Congratulations on that LinkedIn profile!
Congratulations, you have been on the course, you are all set up on Twitter and LinkedIn. That LinkedIn profile has been tweaked and tweaked and you are pretty sure its “Buyer-centric”.
You have worked out how to find (curate) and maybe you have even had a go creating your own content.
This means you are a social seller, all you have to sit back and ……. What do you think happens?
Social Selling First Principles
Let’s go back to first principles, why did we turn our LinkedIn profile, a CV to attract recruiters into a buyer-centric profile to attract buyers?
Buyers are going online and using social in “ignore salespeople mode” to do research for good and services. What happens if they get wise to what salespeople do? And they bypass Buyer-Centric Profiles? Or maybe you have one of those profiles that look like a "salespeople that have been on a LinkedIn course" type profile? Came across a sales team last week that had a LinkedIn training course the three months before and they said, "it was nothing like the course we gave at my company Digital Leadership Associates (DLA)". I'm not surprised, their profiles looked like sales people that had been on a LinkedIn course, rather than a Social Selling course, which we at DLS deliver.
With digital and social the world has changed and keeps changing, and with that sales people and Social Selling keeps changing. If your LinkedIn profile is not giving you inbound, you are doing it wrong!
So what do you do next? - Build a Community
As part of your selling activity you need to build a community. This is no different that what you have done off-line to manage a territory, but you need to do this on-line. What do I mean?
If for example, you sell into the Manufacturing space, you will have built up an understanding of the market and be passionate about it. In my sales territory I know everything that goes on, and I know everybody. You should be able to talk to your prospects and customers about the latest and greatest. What do you think about 3D Printing? Do you see Augmented Reality applicable in your areas? These may not impact on what you are selling, but it shows you have a point of view and gains you more market knowledge and insight. The person people want to know.
Who in Your Community is a Mover and Shaker?
As you prospect in the accounts you will understand whom the “movers and shakers” are, let’s call them influencers. These people maybe academics, consultants, customers and prospects. Connect with them and build relationships with them. You should already do this off-line, but now you can do this, and at scale, online.
You will also know people in your customers; you will also have made contact with people within your competitors. Connect with them on-line.
##TRENDING##
Everything I’ve written above can all be created and completed off-line. It was how I sold in the 1990s and still sell today. But ....
Fast-forward to the digital age and that all can replicated on-line, or put it another way. With your customers and prospects being online, it is a bit pointless you working with your Rolodex in offline mode. Be a community builder!
A Buyer-Centric LinkedIn Profile is Passive Social Selling, Time to up Your Game!
As part of personal branding, building a community and influence is paramount. It is more likely to generate for you the inbound requests, you want from buyers as you hack the buying process.
In my book, Social Selling, I discuss in practical steps how salespeople can own their Territory and build influence and community, locking the competition out. Play your cards right and like a moth to a light, the moment a prospect hits your online community they will be drawn to your commanding position.