In the words of writer and thought leader Dave Frankland, today’s customers are entitled. And since we are all consumers, we are all entitled – which is not necessarily a bad thing.

Frankland’s book The Entitled Customer tells the story of the modern-day consumer. With technology at our fingertips, we are more informed than ever before. And we crave information – hard data, genuine reviews, and so on.

What’s more, our exposure to information is, for the most part, curated. We use ad blockers and spam filters to tune out the noise from the never-ending stream of ads. We choose who we follow – and unfollow.

The Entitled Customer got me thinking: how can we, as business owners, marketers, executives, and employees, meet today’s consumers’ expectations without assaulting their senses? And how can we leverage the social listening power of LinkedIn to achieve just that?

Is less really more?

A few months ago, LinkedIn launched a feature that let you see how often your connections publish posts. It was likely designed to use the time-tested power of peer-to-peer competition to get us to post more often. And besides, who doesn’t love a good snooping tool?

Out of curiosity, I had a look (you can too, here). To my surprise, I discovered that some people were creating 80 pieces of content a week!

While it must be noted that this calculation includes Stories as well as other forms of content, to me, this seems excessive. Publishing content on LinkedIn is about providing value to your network in a way that positions you as an industry authority. Surely, no person has 80-plus interesting, informative, original thoughts to share each week. Certainly, no person has the time to carefully consider and compose high-quality copy that speaks to their target audience’s pain points.

Less is more – and that’s not just a hunch. According to Frankland’s book, during GDPR in the UK, many companies put their marketing on hold and slimmed their mailing lists to comply with the new privacy act. As a result, sales went up.

Here’s how you can put this mantra into practice on LinkedIn:

Quality over quantity – always

Posting content on LinkedIn is key to unlocking the platform’s full potential, but like most things in life, quality trumps quantity every time. As a general rule, aim for three posts per week. If you can only manage one or two, that’s fine, too.

Add value

Your posts should contribute something of value – your take on an industry trend, your top three tips, or a how-to, as examples. Don’t just post for the sake of posting; instead, be generous with your expertise. No one ever loses out by being helpful.

Don’t spam people’s inboxes

Think of LinkedIn as a town square. If you’re going to wave billboards in people’s faces, they will not respond positively. But if you build relationships and engage in meaningful conversation, your time, effort, and kindness will repay dividends. Only message people privately with a podcast link, article or insight you genuinely believe they will find interesting. Unless solicited, don’t go in for the hard sell.

Creating bespoke experiences

If less is more, how can we make what remains impactful enough to nurture relationships, drive new sales, and hold onto loyal customers? The answer could lie in creating bespoke experiences.

Here are three stats to get you thinking:

• Eight in 10 consumers are more likely to purchase from brands that create personalised experiences.
• Seven in 10 consumers say they exclusively engage with personalised messaging.
• Brands that create personalised experiences see revenue increase by 6 to 10%.

How can you create bespoke experiences for your customers here on LinkedIn? How can you win them back day in and day out?

Here’s my advice:

Write for your target audience

In case you weren’t already aware, you are not your customer. What you might find interesting or helpful may not align with what your customers want to read. Imagine you’re face-to-face with a client. What questions do they have? What are they worried about? How do you make them feel heard and understood? Mirror this in your posts, and the authenticity will shine through. Guaranteed.

Reply to comments on your own posts

I recently saw someone on LinkedIn draw a parallel between not responding to comments on your own posts and not working the room at your own party. Engage with the people who take time out of their day to add their two cents – remember, relationships are built one sentence at a time.

Flatten the path to purchase

Bespoke experiences answer customer questions before they can even ask. Consider what you can do to flatten the path to purchase. A big one: include your contact information in the (tricky to find) Contact Info section and your About section. Don’t make it difficult for a profile visitor to reach out – make it so easy it’s almost irresistible.

Relationships matter – a lot

Ever met someone for the second or third time only to be greeted with a blank look? They don’t remember who you are, because the two, three, four conversations you’ve had failed to add value to them.

That’s one extreme. The other is catching up with an old friend. I live in Sydney, but my childhood friends are scattered across the country and world. When we talk, it’s like no time has passed. They know me, and they understand the context of what I’m saying. They can fill in the blanks with ease.

You don’t want to be the me, me, me person on LinkedIn. Greed isn’t good, and you should not be looking to spam or one-up every person you interact with. You want to listen actively and grasp the bigger picture of your target audience’s wants, needs, and challenges. It takes time and effort to truly listen, and shortcuts don’t work.

You can’t and shouldn’t automate relationships on LinkedIn. Not only is it against their user terms, but it’s also a sure-fire way to be ignored. Instead, create meaningful touchpoints that feel personal:

• Comment on people’s posts
• Personalise your invitations to connect
• Share podcast episodes, relevant posts and articles with your contacts
• Use voice messages

Little actions build big reactions. In an era of hybrid events and less face-to-face interaction, authentic digital connection has never mattered more.

Let’s get personal for a minute

My dad died in late 2019. It put things in perspective. People are everything, and relationships are not to be undervalued. In 2020, I vowed to do better, be better for my clients, to keep in touch and personalise my service. But I was in the lucky group that benefited from the shift to online in the wake of the pandemic. Busier than ever, I couldn’t fit one more thing into my schedule.

As we pass the mid-point of 2021, I’m reviewing my new years resolutions and realising that my resolution has slipped a bit. I am back to actively split-testing what I do, managing my time so that I can focus on quality, not quantity.

Because for me, less is more.

The post Why Less On LinkedIn Is So Much More appeared first on Head Of Sales.

Our newly hybrid world and the massive adoption of LinkedIn presents a greater opportunity to cast your net wider and network online. Why? Because that’s where we are all spending the majority of our time.

Without peers sitting behind us, less rushing from here to there for meetings and reduced travel, decision-makers are more accessible and more open to communication. Periods of social isolation has been tough and we are all yearning for connection and collaboration.

How can you improve your online presence to bolster your networking efforts? By giving your LinkedIn profile an overhaul!

Before we start though, click on the edit pencil in whatever section you are working on, scroll to the bottom and ensure that the slide bar is set to ‘Off’.

Check this setting every time you save changes, noting that notifications are very good announcements if you have changed roles, been promoted, recently completed an MBA or some other significant studies.

(1) Headline

Aside from your name and picture, your Professional Headline is the only part of your profile that is instantly visible in LinkedIn search results. It also follows you everywhere on LinkedIn, when people find you in searches, when you comment, in companies and on the top of your posts. This is why you have to use these 220 characters to grab people’s interest, so they’ll want to click on your profile.

Your headline should sum up who you are and the problems you solve, but there’s no need for it to be bland. Most users (approximately 70%) simply have their name and company here, as this is what LinkedIn defaults to. However, you’ll stand out from the crowd by being a bit more creative with your headline.

Firstly, it’s important to think about keywords. Just like Google, LinkedIn uses keywords to determine how highly your profile will rank in search results, so you need to be thinking about the keywords that are most relevant to what you do. Try to put yourself in the mindset of your ideal client or prospective employer – what search terms would they use if they were searching for someone to solve their pain?

Once you’ve established the most relevant keywords to use, you can start thinking of more creative ways to put them together, such as giving yourself a catchy slogan. Think of yourself as a brand and consider how do you want to sell yourself?

As LinkedIn is highly visual with almost everyone having a background banner these days, you should consider making your profile more graphically appealing and memorable by separating your keywords with emojis rather than just writing them as a list.

Pipes are okay – but having been abandoned by LinkedIn and other sites a few years ago, they may look old school…

(2) Background banner

Your background banner has a lot of prominence on your profile so if you have not yet replaced the LinkedIn default blue background, you’re not going to stand out and you will not get noticed.

The image you choose should depend on what you want your LinkedIn profile to achieve. If you want your employees to increase the company’s brand reach, offer each employee the option to upload an image that has a company logo – as all the best companies do.

If your employer has not yet provided a background banner, the image you use should reflect your value proposition. If you’re promoting services or products, it’s a good idea to reduce barriers by including contact details in the image – if this doesn’t make it too cluttered. Tag lines or a description of what the company does is also helpful in converting your audience to buying customers.

Do not have a beach scene or something that infers you wish to be on holiday! LinkedIn is a professional platform and accordingly, your banner needs to further your professional goals.

(3) About section

Your About section really needs to start as strong as possible, as only the first 270 characters are visible on desktop before the person viewing your profile has to click on “See More”. Of course people only click when they are interested, so you must ensure your first 270 characters form a hook, and make a real impact. A great way to do this is to start with a question, or an intriguing statement.

If your initial sentence or two are interesting enough, you should be expecting users to click on “See More”. This is why it’s important to have something extra to offer those who do. You should then explain not just what you do, but why you do it.

With a total of 2600 characters (approx 360 words), it’s vital that your About section contains information about the value you can offer clients or prospective employers, that your competition can’t. State clearly how you can make their lives easier, for example, by explaining how you solve problems using your particular skills and experience.

Employers are always looking to recruit new employees whose values align with those of their business, and similarly clients want to know that you are genuinely committed to solving their problems. It’s important to let readers know your why, what makes you tick, and what made you choose your particular field – because we all connect more easily with people who care about the same things as us.

Crucially, be authentic and reflect who you are in a realistic way, rather than simply aiming to please the people you’re hoping to attract. By being yourself and highlighting your skills and interests to your best advantage – you will attract people you truly want to work with.

Never use third-person perspective (referring to yourself by name), and instead use I and You to give readers the sensation that you are speaking to them directly. It will appear aloof and distant to talk about yourself as if you are not yourself. If you are not convinced that you should use I and you then check out this 1.22 minute video on how our language needs to match current trends in leadership style…

(4) Skills endorsements and recommendations

Your Skills section is all about proving that you have the know-how to do the work you do. It also appears to feed the ranking when someone searches for your skills, so as much as it pains me to say this, more is currently better… Just be careful you don’t dilute your number of endorsements by mentioning similar skills twice (Eg Management and Leadership).

Keeping in mind that only three of your skills are immediately visible on your profile, it’s important to make sure those skills are the ones that best align with your goals and describe strengths that are most relevant to the job/client/industry you are pursing. You can reorder your skills by unpinning, clicking and dragging on the four lines on the right of each skill as pictured and shown in the video here and pictured below.

You must have your skills endorsed by others if you want people to feel they can trust you. Try pushing yourself out of your comfort zone and casually ask for endorsements every time somebody praises your work. You don’t have to be pushy, as people are often grateful to have a way to help – if you approach them in a friendly and low-pressure way.

Similarly, don’t be shy. If you are looking for a new role, and you know your peers are too, consider asking (gently) if you can write each other a recommendation, being specific in what you would like mentioned.

Personally, I find that giving recommendations feels good. If you are a leader in an organisation, consider normalising both recommendations and endorsements by monthly reflecting on the performance of individual team members and endorsing their skills, writing recommendations for specific projects and accomplishments. Why should you do this? Because these days, few people care about acknowledgements unless the whole world sees it… Take comfort that you can always delete recommendations at a later date if the employee does something terrible.

Concerned that your employees will leave if you endorse them? That is like the cartoon below…

Recommendations and skills endorsements demonstrate trust and foster employee loyalty and commitment in a way that few reward and recognition programs can achieve. All at no cost. Plus, a higher number of endorsements and recommendations will lift clients perception of the quality and talents of your team members – growing sales conversions.

(5) Experience section

Don’t ever cut and paste your resume to your LinkedIn profile, instead stop and consider again your LinkedIn objective. If your goal is to attract more clients, it will look weird for your profile to read as a resume – and certainly few clients will want to hear about your successes in sales. Instead clients want to hear that you are skilled in solving their problems.

If you are sprucing up your LinkedIn profile to attract a new employer, or influence how your peers perceive you, cutting and pasting your resume into your LinkedIn profile gives the reader no reason to contact you with questions. Instead keep your statements short, strongly action-orientated and focussed on the difference you deliver.

Keep in mind that you can use symbols instead of bullets in your all-important experience section of your profile, as demonstrated in my friend Robert’s, who in having permitted me to use him as an example years ago of how a profile could be arranged, was subsequently approached about a new role because of his profile on LinkedIn. Robert was not, and most certainly is NOT looking for a job – but he kindly permits me to still use him as an example.

(6) Adding media

A frequently underutilised area of LinkedIn is Media, and Featured. A great profile is far more sophisticated than a résumé on steroids — it is your digital reputation, validating who you are and the expertise you hold.

However we often connect with people who simply don’t know all that we have accomplished, causing the undervaluing of our skills, talents and services.

You can build on how others think of you without constant bragging and hero statements by adding media. Sitting in the Experience section of your profile and relevant to each job, these are evidence of previous successes, awards and presentations in the form of external news articles, photos, website links, videos and SlideShare presentations. 

To ensure these show to those that are just skimming your profile (and who do not scroll down to the experience section), it is crucial that you use the Featured tool to highlight key messages and achievements.

As you can see pictured here you can highlight articles, landing pages or company websites in the Featured section. 

These additions are powerful evidence that you are a specialist and a subject matter expert!

Noting that only a little over two are immediately visible on desktop and only a little over one on mobile, just ensure that you change the order so the most relevant is first.

(7) Customising your URL

Lastly, if you want to make an impact – you will need to be memorable and easy to find. A custom URL makes you look like you take care of the online image you’re presenting – something that is even more critical in this Covid-impacted time.

If it seems like too much effort don’t be fooled – the more memorable you are, the more job offers, clients and opportunities you can expect to get!

Remember, everyone under 30 has grown up digitally literate and millennials don’t even have to think about presenting themselves as tech-savvy – they do it automatically. No matter what age or level, you need to keep up to look relevant.

Don’t worry if someone else on LinkedIn has the same name as you – you can use your URL as an opportunity to stand out even further in your field, by adding your job title or industry sector after your name, for example Joe-Bloggs-Accountant or Joe-Bloggs-Supply-Chain.

While this modification will look especially great on your resume, if you use business cards don’t forget to have your URL printed underneath your phone and email address because we all need to remember that LinkedIn is where your customers are increasingly searching for the services and technical expertise they need!

To point out the obvious: While LinkedIn is a personal branding tool where you control what is said about you, in this new world where we are unable to meet face to face, it is crucially one of the few places where you can generate job and business leads, represent your company, or find and reach out to old contacts to explore new opportunities.

As LinkedIn is a social selling and recruitment tool that works on the basis of relationships, when you craft your LinkedIn profile, it is important to think about who you are and how you want to be perceived.

Be authentic and let your character show through because we need to see who you really are to connect, communicate and collaborate…

The post LinkedIn Hacks – 7 Practical Steps To Overhaul Your Profile appeared first on Head Of Sales.

As someone who believes there is definitely such a thing as too much social media, I want to discuss why you need to ration and structure your time on LinkedIn and how to prioritise quality over quantity to get the most out of the experience.

Why too much LinkedIn is not a good thing

I’m an independent LinkedIn trainer. I know exactly how important this platform is for individuals and businesses wanting to grow their online presence and achieve greater successes. But because LinkedIn is aimed at business professionals, it can be easy to forget that it is still a social media platform.

We’re hearing more and more about how too much social media is dangerous for us, and I agree. This year in particular, when we have been confined to our homes for long periods of time, there has been a huge temptation to spend large portions of every day connecting and conversing online.

However, this is exactly what social media is designed to do – clever algorithms, driven by artificial intelligence, are continuously refining and improving our experience online to meet three core objectives.

These are objectives all social media platforms have:

1. Engagement goal, keep us plugged in for longer
2. Growth goal – gain more subscribers (for LinkedIn the goal here is to transition free subscribers to paid accounts such as LinkedIn Premium or Sales Navigator)
3. Sell us advertising (largely Facebooks goal, however we have seen elements of this appearing on LinkedIn in recent years with sponsored posts)

Many people also don’t realise that the user experience design of social media platforms is actually based on ideas that originally came from the gambling industry. Scrolling through the newsfeed triggers similar responses to slot machines, and “likes” give us a rush far more addictive than a “win” could ever be, making us feel validated and successful, all while tapping into that caveman desire for belonging, acceptance and social connection.

So it isn’t surprising that social media addiction has become a growing concern. These sites are actually designed to create addiction and compulsion. It is in their interests that we never sign out.

And, just like in the movie, if we don’t realise we’re plugged into The Matrix, how are we supposed to wake up?

This is why I always outline a number of steps people can take to make sure they don’t spend too much time on LinkedIn and that the time they do spend here is productive.

How to make your time on LinkedIn productive

Because LinkedIn is a business networking platform, just spending time on the site each day can make us feel productive. But you’re only productive if you’re actually achieving something. Scrolling mindlessly through the feed for an hour is not doing anything to further your business goals.

It’s essential to keep a number of things in mind when using LinkedIn:

1. What are your objectives?

The whole point of being on LinkedIn is to help you achieve your goals. You need to write these objectives down if you want to make the LinkedIn experience productive and positive. For example, do you want to:

• Attract new clients?
• Bring in investment?
• Find a new employee?
• Secure a better job?

Or you could simply be on LinkedIn to keep yourself memorable to your peers and stakeholders as this is much harder to do in these times when we can’t meet face to face.

Whatever your objectives are, your time on LinkedIn has to be concentrated on helping you achieve them!

2. What is your ROI?

Just like in any business campaign, you need to keep track of your return on investment when you are spending time on LinkedIn. These days, attention is our most important commodity, and we need to be careful where we spend it. Are we actually getting anything out of the time we put into LinkedIn? If not, you need to look at where you are putting your time and change your activities.

LinkedIn should be seen as a tool. Are you using it, or is it using you?

Ways to ration your time on LinkedIn

If you want to get maximum results from your time on LinkedIn, it is important to ration the time you spend on the platform and make every minute count. I always advise setting yourself definite tasks at specific times, so you can actually start to measure the results you’re getting from the time you’re putting in.

Daily:

• Check your notifications
• Scroll through your newsfeed (set an egg timer if you need to)
• Like and comment on anything you find interesting or useful, particularly if it is from someone who you would like to see more of in your newsfeed
• Unfollow those people who produce content you find annoying – you will still stay connected and they will not be alerted that you have unfollowed them

Weekly:

• Check who has looked at your profile and send them invitations to connect
• Check your diary and send connection invitations based on who you have met, or simply spoken to
• Post content

Fortnightly:

• Look up the people you are targeting
• Like and comment on their posts
• Look at whose posts they are commenting on, or the “people also viewed” sectionof their profile and consider if connecting with these people would further your goals

Monthly:

• Craft content for the month
• Download contacts and send direct messages to people you have recently connected with or who you want to stay top of mind with. DO NOT SPAM. Aim instead to give. Forward articles of interest; facilitate helpful introductions. Aim to serve.

Having a regular schedule like this will automatically help you cut down the amount of time you spend on LinkedIn.

How to prioritise quality over quantity

Connections

The number of connections you have on LinkedIn is not important. However, your connections need to be high-quality – you need to think about the people you are trying to reach, or people who might know these people. Every connection should lead to a potential opportunity. The opportunity might not be from the connection themselves – but from the people they know. I always advocate for being selective but open-minded.

2. Posts

LinkedIn now enables you to see how often the people you follow are posting. I discovered that some of my connections are posting 80 times a week! In my opinion, this is ridiculous.

Your posts need to show thought leadership and add value to your communities on LinkedIn. This does not mean endlessly sharing other people’s posts or posting content that is meaningless – the whole point is to start and contribute to conversations so you can demonstrate your knowledge and expertise in your industry.

It can take time to gain traction, and once a week doesn’t seem like very often to post. But if your content is thought-provoking and encourages comments, you will find you’re showing up much more prominently in people’s newsfeeds.

3. Comments

It is important to comment on the posts of the people you want to reach. Not only does this make you memorable and pull attention to your profile, but it also because comments are like smiles, you have to give them to get them back.

Conclusion

LinkedIn can be a tremendous force for good if you make the best use of your time on the platform. 

The post How Much Online Networking Is Too Much? appeared first on Head Of Sales.

The past year has changed sales. A lot. The key question now: How much of this change is permanent?

“Everything,” says Julie Thomas, CEO, ValueSelling Associates.

LinkedIn’s “State of Sales 2021: United States & Canada Edition” dives into these changes that are challenging the world of sales. Based on survey data of more than 400 buyers and 400 sellers, analysis of LinkedIn platform data, and interviews with dozens of sales leaders, the fifth annual State of Sales report identifies seven key trends, which have only been intensified by COVID-19:

1. Virtual selling is good for sellers; it’s even better for buyers. 

During the pandemic, virtual selling essentially became selling. It was the only way to reach prospects. Buyers don’t seem to mind this new reality. In fact, our survey found that 50% of buyers say that working remotely has made the purchasing process easier.

“The digital world is here to stay. The inefficiency of travel, of in-person business meetings, and of late-night dinner appointments will make face-to-face meetings less common and not necessary in many cases. Organizations will use more data, more video, and more telesales. I do not believe we will go back to the world that was.” — Shaan Hathiramani, CEO, Flockjay

2. Sales organisations are preventing their sellers from putting buyers first.

Almost two-thirds (65%) of sellers say they “always” put the buyer first. However, only 23% of buyers agree that sellers “always” put the buyer first. Sellers know they should be putting the buyer first, but in our survey data, they indicate that their sales organizations are a barrier to implementing buyer first behaviors. For instance, only 39% of sales professionals say their sales org delivers the buyer first behavior of providing free and easy access to product reviews “all the time.” Similarly, just 43% of sales professionals say their sales org stays actively engaged after the sale to ensure value delivery “all the time.”

3. These are the sales behaviors that are killing deals.

In our survey, buyers also identified a number of behaviors from sellers that were immediate deal killers. Each of the top three revolved around the seller providing accurate information and having a clear understanding of the situation:

· 48% Delivering misleading information about a product, its price, etc.

· 44% Not understanding my company and its needs

· 43% Not understanding their own product or service

“Top performing salespeople spend far more of their time researching their industry, learning about their competitors, understanding trends, reading about ancillary things that affect their industry and being thought leaders and consultants in their space than they do pounding phones, sending emails, and prospecting.” — Sahil Mansuri, CEO, Bravado 

4. Sales orgs and sales managers must adjust — now — to a remote working world.

A significant majority (86%) of sales managers agree that the capability to cope with change is more important than it was five years ago. In the previous edition of the State of Sales, just 70% of sales managers agreed that coping with change was more important than five years ago.

Change is coming at sales professionals faster every day, and one change that is likely to stay with us is the rise of remote work, a situation that sales managers are finding difficult, with two-thirds (67%) of them saying that overseeing a remote sales team is more challenging than they anticipated.

5. Sales technology provides the key pathway to building trust.  

Historically, sales professionals have built trust with prospects by meeting face to face. The pandemic blocked that pathway, so salespeople turned to sales technology. Tools such as Gong or Chorus enable sales professionals to analyze transcripts of sales calls to understand the typical customer’s state of mind and to anticipate their objections.

It’s no surprise, then, that our survey indicated that investment in sales technology is increasing. In fact, 77% of sales professionals say their sales organization plans to invest “significantly more” or “more” in sales intelligence tools. 

“Overall, virtual selling has driven rapid digital transformation in sales. Early adopters were ready technologically for the sudden move to virtual, and now laggards are investing in technology infrastructure to support their reps. The early days of the pandemic were really the ultimate test.” — Craig Rosenberg, Distinguished VP/Analyst, Gartner 

6. For sales organizations, data is more crucial than ever.  

Research shows that about 25% of buyers change roles every year. It’s crucial for sellers to stay on top of any data about their prospects’ moving on or moving up. In our survey, 85% of sellers say they lost or delayed at least one deal in the past year, because a key client stakeholder had changed jobs. One-third of sellers say they had lost or delayed at least three deals due to a stakeholder leaving. 

“Data is table stakes now. I mean, you can’t sell without data.” — Matt Heinz, President, Heinz Marketing

7. Buyers and sellers are ramping up their use of LinkedIn.

Since the start of the pandemic, sellers, who can no longer prospect at in-person conferences and events, are boosting their reliance on LinkedIn. Almost three-quarters (74%) of sellers say they committed to expanding their LinkedIn network in 2021.

“Posting content to LinkedIn and engaging with others on LinkedIn is my primary source of demand generation. So many people see LinkedIn as a waste of time or see LinkedIn as not an opportunity to drive true business development when, in fact, it couldn’t be more the opposite. LinkedIn gives me an opportunity to share my subject matter expertise on a daily basis.” — Sam McKenna, Founder, #samsales  

Keep your eye out for the Asia-Pacific (Australia, India, and Singapore) edition of the State of Sales schedule to be released in the coming weeks.

The post 7 Insights From The LinkedIn State of Sales Report appeared first on Head Of Sales.

I ran a sales management masterclass for a global client and here are the key points I made to 30 sales managers about the way we all need to lead and inspire teams.

1. Purpose.

No sense of mission or purpose for the difference you’re making in the lives of others.Intent is everything… potential customers can smell it. There is nothing more repelling than having ‘sales breath’ where you’re all about yourself and making your sale rather than being all about them and the outcomes they need to achieve while managing risk. What difference do you make in the lives of your customers… personally and professionally? Be clear about the answer and ensure all of your salespeople are too. As a sales manager, make sure you’re all about your people rather than yourself and that you act in the best interests of your people, your customers, and your company.

2. Strategy. 

Every organization is political in nature and this means that there are competing priorities and hidden agendas. You need a strategy for managing relationships and engineering best value for the customer while creating a comparative bias toward the strengths of your team, your company, and your solution. Strategy need not be complicated but you must know how you can change the rules on the competition, kill the customer’s apathy, and embed yourself in a compelling business case where there is an inbuilt bias toward what you do best in the market.

3. Technology and Data.

Failure to be data-driven and leverage technologies. Average deal size is shrinking, the number of people to cover in an account is increasing, sales cycles are taking longer, and there is increased competition. All of this means that you and your salespeople must apply effort where it will be most productive. Treasure time, fully embrace your CRM system, leverage LinkedIn’s, harness data intelligence tools that provide direct dials and the insights that create context and ‘warm’ engagement. Leverage the strengths of weak ties to never make cold calls yet go get punch drunk on the phone while your competition has slipped into ‘snoozer mode’ of passive social selling. Combinations of technology and driving concurrent channels of outreach are how the best are crushing quota.

4. The right conversations. 

No-one is interested in what you do and how it works until they first see you as someone who can help them achieve the important outcomes they are accountable for in their role. Lead with why conversations matter and be specific about the opportunities you see for them to improve revenue, reduce costs, increase profitability and have a positive impact on the metrics by which they are measured and personally that matter to them. Have a ‘hypothesis of value’ about how they could improve their business based on what you’re seeing with other customers who have a similar profile. Make your narrative all about them rather than yourself!

5. Sense of urgency. 

Time kills deals. Momentum is difficult to create and so very easy to lose. Treasure every opportunity and constantly think about how you can create progression every day with each stakeholder in every opportunity. What’s the next step? What are the key milestones and dates? Who needs to be on board to achieve consensus and in order for a decision to be made? Hope and prayer is not a strategy… success is earned. Between the opening and the close is the middle… the middle is the place where many deals die. Your biggest risk is usually complacency. Constantly ask why it matters and what happens if it slips. If there is a not a ‘compelling event’ then there had better be a compelling business case.

6. Discipline. 

We must do what needs to be done, when it needs to be done, and regardless of how we feel. Beyond going through the motions, we need to also execute masterfully. The discipline of training and repetitive correct execution is the hallmark of the very best in their field.

“Everybody wants to be a bodybuilder, but don’t nobody want to lift no heavy-ass weights. But I Do”

Ronnie Coleman

7. Execution. 

Having a rubbish narrative and not executing the fundamentals is the most common reason for sales failure. If you can’t secure meaningful conversations with the people of power and set the right agenda, then you’re working with someone else’s agenda. The customer forms an opinion of us quickly and we need to earn their trust and respect at every stage and through every interaction. Many deals are lost by the seller tripping over their own shoelaces. Can we write professionally and do we proof-read? Do we turn up on time? Have we done our research? Do we have insight? Is our demo relevant? Are our slides on point and all about them not us? Do we ask the right open questions? The list goes on… make every post a winner. You and your team need to all do the basics well.

8. Managing Expectations. 

Let’s face it… your boss is a lunatic who has an insatiable appetite for ever-increasing performance results and no regard for your personal life. They are happy to burn you out, throw you under the bus or melt you with their blow torch. You must manage their expectations. Customers are also crazy as they bark orders for you to jump through hoops and dance to their discord. They adopt ill-conceived strategies for managing their risks and often unwittingly work against themselves. It’s essential to positively influence their process, set the right agenda, then ‘culturally’ align. Ensure you have alignment with their process and reasonable goals and achievable time-frames. Be proactive early and know that yes-people are not respected.

9. Humility and the willingness to learn. 

Lifelong learning is the hallmark of the smartest humble people on the planet. Conversely, salespeople must be the worst readers on the planet. So many sellers think they know it all and have no need of improvement. Curiosity and a willingness to learn is what transforms a sales career. The best sales managers have their people on a reading program and they test whether they actually read or listen to the books, watch the videos, do the research. They turn sales meeting into sessions that actually provide value for the salespeople rather than cadence forecast meetings.

The post Actions That Lead to Sales Success appeared first on Head Of Sales.

The numbers paint a vivid picture: LinkedIn is the place to be for job seekers.

LinkedIn is a smorgasbord of opportunities. I’m sharing the best LinkedIn tips that will help job seekers to squeeze every last bit of value out of LinkedIn.

These are not my tips. I’ve opened the floor to some amazing Australians that live and breathe the careers space.

Here are 10 expert tips on extracting value from LinkedIn:

Angela Farmeary, Mindful Careers

Angela helps her clients navigate the highly competitive job market through individualised career coaching.

1. Create your hit list.

Write down ten companies you’d jump on the opportunity to work at. What do they have in common with you? Do your values align?

2. Follow company pages.

Head to each business’s LinkedIn company page and click follow. Now, you’ll get notified of new hires, promotions, changes at the company, and, crucially, job opportunities.

Rebecca Jarvis, Javrow

A recruiter for the tech industry, Rebecca was awarded LinkedIn Top Voice 2020.

3. Stand out with your About section.

A recruiter looks at five-plus people, all with similar skillsets. How will they decide who to call? I call it “getting your character off a page.” If your character seems interesting, you are more likely to get the call.

Clare Phelan, Persuit Consulting

Clare is a career coach and job search strategist that guides you in becoming the CEO of your career.

4. Utilise LinkedIn messaging with professionalism. 

Being CEO of your career means having the systems in place to enable you to efficiently and effectively promote your value to potential employers. Messaging is part and parcel of communicating effectively throughout the job search process, however, getting this right can be overwhelming!

5. Utilise LinkedIn recommendations. 

Aim for three strong recent recommendations. When asking for recommendations, reach out to those who been privy to your great work. If you are searching for roles with a particular skillset, ask your referee to focus the recommendation on your positive traits relevant to that type of role.

Gillian Kelly, Outplacement Australia

Gillian is a Forbes Council career coach, keynote speaker, and award-winning master resume writer.

6. Analyse your profile through the eyes of a hirer. 

Hirers want people who offer value to their business. What does your target hirer see when they look at your profile? What shared connections do you have? How relevant are your skills to their business? What impression do your headline and photo make on them? How credible are you in your subject area or field? What does the tone of your past posts say about your communication style and values?

7. Don’t confuse visibility with credibility. 

Use LinkedIn well, and your actions can help you stand out to potential hirers. Abuse it, and it can damage your job hunt. Be strategic with what you post and how you communicate. Don’t damage a relationship by asking for favours too early. Respect others’ time, opinions, and rights. Consider how posts or comments may impact your brand. Visibility is not the same as credibility.

Shilpa Kulshrestha, Scintillate Coaching

Shilpa is a career strategist, coach, and best-selling author and speaker that helps people who are stuck create impactful careers.

8. Do not try to be someone that you are not.

It will come back to bite you in the face. Or it will push you towards the restlessness of being an imposter. Your authenticity can be your biggest magnet on this platform.

9. Do not ask for help.

Instead, add value without any expectations. You will create some beautiful relationships. I have got my best employees and 90 per cent of my clients from LinkedIn.

Jo Green, Jo Green Coaching 

Jo is a career change coach helping people work through career transformations without stress.

10. Look for people, not jobs.

Lead with your curiosity by finding people on LinkedIn who work in companies you are interested in or careers you want. Get in touch to organise a quick chat or send them a few questions when you connect. Be honest and authentic about why you are reaching out.

The information they give you will help you understand the job market, the companies you are interested in, and new areas you might want to move into. And your new contacts will know you are looking for a role. They may even let you know if they hear of anything.

Thank you Angela Farmeary, Rebecca Jarvis, Clare Phelan, Gillian Kelly, Shilpa Kulshrestha, and Jo Green for your contributions.

The post 10 Expert Tips To Stand Out On LinkedIn appeared first on Head Of Sales.

When I sell there’s typically something nagging at my conscience that I’m avoiding. When I start the day there’s typically someone I’m afraid to call. Maybe the timing isn’t right or they’re too senior. Shoulda, woulda, coulda becomes didn’t.

Yes, I’m human. But to transcend I use fear as a guide that points me to what I should do next. Repetition is the mother of skill but it also gives us another profound gift which is the development of ‘gut instinct.’

Trust your gut. Let’s unpack this because we don’t really see gut instinct discussed in many books or blogs because it’s our inner dialog, our inner voice and world.

Jack Canfield used to say, “Feel the fear and do it anyway.” Another one was, “FEAR: future events appearing real.”

I thought these two concepts were a bit esoteric and it would serve my audience to bring them to light.

When you sit down at work tomorrow, do not check your email. Write down what you are most afraid to do instead. Granted, this thing is high integrity: moral, ethical, etc. Maybe it is a demon you need to face. Most likely you’re procrastinating, overthinking, or trying to be too perfect.

NOW TAKE ACTION!!!

That’s really the secret – my gut talks to me throughout the day, an inner voice I trust. It leads me through the deal. I play out 50 chess moves and stay a dozen moves ahead. When the voice is nagging at me or I’m fearful of something, it’s probably something I really need to do.

When you look at the company, who intimidates you that could sign? Start there. Call there first. Call and have a conversation. The likelihood they delegate you or you get their executive assistant is 99%.

Put up pricing that is awe inspiring and value based. Don’t cave. Be principled in your negotiation.

So what are you afraid of most? Is it your success? Ruffling feathers. Do you think you can hunt for new business and win without stepping on any toes? To make a great omelet you’ve just gotta break eggs.

Do this experiment: Next time you prospect a company, add a Board Member. Just add them on LinkedIn. Once they add you back, write them a 3 sentence message thanking them and mentioning you’d like to have a quick chat about their thoughts on XYZ. You will be absolutely shocked how few people ever talk to Board Members, VCs, CEOs (yes, there still aren’t many on LinkedIn), COOs or CFOs. Yet these folks always get drawn in at the 11th hour to rubber stamp your deal!

A couple pithy quotes come to mind that are super relevant to this post. The late, great Dr. Wayne Dyer used to always say:

“Be independent of the good opinion of other people.” – Abraham Maslow

“The fishing is best where the fewest go and the collective insecurity of the world makes it easy for people to hit home runs while everyone is aiming for base hits.” – Tim Ferriss

So maybe I’m not advocating for throwing painkillers and pizza in the blender and fighting the angel of death. But there’s a comedic metaphor in here.

Your inner voice will seldom lie and always knows where to take you. Your compass or North Star will be when you move from selling to make money to serving other people. When you truly, in your heart of hearts are seeking to care and improve the business and lives of everyone you touch, get ready. You are in store to a) start to really enjoy this job and your life and b) be met with a remarkable set of magical circumstances.

“If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.” – Henry David Thoreau

Things we sellers fear most or Seven Steps To Sales Heaven? Only you can decide.

1. You are not in client services. You are not going to close an entire enterprise deal without a roller coaster of a decision maker, trial by fire in a committee, group think, emotion or crisis mode. They will RFP and reverse auction to squeeze you every time. Who doesn’t drive a hard bargain? Don’t you!
2. Of course, you’re afraid to dial the CFO, he can torpedo the account, the opportunity and pull it off the forecast. Relish this. Live in reality, not delusion. Qualify out – it’s OK. Live in truth.
3. Your presentation doesn’t have to be perfect. In fact, if you are speaking more than 20% of the time while on-site you are only shooting your close rate in the foot. They will know you by the quality of your SPIN questions and listening.
4. If you’re not a team player, management will fire you. Nope. Pipeline cures all ills and top revenue producers are untouchable!
5. What if I burn out? Burn to shine and you’ll never burn out. The harder you push every minute of the job, the faster the time will fly. Burnout is a myth as is work-life balance. When you’re at work, prospect incessantly. Communicate with current opportunities, warm leads and drive on into the dark stormy night fearlessly with your fog lights on to slay the dragons of the unknown.
6. Calling one more time. Calling too many times as to be improper. Calling over someone’s head. Why fear any of these?
7. Pushing back. And the greatest fear of all in sales that separates the titans from the also rans: walking on the deal. You MUST be willing to walk on every deal. Especially after 6 months of the dance and in the 11th hour with everything riding on it. Always and only negotiate from a position of strength and never let them see you sweat or walk on you!

I don’t know what else to tell you. This sales thing violates a lot of psychology. We humans are fearful, sensitive creatures that fear the dark, the unknown and disappointing each other. We relish conformity, abhor rejection and seek the comfort of cliques. This is why I am beginning to think the lone wolf isn’t the worst analogy. It travels in packs but gets the hunting done. I’m not saying to be a wolf, but at least unleash the wolf in you: the wolf in sheep’s clothing.

Never fear what you will lose. Fear instead only, the opportunity cost of not giving every moment of your sales day and life your absolute all!

As you sell… What do you fear? Where does your gut instinct take you? What would you do if you knew you couldn’t fail?

The post The Ultimate Sales Fuel: Fear Meets Gut Instinct appeared first on Head Of Sales.

Sorry if that offends anyone but it’s the truth. Leadership sets the tone and creates the focus in every organization; and culture is nothing more, nothing less, than the behavior of the leaders. Sales meetings often reveal short-term or lazy mindsets and sadly waste the time of most of the participants.

First a confession. I’ve held roles as sales manager and director of sales for public corporations and then Managing Director of global technology companies where I ran the Asia-Pacific region. I’ve been part of the problem in years past so this is a mirror just as much as a floodlight.

We all need to recognize that we cannot manage by results; only by activities and actions. If your sales meetings are dominated by the CRM on the big screen and blowtorch accountability sessions on forecast commits, then you’re focused on the wrong thing.

“83% of sales management metrics do not measure sales activities” – Jason Jordan, Cracking The Sales Management Code

In a group setting we need to inspire, educate and create the right focus. Individuals need to be encouraged to share their wisdom with others. Publicly embarrassing anyone is a sales meeting is a form of bullying. Weekly one-on-one sessions are where strong accountability should be driven and direct feedback given but even these private sessions are not the forum for any Gordon Ramsay style of coaching. There are no excuses for bullying… ever!

It’s almost always a mistake to fire-up the blowtorch and apply pressure to your sales people to go and explode a deal by applying clumsy pressure or making ill-conceived discount

offers or announcing hollow threats. Instead acknowledge that opening is far more important than closing and that understanding the customer’s timing and process is how to achieve accurate forecasting. We should always be asking the right questions of sales people at the beginning of the quarter and help them identify and execute the right actions that create progression. Applying the flame-thrower with just days to go in the quarter after neglecting the inputs that create success is a sure-fire way to damage relationships and drive-down price and margin. Pic in this paragraph by Jeff Warren (mike-lin-blowtorch).

In a sales meeting; by all means discuss key deals if multiple stakeholders are there and the group can contribute or learn. Here are some important principles for making sales meetings an effective use of everyone’s time:

• Motivate and inspire by celebrating success with individuals and recognize those who are over-achieving in their KPIs that ultimately create revenue. Highlight corporate wins and new customers. Always emphasize team effort along with the commitment of key individuals.
• Ensure that your marketing team is part of sales meetings and that you drive sales and marketing alignment and collaboration. This is a critical success factor for strategic social selling where sales people are content amplifiers and potential content creators. Sales people can learn from marketing to improve their messaging and branding on platforms such as LinkedIn.
• Collaboratively share market intelligence concerning competitor activity and tactics. Insights from both loss reviews and win review insights should be shared including trigger events that created interest with prospects early and then workshop how to create the most powerful conversations.
• Foster information sharing and train a skill or technique that can help people improve their skills to drive results. Invite a guest to speak or present briefly create better understanding of other parts of the business or how to best engage with partners.

I phoned a fellow sales leader, Wayne Moloney and asked

him for his thoughts as he just published an excellent book on sales management and here are his thoughts. He agreed with my list and offered additional thoughts.

Sales meetings should be about the team, not an individual,  and meeting should be more about the customer than your company.  The objective should be to ensure consistent communication of company messages.

Consider the teams overall performance and address any issues to get back on track. Seek feedback on what assistance the team needs to over-achieve their targets but don’t allow this to become a complaint session. Provide the team with something of value to help them succeed and be specific. Share examples of how a sale was won.

The meeting agenda should not be around the performance of individuals and limit it to one hour. Always start and finish on time. Don’t get stuck in a rut, change the order around and don’t have the same people talking each week. Ask one sales person each week to share something they have tried that’s working for them. It could be a way of getting into a new account, a way of presenting a new service/application (max 15 minutes including questions).

Ask individuals to present on a competitor or a new product, service, technology, process or solution. This will enable the manager to assess their skills and provide feedback and coaching later.

Tip of the Week – the sales managers chance to earn some ‘street cred’. Identify a weakness and provide suggestions on how to address, provide some market intelligence that they would not be aware of and could help them address a problem. It doesn’t need to be complex, just a positive to finish the meeting and help them leave thinking they got something they wouldn’t have if they didn’t attend.

Wayne’s book is excellent and the key point in all of this from me and Wayne is that sales meetings should inspire, educate and equip sales people to execute better with customers. Sales meeting should foster collaboration and serve the sales team, not the sales manager. Wasting everyone’s time going through individual deals may help the manager avoid 1:1 sessions with sales people but it’s not best practice.  If you run forecast updates then call the meetings exactly that. Preserve the title of ‘sales meeting’ for sessions that sales people want to attend and that provide value for all in attendance.

And now… the classic movie sales meeting from Glengarry Glen Ross with alec Baldwin.

The post How [Not] To Run A Sales Meeting appeared first on Head Of Sales.

What tactics for leveraging LinkedIn Sales Navigator do you need to know?

Blended prospecting techniques are nothing new but codification of these combinations in the context of the Sales Navigator platform is required.

Step 1: Take an account list of no greater than 50 accounts and add them on Sales Navigator.

Step 2: Save 5-7 prospects per account as leads in every account because you are going to monitor the content they share and where they are mentioned + interact with it.

Step 3: Build a robust Sales Navigator feed you’ll utilize in both web and mobile STREAM. It’s a custom feed.

Step 4: Here’s the kicker, sort by Lead Shares and start to comment on what they’re sharing in a thoughtful way. Remember you aren’t connected to these people so it’s wow factor for CXOs to have some total stranger commenting in a relevant way out of the clear blue! Contacts that share based on the 90, 9 and 1 internet theory of prosumption are massively valuable. Basically, only 1% write, 9% share, and the other 90% are really more voyeurs on the web (Wikipedia power law distribution). If someone is sharing, YOU MUST CALL THEM. So use a service like Lusha, Data.com, ZoomInfo, DiscoverOrg or RainKing to directly call them and comment on what they shared in Social to their LinkedIn feed as evidenced by Navigator.

Step 5: You need to set aside time to mine your common connection or “TeamLinks” per account. Your goal is to call common connections or colleagues that are connected into prospect companies. All common connections should be exploited. If you sell software to CMOs, still leverage a Teamlink to the HR department or Legal. All TeamLinks are golden. Navigator “Teamlinks,” for those just tuning in is the most powerful feature of advanced LinkedIn. In essence, it lets you see who in your own company is connected to anyone in the prospect organization.

Step 6: Set aside time to explore all your 1st and 2nd-degree referral sources into prospect bases. These are represented in the middle column on Navigator. I would click underneath the pane to expand and start to look for patterns that emerge in the common connections. Here it will reveal competitive salespeople in other vendor companies or nodes on the network. Nodes are thought leaders in your industry so omnipresent, that their mere connection to your prospects, is heat seeking to indicate they’re the right decision maker. Call up sellers in affiliated vendors that are harmonious to what you sell and co-host networking events with them to overlap your networks. The cardinal rule of referral selling on LinkedIn is NOT to do it digitally. When you identify the connection in common, call that connection point and offer to ghostwrite a message they can pass along to make the warm introduction. MAKE IT FRICTIONLESS.

B2B buyers are 5x more likely to engage when the outreach is through a mutual connection. – LinkedIn Research

Step 7: Watch the daily email digest from Navigator that hits your smartphone email inbox for job changes. When you are going after a calling list, start to call down the Navigator Newsfeed referencing the lead news mentions, job changes, lead recommendations and other triggers like funding, or innovation projects. Use the live Navigator real-time feed as the bedrock for your TRIPLES. You’ll remember the basis of COMBO selling is a call, email and vmail (video or voicemail) back to back to back, preferably under 2 minutes. Jab jab, hook!

Step 8: Don’t exceed 50 target accounts and up to 7 contacts per. This means you should only ever be monitoring 300 objects which is double the Dunbar number of 150. The neocortex can only hold 150 connections. LinkedIn Sales Navigator actually gets unwieldy and you start to miss information if you follow too many people or accounts. Even if you change your STREAM sorting to “recent” versus “most important,” it’s cumbersome. 50 Key Target Accounts per quarter max, 5-7 leads per prospect, at least 1 C-Level per account. Remember you can easily purge out accounts and leads if you track too many. Work clean, keep it organized and tight.

A hodgepodge of Tricks and Tips:

• Nobody ever calls Presidents, CEOs or Board Members. You should call VCs who back the companies if going after earlier stage ventures. Where do you get the phone number? Many times, by just linking in (try to write a customized LinkedIn request), they’re phone number will already be freely shared on profile in the Contact area.
• Exhaust all of your InMails every month no matter what, even a disinterested response gives you a credit back which yields over 30 in total. Huge secret: You can hit reply to any InMail an unlimited amount of times. So that 30 becomes 60 and 90 very fast. Quality InMail follow-up is key.
• I talk to CXOs, they get 1 InMail in every 100 emails. They get 1 phone call / VM in 500-1,000 emails. STOP, REREAD THAT! What does this tell you? It’s not even the quality of a cold call, voicemail or InMail: IT’S DOING IT AT ALL that makes the lion share difference. This 10X action alone completely stands out in the all digital social selling cacophony. Pretty much everyone I add now (and I’ve tested this) immediately spams me back selling products or services. Social selling fail! No value is being added. The vast majority of all sellers are lazily ONLY emailing and adding without a custom invite, only to immediately spam back (once.) No follow up. The golden secret of all sales Cardone will tell you is: F/UP, F/UP, F/UP!

The relevancy paradox is the idea that adding value and changing up the message every time will yield a better result than never varying. It looks needy. Over-researching can cripple an outreach campaign. Don’t overthink it with analysis paralysis, set the appointment.

But for this to work, you’ve gotta have a relevant target that’s as similar as possible to existing prospects or leverages a direct competitor’s solution. They’ve bought before, they get it. Some percentage will be dissatisfied and buy again. Be there when the buying phase begins. Educate in the education phase but move fast and identify prospects who have entered ‘buying phase.’

• Work anniversaries and birthdays are pretty spammy. Congratulating people incessantly on a new role, funding or a school in common is wildly overplayed. The best messaging is that you provide X value (quantified is best aka hard dollars) for Y similar company. It’s really that simple, cut and dried. The Cialdini concept of social proof is the most powerful. If you talk to the CMO of Pepsi about something you’re doing for Coke, you’re getting a callback. It’s fiercely competitive to innovate at the top.
• I’ve tested every type of messaging under the sun. Repetition is the key. Sending a very similar message from the top of the food chain down the ranks and then only slightly varying it, even not at all as you TRIPLE every 72 hours will get your emails circulated. Some call this the art of confusion. You are shaking the trees and low hanging fruit will fall off. Mike Scher had some wild research results looking at 1.4 million calls that I’m paraphrasing here. Check out his work at FrontLine Selling!

Jeb Blount is one of my personal heroes and his book completely changed my life and career. And that’s even after 30 years selling in the field and running entire technology companies for Australia New Zealand. He also stirred the pot tremendously with the below quote which spawned 1,300 likes and 180,000 views on a LinkedIn update I published as at this writing!

“I closed a $2.5 Million deal after leaving the exact same voice mail for a C-Level Exec every morning for 52 consecutive days. He finally called me back and said, ‘You’re not going to stop are you?’ I responded, ‘not until you meet with me.’ The meeting opened a dialogue that, six months later, resulted in my company replacing his incumbent vendor. Persistence is the fuel of winners.” – Jeb Blount

Do you agree? Litigious roaches scurried out of the woodwork and hissed. Bottom line: Drop everything and buy this book: Fanatical Prospecting.

• There’s a higher propensity for folks active in Social to be open to a TRIPLE and convert because of one. Navigator is a great way to help you prioritize your book of business based on Trigger Events – who’s alive and kicking. What’s the number 1 trigger event? Job changes. Thank you Craig Elias and Tibor Shanto (authors of Shift!). In the first 90 days, the average CXO will deploy 1M dollars in OpEx capital for new business expenditures to shake up the status quo and make their mark. There’s a new Sherrif in town!
• I’d be remiss not to mention the mid-funnel practice of MULTI-Threading. Remember there are 6.8 stakeholders in every buying committee now in a complex sale according to CEB, so if you’re single-threaded you’re “deaded!” Ok, it rhymes. But take the time mid-stream, once you’ve opened the oppt, to get connectivity with your contact’s boss, lateral VPs and Operational folks (the victims of the problem), aka the Users of the solution – is priceless to mobilize consensus. This is going to increase close rates and accelerate deals. You should be adding everyone you ever meet, shake hands with at a networking event, etc. Start to harvest as many accurate email addresses, cell phone numbers and build your LinkedIn profile to 5,000 ASAP (much higher likelihood of hitting quota!)

What strategies for advanced Sales Navigator did I miss? How do you utilize LinkedIn Sales Navigator in combinatorial ways with other prospecting channels to land meetings with impossible to reach prospects, accelerate your deals, and exceed quota? Very curious…

The post Sales Navigator Techniques To Know appeared first on Head Of Sales.

While I consider you my sisters and brothers, we need to talk. Every day, you fill my inbox and my LinkedIn inbox with notes straight pitching me what you sell. No one wants you to succeed in sales as much as I do, including you, and whomever it was that taught you that pitching over email is your best choice for acquiring new clients or customers.

While there is nothing inherently wrong with pitching under the right circumstances pitching strangers without any context or conversation is extremely poor form. An approach that starts with pitching is what one does when they either don’t know better or when they hold weak beliefs, specifically the idea that everyone is a prospect (everyone is not a prospect).

As far as one can tell, the negative feedback and poor results do nothing to persuade you to change your approach. Please accept my advice in the spirit in which I deliver it, as one who wants you to succeed in sales if that is indeed the path you have chosen.

Selling Is Other-Oriented. You Are Self-Oriented.

When you pitch your product or service by describing what you sell in the first paragraph of your email, you project that your email is about nothing more than you gaining a sale. Your approach has a significant problem that causes most people to tune you out. Your first problem is that you repel people because you appear to be self-oriented.

When the sale you make is about you, it’s about the result that you want for you. You would improve your approach by focusing your conversation about what your client wants and needs, their challenges, their opportunities, and their goals. Acquiring what you want is only possible when you help someone else get what they want, as Zig never tired of reminding us.

You will improve your approach by becoming other-oriented. Instead of focusing on straight pitching people, you might spend the time to understand their world, develop a theory about what they might be struggling with, and develop an approach that speaks to what they might want. You’ll also want to slow down.

Don’t Sell Too Soon.

If what you sell is something people buy all the time, and if there is no serious consequence for making a mistake, by all means, pitch away. Maybe you sell batteries in a convenient store, the example Rackham provided in SPIN Selling. There is no reason not to ask for a sale if there can be no adverse consequences.

When the opposite is true, when your prospect doesn’t make the purchase decision you are going to ask them to make frequently, and when bad choices come with significant consequences, pitching means you are selling too soon.

When you pitch in email or Linkedin, requesting a meeting at the end of the note does nothing to mitigate the fact that your approach is transactional, as are all “spray and pray” approaches to sales. To sell a prospective client, you first have to create an opportunity by prospecting.

If you want a better, modern approach to prospecting, please see Mike Weinberg’s New Sales Simplified, Jeb Blount’s Fanatical Prospecting, Mark Hunter’s High-Profit Prospecting, Tony Hughes’s Combo Prospecting. Also, please read the first three chapters of Eat Their Lunch for a consultative approach for complex B2B sales, especially one that requires you to displace a competitor to win new business. Win customers away from your competition. Check out Eat Their Lunch

And then, there is the question about the value you create.

No Value Creation

B2B selling has changed quite a bit over the last decade. You may have heard advice about “social selling” or “the digital transformation of sales,” or some other overhyped fad that captured salespeople’s attention by promising that the new toolkit would make selling easier.

For all of my criticism of social, no one who believed in “social selling” would recommend you pitch people directly. The first rule of social selling is to do no selling. No one would train or teach you to do what you are doing now.

One of the most substantial changes in sales has been the b2b buyer’s expectations about the value they expect salespeople to create through the process. Your email does nothing to create value for the contacts you spam each day. There are several prerequisites to creating value.

First, you have to possess the business acumen to be able to understand your business, your contact’s business, and the intersection that is how you create value for them. These things are necessary to consultative sales. Second, you need to trade something of value for the time you are asking your contact to give you.

The only thing you need to sell at the start of your relationship with a connection is a meeting. Please watch this video about trading value about the time you are asking your contact to give you.

It is poor form to sell over email in your first communication with a contact. A contact is not a prospect, and you will not create an opportunity before you acquire a meeting. It will be helpful for you to think about this as “sell the meeting,” “sell the process,” and then “sell your solution.” Reversing the order here also reverses the outcome.

Stop Taking Bad Advice About Lead Generation

Almost daily, I receive an email pitch from someone who wants to mine LinkedIn for qualified leads. The people sending these notes mistakenly believe that anyone upright, breathing, with a body temperature in the neighborhood of 98.6 degrees, is a prospect. Why they think people want to spam other people as a way to acquire the new relationships that might result in a new opportunity is baffling. Please stop taking bad advice about lead generation.

B2B salespeople, please do your homework. Read books, take courses, get the training and development you need to succeed in sales. Become someone people want to buy from, not someone that repels people by spamming them over email and LinkedIn.

The post What You Need to Know About Pitching Over Email appeared first on Head Of Sales.