Here's How Top B2B Decision-Makers Are Making Sales Pivots. Is Your Team Keeping Up?

Even if you started the year with a solid lead generation game plan and a packed pipeline, few businesses have escaped our current economic challenges. 

This reality necessitates that all selling organizations foster a testing subculture: making minor adjustments and regularly retesting their approaches to ensure efficacy.

"According to McKinsey & Co:

• Preference for digital now ~2X more than traditional sales interactions; self-serve, digital ordering methods now prioritized, e.g., mobile app ordering up 250%+.
• Remote selling is now the norm and perceived to be effective: 96% of B2B companies have shifted their GTM model during COVID-19; 65% believe the new model is just as effective or more than before (up from 60% in early April).
• Sales model changes are expected to stay: 32% are "very likely" to sustain these shifts 12+ months after COVID-19, and another 47% are "somewhat likely" to do so."

While the pandemic creates a series of new challenges for their teams, those who can take advantage of the opportunities available right now will most likely thrive and survive during and after this crisis. 

Businesses who spend their time brainstorming how to drum up new leads once the storm has passed will be too late to gain a competitive (or any) advantage.

Here's how to maximize your lead generation efforts on LinkedIn:

• Optimize your professional profile for engagement. Keep in mind that when you begin to send out messages and comments, the first thing the recipient will do is check your profile.
• Use your online space as an area to give your customers the information, tools, and education that they’re looking for. Funnel followers to your landing pages and lead magnets.
• In order for your posts to get in front of your ideal prospects, build your Network and Corporate Page with relevant individuals.
• Instead of approaching people cold, focus on relationship-building, sharing content, and engaging in conversations on posts.

• Sharing relevant and empathetic content sets you apart from the “it’s all about me” companies, the “bots will do the work for us” companies, and the “I see you as a dollar sign” companies.
• Participate in LinkedIn Groups discussions to grow your following.
• Don’t waste your time trying to imitate what other companies are doing and hoping to mirror their results. You’ll be much more successful if you focus on your own path(s), strategies, and customers.

The majority of U.S. based professionals use LinkedIn as a discovery tool in searching for information and following updates. Of those professionals in the U.S. turning to social channels, 40% are on LinkedIn - and 62% of them access LinkedIn weekly.

According to LinkedIn, professionals from around the globe place more trust in the branded content on LinkedIn than on other major social media networks. 

You can profoundly impact your digital footprint when you or your organization is Googled by building a solid and consistently active presence on LinkedIn. 

• Delivering thought-provoking or problem-solving information to your readers regularly establishes you and your organization as an expert or thought leader in your particular market niche.
• Getting an understanding of your potential client avatar, their habits, and how they prefer to consume content (video, case studies, articles, infographics, interviews, podcasts, etc.) will give you a place to start. From there you create content, post, collect engagement data, and then improve the process as you move forward.
• The objective is generally to create an online relationship with the intent of eventually bringing it offline or outside of the LinkedIn platform. 
• Unlike other forms of social media, you get to keep the network you build (first level connections) on LinkedIn.

Share your content offerings and information in a way that touches your target audience's hearts and minds. By doing this, you will position yourself and your organization for success on LinkedIn, with the added benefit of spillover into Google.

Be sure all players have the support they need by having your organization and Team well represented online and on LinkedIn.

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If you've not yet taken a look at this keynote from the Purpose Summit last year, now may be a good time to give a listen. In it, I discuss the Global Communication Shift and how to navigate disruption by using LinkedIn.

Kim has attracted an audience of over 235,000 professionals from around the globe on LinkedIn and is the CEO of Linkability, Inc. She is a dynamic Entrepreneur, Global Business Communications authority, and three-time business founder. Linkability is a strategy and consulting firm that provides world-class Intrepreneurs, Entrepreneurs, and organizations with consulting, services, and products that helps to grow robust networks and drive tangible results in sales, marketing, and thought leadership positioning.

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