think like a customer, thought leader or person and how they would describe themselves vs. what you think they are calling themselves.

5. “Do I have a very complex requirement that needs to consider, for example, location, target market, and industry – e.g., ( “marketing directors” OR “VP of Marketing”) AND Philadelphia AND ( software OR “information technology”) AND HR?” If so, then PARENTHETICAL modifiers will help you combine search terms and multiple modifiers to provide very focused results, which will save you prospecting time.

TIP: I recommend using a combination of Google, HootSuite, Twitter and LinkedIn search to get a 360-degree view of your customer’s social and reputation graph.

Do you have another tip, strategic question or a way to search for your needle in the social selling haystack? If so, then please share below, or contact me directly at MarketingThink.com, or on LinkedIn, Twitter or Google+.

With over 300 million people using LinkedIn, every one of them cannot be your prospect. The task to find which ones are are daunting. A better understanding of how to use the LinkedIn Advance Search feature will come in handy – kind of the MacGyver tool for prospecting – to help you find your one in 300 million customers in the LinkedIn haystack of members.

My great-grandmother Michelena used to say “If you are going to have people over to your house for a party, then make sure you know who are the most popular, who you need to get to know better, and who can help you. If you are handing out cake, you want to make sure your most influential guests get a piece!”

Her advice can help you understand how to use social currency to plan accordingly – investment, influencer planning, sales focus, and content creation to name a few.

Do you know whose social currency is worth the most in your network? If you knew whose brand was hot, what would you do to leverage it?

LinkedIn launched a new feature called Most-viewed Connections – a rank-ordered list of your connections based on the amount of times their profiles have been viewed. The link to this feature is located just under the “Who’s Viewed Your Profile” link. Click it and you have a rank-ordered list of your contacts, by profile views, as well as all contacts in your current company.

How To Use LinkedIn’s Most-Viewed Connections Feature For Your Personal Branding Strategy

1. Who are your network influencers? We all say that we dislike Klout scores and other numbers that rank us. But, as my great grandmother Michelena also said, “It is what it is.” In today’s personal branding terms, this means that if you have contacts in your LinkedIn network who are viewed a lot, then get you should get closer to them and leverage their influence. If they are getting checked out, then them must be influential, right.

2. What contacts should you spend time connecting with on other social channels? Believe it or not, your personal brand and your social selling hub extends beyond LinkedIn. If not, then you should start building an even deeper relationship with this group on Twitter, Google+, SlideShare, YouTube and blogs.

3. Is it time to polish up your, or your team’s, LinkedIn profile? My great grandmother would NEVER invite anyone to her house if it were not in pristine condition. If people are viewing you through the windows of your personal brand’s home, LinkedIn, then it better be in great shape. Otherwise, you can damage your story. Or, your underwhelming presence could cause a customer to move on to the next person in their network. Use this new LinkedIn Most-viewed Connections tool to inspire you to make changes in your profile to increase views.

4. Do you need some personal branding therapy to understand why no one is viewing you? People don’t view your LinkedIn account because of the word the street is that you have a complete profile with your smiling face. The social media profile is new calling card, but content is the new networking tool. If your profile is not getting viewed, then it’s because you are not regularly networking with content and engaging with your community and LinkedIn groups. Once they find you, then you need to make sure you have a complete profile with your smiling face displayed!

5. Who at your company can you tap to tell the company story? If you are looking for internal thought leaders to help tell your product or company story, then this LinkedIn feature is the one to use to find the ‘hot personnel property.’ Spend some time viewing your company’s top 25 most-viewed social assets and leverage them with your speaking, blogging and video strategy.

There must be more ways to use this LinkedIn feature. If you know of a way, please share it below. Or, reach out to me directly at MarketingThink.com, on LinkedIn, on Google+ or on Twitter.

Every feature of every new and old social media platform should be innovatively and strategically considered as part of your social branding, social business or social selling strategy. It’s like my great-grandmother used to say when making golumpki” you need to figure out how to use every ingredient creatively. Even those pig ears.” Well, I am not sure how many pig ears she stuck into her golumpkis, but it taught me a lesson to look at every feature and tool to understand how I can use it to my advantage. I hope you picked up a tip or two.