I so love LinkedIn! This amazing business networking site boasts an impressive 65M+ user base and climbing. Roughly 65% of LinkedIn’s users are tagged as key decision makers, which is sales code for…they can buy from you! That, in and of itself, is a HUGE reason for you to use LinkedIn as a sales relationship tool that becomes a part of your natural sales/networking process. Decision makers, with money to spend, are using LinkedIn to check out your capabilities (and that of your competitor), polling colleagues for recommendations and doing research into what is available. They are talking about their like’s, dislike’s and sharing their current business frustrations and challenges. Are you listening? For sales people, LinkedIn should be the #1 place they go to prepare for their sales meeting. The amount of real-time information to be leveraged is…well…just plain staggering.

Speaking of leveraging conversation and information…I want to tell you about a really great question that was posed recently by Dana Detrick-Clark in one of my LinkedIn groups. She’s curious about the approach that others are taking in determining their blogging voice. And because the question is so applicable to “What approach do I take/voice do I use when answering group questions in a social community?”, I wanted to share Dana’s question and a part of my response.

Dana asks…Which is more important in a blog: speaking to a particular kind of reader, or speaking in your own ‘voice’? I’m curious as to what other business owners prefer, especially in business and/or marketing related blogs. Do you like the more journalistic approach, where you get “just the facts” for the information you’re after, or would you rather read a blog that’s more personal (even if that means at times it can be irreverent or reveal more personally about the author than what you normally find in a biz blog)?

Here was a portion of my answer…

You asked a great question that comes up a lot with clients. How much is too much information? Of course, like all such questions, the answer invariably is “it depends”.:)

Given that I own my business, I have more latitude with the approach I choose to take. So to be fair, I have a little more freedom when it comes to the information that I share in my blog posts. Each company has to decide what supports their core values and customer loyalty statement. But I urge companies to move away from their fear of “what could happen if someone says the wrong thing” and embrace the opportunity for building brand loyalty through media like blogs. There are a number of great stories about how companies were humanized in the eyes of their buyers and all because they “got real” on a blog. Sure, guidelines need to be established so that people know what’s cool and what isn’t (had to do it with email, remember?). From there, give employees training and then hold them accountable to be responsible when having conversations in the social space.

So what’s your take? Real in the blogosphere or not?

LinkedIn has made the Company section more robust. It is now even easier to research companies and keep up with the people changes happening with those companies.

The Improvement

You can now “follow” companies. Okay, STOP right there! Before you close your mind to it, because images of nonsensical conversation on Twitter just popped into your head, please hear me when I say that “the concept” is similar, but definitely different. This is the kind of follow that you want to engage in, because…

Sales Benefit

You will hear about key developments such as who’s joined, left or been promoted at the companies you follow, business opportunities and job openings. This moves your ability to research target companies you want to work with to another level.

Once you elect to follow a company… when you log into the Company Home Page on LinkedIn, you will see a list of updates for the companies that you follow. You will also see a “company updates” section now showing up on your LinkedIn Home Page.

This is so much easier than tracking the individual movements of people within in a company. LinkedIn aggregates the list of changes for you. You can easily scan the list to keep up with what’s changed. Here’s a quick screen shot of the company I set up to follow today to check out how this works.

How To

Find Companies under the “More” menu. Click on Companies. Search companies you want to track. Once you’ve pulled up their company page…look to the upper right and click on “follow company”. Scan the updates once a day or once a week.

Definitely check it out! Share your success stories.

Like any other major change initiative, you must present a strong argument for the value and benefits to the organization. Social media is a new way of thinking and it is still being met with resistance. So, there is still evangelism and education to be done.

To secure management buy-in, I think it is very important to forget all the techno speak…present the business case for WHY developing/executing a social strategy is a critical business imperative. It’s important to focus on the number’s, the sales potential, how social selling shrinks the sales cycle and can be used to increase customer loyalty. Talk about how your sales people can use new media to differentiate the products and services they are selling. And, of course,  point out that you can use these tools to gain competitive advantage. In other words, don’t lead with the technology. Before you jump on Twitter, you need to know why you are there.

Start with a clear vision, purpose and plan…then align the technology to your strategic objectives. Focus on measuring your results and build on them. Keep in mind that engaging everyone on your sales team will take time and needs to begin with active involvement from senior leadership. If management is asking their sales reps to use LinkedIn – they need to be acting participating themselves. Leaders model the way for their people!

This is another fundamental shift in how we approach the sales process. Don’t be fooled by the “quick fix” promises of thousands of followers over night. Numbers matter little if the followers aren’t your target customers. Integrating the right social tools will require much more than a few LinkedIn classes. Well…only if you want your financial investment to make a real difference.

“The ability to reorder the sections on your profile is just the first of a huge number of enhancements that are coming to your LinkedIn profile in the upcoming months”, says Aaron Bronzan on the LinkedIn Blog.

I played around with the ability to move sections of my LinkedIn profile and it seemed pretty easy to customize your profile to suit your needs. That being said, I did notice that moving things around goofed up my Twitter feed, which then took me a couple of tries to get it back working again. Experiment with the changes…it definitely gives you the ability to personalize your brand.

Yesterday, Dawn Gartin, a colleague in my LinkedIn network, posed a great question asking what people thought their profile picture did or didn’t do for them. I love the question, because it comes up in every social sales training that I deliver. Some will debate that the picture doesn’t matter or argue that it could create bias in advance. To the first point…well, yes, I feel strongly that your picture does matter, as you’ll see in my response below. As for bias…when you choose not to post a picture that can create a bias in someone’s mind also. Are you hiding something they might be asking themselves. But the way I see it, you are going to meet them at some point anyway, right? Why not let them know who you are right up front? I suspect that often the concern is that you don’t have a great photo to use. That I understand. And it’s worth having a professional take a head shot for you, if you feel unable to tackle it on your own.

Here’s my response to Dawn’s question…

I currently use the same photo to maintain consistency across LinkedIn, Plaxo, Twitter, Blog, Facebook, etc. My business focus is on executives and sales professionals, so I use a professional picture and feel strongly about the importance of doing so to support my brand message and target audience. As sales professionals, it is important to remember that your picture helps people connect with you. They feel they are getting to know you…something about pictures and voice that draws people in. That’s why using video is so compelling.

It’s About Your Brand

Combine your picture with active online participation and you gain important visibility. Crucial to success in this new social world is being seen. You have to put the effort into participating so that when you buyer is ready – they think of you! OK, so back to my colleague, Dawn…if you happen to be in Atlanta, you might be interested in the networking “meet up” she’s got going on Thursday, January 21. You can find the details here. What I think is cool is that you can get a professional headshot taken at the event that you can then use on your social profiles. Do it! The price…incredibly inexpensive at $35.00. Again, find the details here.

BTW – having a current picture on your profiles also means that when you do “meet up” with prospective buyers or partners in person…you both already know what you each look like:)

A series of recent events has me thinking about how “stuck” people seem to be in their approaches to situations of all kinds. As human beings, I suppose its part of our hard wiring to resist change, even when presented with information suggesting we move in another direction would be wise. Reminds me of the movie – Groundhog Day. Bill Murray portrays Phil Connors an egotistical TV weatherman faced with living one day in his life over and over again. Connors is presented with the rare opportunity to take a different path when faced with the same circumstances. It is a clever film about do over’s and the challenges of changing our ways.

That brings me to the topic of sales.

Personally, I think it is about time for a serious shake up in traditional thinking about the sales process. Business is anything but traditional these days. Sales must adapt.

Some 78% of buyers consistently say that they go to the web to do research on something they plan to purchase according to Anderson Analytics.

Buying behavior has changed. These buyers are not interested in meeting with you personally to learn about your products and services. They can research you more quickly online. Further, they have more faith in the feedback from the social community than they do from vendors and advertisers who are clearly biased in their opinion of their capabilities. You can’t blame them.

Sales behavior and the approach to the sales process need to adapt to attract this new breed of buyer. A social sales strategy is required.

This statement usually draws some strong reactions from those sales professionals locked into their own methodology. They firmly, but politely reject the idea that using tools like LinkedIn to generate sales works. To them networking in a virtual world doesn’t have the same oomph as meeting people face to face. What they miss is that you do not need to ditch the tried and true, but it does mean that the effective use of social systems to create sales relationships must now be integrated into the sales process.

You won’t make money overnight!

Another area of resistance that often surfaces is an attitude that if it doesn’t make you money overnight then there can’t be much to it. Such an odd attitude really, because seasoned sales professionals know that it takes time to build a book of business. Starting a corporate sales job today would not mean I’d close a sale the next day. You get to know the customer base, you plan your introduction strategy, make calls and set appointments to meet with core clients…all of these tasks and more go into kicking off a new sales relationship. So like the building of a new sales territory, your investment in moving to a social selling approach will take time and patience.

Back to Groundhog Day…

Murray’s character has the opportunity to relive one pivotal day in his life…over and over again. The idea is that he learns from mistakes made in the prior 24 hours, which hopefully means better decisions and choices moving forward.

Given the choice, what about you?

Will you reboot your sales system and start with a fresh eye? Or, will you chose to remain caught in an endless cycle of doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different sales result?

Think again…this is a revolution that continues to grow.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIFYPQjYhv8

www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqgvcwvgXLs

www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqgvcwvgXLs

I don’t know about you, but I feel like the societal pendulum has swung so far over to the me, me, me side of the spectrum that I wonder if it will ever swing back. Whatever happened to “give to receive”? Is it really that hard to make the time to extend a helping hand to someone else without expecting anything in return? For a large number of people out there, I guess it is.

I’m a big fan of Bob Littel who wrote a great book called The Heart and Art of Netweaving. The essence of the book is all about connecting others knowing that what goes around comes back around. Throughout my entire professional career, which included running sales teams in the technology sector, I’ve always taken this approach. Bob just gave it a wonderful name to differentiate the approach from traditional networking. The netweaving philosophy, I believe fits the essence of social networking perfectly. Unfortunately, there are legions of folks out there who just don’t get it. Here are a few recent examples:

• I followed a number of people on Twitter yesterday, although with a few of them I am now reconsidering…anywho…out of the 11 direct message responses, 8 of them were sales pitches. I hate that! Get to know me will you before telling me how you can help me make thousands a day selling products online.
• I asked a LinkedIn question about why so many people blatantly ignore community guidelines and hawk their wares in the discussion area anyway, which is supposed to be for discussing ideas and helping others NOT to push your latest tele-seminar. One respondent got pretty ticked off at the question. According to him, that is taking an elitist view, because after all – that’s what LinkedIn is for…selling.
• I received a business launch announcement in my email inbox from people that I do not know. It was the standard pitch with nothing really compelling about it. The kicker…they wanted you to visit their “community page” and when I did (because I was curious) I discovered that the page was still under construction. Big no no! First impressions count and this company scored 2 strikes against them right out of the box. I can think of no reason why I would buy from them.

What’s up? What’s behind the selfishly motivated behavior that seems to be pervasive? I can’t figure out if it’s desperation, impatience, cluelessness or insecurity. Maybe it is all of them. Investing time to help others first to get what they need goes a long way toward building your own reputation and brand. It means you must genuinely care about supporting the success of others knowing that your success naturally follows.

If you have something to sell – everyone does! – whether it’s trying to land a new contract, sell your book, secure a new job, get the kids to take out the trash, raise money for your charity or earn that big promotion – we all sell! When you come from a place of giving to others first, you will be rewarded many times over. It just may not be right this second!

To the folks who lack the patience or willingness to build trust and relationships with others…you’ll be rewarded too. Probably not the reward you had in mind though.

By the way, that’s Cody in the picture. Cody needed a helping hand. His previous owner was evicted from their apartment and abandoned him in the complex leaving him to fend for himself. Whatever the reason, I can’t comprehend the kind of person who could do this sort of thing, but I’m grateful that Cody landed at our vet’s office. It’s a big commitment taking on another doggie, especially a 6-month old Siberian Husky, but he needed the help. I’m glad we could give it! Cody has joined brothers Shorty and Murphy and though the household is in a complete state of disarray, I’m thrilled to have Cody here.

Take a minute to look around to see where you can lend a helping hand! It could be connecting a colleague to a new business opportunity, supporting a charity bake sale or rescuing a puppy from a life threatening situation. Go on – extend your hand! The return on your investment will pay you huge dividends in the end.