COLD CALLING & SELLING ?? These are not dirty words …
Lisa Riley ?? ????
TMI with pride, passion and Poka-Yoke, we exist to help you cause continuous improvement & Shingo Affiliate ?
"LinkedIn has opened more doors for me than I could have ever imagined".
If you’re a salesperson, how are you connecting with people and getting business today? How are you opening doors?
Knocking on doors, arranging meetings, exchanging business cards at exhibitions and networking - all out of the window ?? which leaves you to the telephone, writing letters, emailing, social media AND LINKEDIN.
If you’re inviting a professional stranger to connect on LinkedIn, make no mistake, you are cold calling. In fact, LinkedIn presents the epitome of the cold call.
Check out Fanatical Prospecting, by Jeb Blount on his website Sales Gravy.
If your target declines to accept, no problem that’s a very polite LinkedIn ??slam. If they do accept, then what?
To sell or not to sell?
I recognise the sentiment of the sales preventor championing the none ‘salesy’ approach underlined by the fact that people don’t want to be blindly sold at by strangers.
I agree, because I don’t want the hard sell either but neither do I want random small talk and this is why, because LinkedIn is predominantly C-level Management, decision-makers and influencers that want to know who, why, what and when.
You can spot them a mile off, the fake so-called ‘none salesy’ approach creates the worst kind of time-wasting selling. The duplicitous so-called non-sales message, that dances around everything but the point or a sales introduction, this type of message is just about as far from an individual’s authentic self as you could get. I call this the authenticity marketing myth.
So what’s the key?
?? If you send an invite to connect with purpose and clarity, then the recipient can decide if it’s worth accepting at point invite.
?? If your profile is optimised, friendly and informative people are more likely to connect with genuine reciprocal interest.
?? When you are active on your profile, this how you Socially Sell and it's show not tell or to be precise, show don't sell.
?? Showing people who you are, what you do and why you can help creates familiarity and engagement.
?? Connection on LinkedIn is a 2-way road ?? like, follow, share and comment, build the interaction to build relationships and get to know your fellow contacts.
None of this sounds cold or salesy to me, it sounds human because at the end of the day, we all have to put bread on the table.