Focus on Your LinkedIn? Process And The Results Will Come

One of my favorite business books is “The Biggest Bluff” by Maria Konnikova. She uses poker to talk about making better decisions. Highly recommended for sales people. I have re-read it multiple times, and have bought her other two books. Great stuff on psychology, and very applicable to sales.?

One of her ideas is the basis behind today’s newsletter. In essence, she talks about not sweating the results of individual poker hands, but instead to focus on your process. Sometimes you are going to have a pair of kings, play the hand absolutely correctly, and have someone fluke a better hand and beat you. You did everything right, but still lost. The problem is many people will focus on that hand and that loss, how unfair it was, and how they should have won. This is a waste of time. Instead, if you focus on your process, over time you will win your share of the hands played, and overcome the odd bit of bad luck.

There are two applications of this in our work in sales. The first is the obvious one in sales itself. You are going to get beaten by competitors, and sometimes that will be due to luck. I had a sale that I thought I had nailed down last year. Everything was in place. I especially had the key decision maker who had access to the funds on board. He was a big fan of using me to help his company. I was a couple weeks away from signing the deal and...that key decision maker moved to another company, and everything he was working on became associated with “the guy who deserted us.” I lost the sale. But I did everything right. What was I going to do, make him stay there??

So when you lose a sale, don’t focus on the result, focus on the process. Is your process sound? Did you follow it? If the answer is yes, chalk up the loss to bad luck, and don’t think of it again. Over time, you will luck into a few too, and the good and the bad will tend to even out.?

The same holds true for LinkedIn? that holds true for sales in general. If you follow your process, you will be successful. Unfortunately, there are two problems with this idea:

1. Most people and companies don’t have a “LinkedIn? process”
2. And even when they do, they don’t follow it.?

Most LinkedIn? users have a vague idea of what they want to accomplish, but don’t articulate it very well (or at all), and then the activities they pursue on LinkedIn? don’t necessarily fit with what their goals are.?

For those of us in sales there are four basic things that LinkedIn? is good for:?

• LinkedIn? can increase our reach, making more people aware of us
• LinkedIn? can increase our credibility (or you can be trendy and call it thought leadership), having us seen as a viable alternative for our prospective customers
• LinkedIn? research can give us info to build better outreach strategies and messages, increasing our hit rate with new prospects
• LinkedIn? can be an extremely effective place to send those initial outreach messages.?

So my opening message for 2025 is this: when you use LinkedIn?, have a reason to do so. Know what you are trying to achieve. Have a plan for what activities or tasks will accomplish your goals. Have a process. Follow the process. Test the process, and update it as needed. You will make better use of the time you invest in LinkedIn?.?

What changes are you making to your LinkedIn? process in 2025?

This newsletter is a shorter version of my weekly email newsletter. I usually publish one of the four articles from my email Newsletter on LinkedIn?. If you are interested in this deeper weekly dive into Using LinkedIn? Effectively, here’s a link to the signup page: https://www.practicalsmm.com/free-email-newsletter/

For complete access to everything I know about using LinkedIn? effectively I have my All Access service. All my how-to’s, all my what-to-watch-out-for‘s, all my lists, all my experience as to what works, what doesn’t work, and why on LinkedIn?. Everything I have learned from working with and studying LinkedIn? for the past fourteen years. Around 135,000 words, with another 2,000-2,500 more words added each week. This is a paid subscription service, but the cost is very reasonable, and there are no long term contracts. Here’s a link to more information and the sign up page. https://www.practicalsmm.com/all-access-membership-plans/

The obligatory disclaimer: I do not work for or have any business association with LinkedIn? other than being a user who pays for a Sales Navigator subscription.