How One Simple LinkedIn Action Achieved The Amazing!

Why do I do what I do? This was the question posed to me, by Simon Sinek , in his ground breaking TedTalk presentation, shared on YouTube, 'Start With Why' . What follows, is a short story that very neatly sums up my 'Why'.

During the past 3 weeks, I have spoken at several conferences and business expos, from the Office Friendly Dealer Association Conference at The Belfry Hotel, in the Midlands (UK), the Teesside Business Expo, the Brand Yorkshire Conference, Redcentric PLC in London, as well as working with companies such as Ecolab in Caerphilly, South Wales and Schoeller Allibert, the logistics firm in Cheshire.

Amongst the bigger clients, there have also been numerous coaching sessions with smaller SME business owners, those who run their businesses, in most cases single-handedly. And, whether it was a audience of 150 people or just one, my task was simply this; to share how social selling really can make a difference to the bottom line of any business.

Lauren's Story

In this short post, I want to, as succinctly as possible, share with you, just how simple social selling can be, by deciding to make regular, small actions, each day.

Let me introduce you to Lauren. Lauren recently set up her own interior design business and visited the Teesside Business Expo, at Middlesboro Football Club last month. Among and number of seminars that day, Lauren attended my presentation 'How To Use LinkedIn To Attract The Right Customers'.

At the end of my presentation, Lauren approached me for a chat and asked plenty of searching questions, to ensure she had fully understood the recommendations I'd made during my talk - clearly and eager and dedicated student.

During the following days, Lauren kept in touch. First she thanked me for sending her a copy of my slides, she then Endorsed my profile, making me feel good in the process (building know, like and trust).

A few days later, Lauren shared with me the action she had taken to improve her profile and to check that she was positioning herself correctly with her ideal target audience. She explained that she had removed any unwanted connections, whilst making a point of re-engaging with some of her more relevant LinkedIn connections, she had not spoken to in a while. She also signed up to attend a live webinar, I was running that week, to further her knowledge and expertise.

How Activity Breeds Results

It was of no surprise therefore, that all this on-line LinkedIn activity meant that more people began to look at her profile and then, less than 2 weeks, following my presentation at Teesside, Lauren sent me this message;

"Hi Steve,

I just thought I'd share a little success!

It hasn't even been a week, I'm sure, since I updated my profile - by the way I interact on LinkedIn using your tips and tricks- and although I have had some great and useful connects and people 'keeping me in mind' for their next project, today I had a win!

Noticing a gentleman had viewed my profile but not requested to connect, I Inmailed (Lauren has a premium account) him just saying Hi and introducing myself like you suggested, from this quick message he has provided me with an initial 10 homes to design kitchens, bathrooms and interior fittings for, with the potential of work on his future developments going forward!!

As a start-up business this is HUGE and I have LinkedIn and your knowledge and great advice to thank for it!! I am now shouting about using LinkedIn and Linked2Success along with yourself to whoever will listen!!

Footnote

Just this week, I read yet another conversation thread, started by someone disillusioned with LinkedIn and suggesting that it is a waste of time and that they have never won any business from it. LINKEDIN WILL NOT WIN BUSINESS FOR YOU! You have to put the work in and approach people, when you look business ready and in the right manner.

Why do I do what I do? To receive messages just like Lauren's.

Steve

PS: Since posting this blog, Lauren has been in touch to tell me of yet another sizeable request for her to do some more interior design work and she has also been invited to engage with a North Yorkshire firm of architects, who can also use her services - all through LinkedIn and in just 3 weeks.

Many thanks for viewing my post, I hope you found it useful? If you did, would you share it with your network who might also enjoy it and before you go, would you use the comment section, below, to let me know what you found most interesting about what I had to say – how was it relevant to your own circumstances?

If you have any private questions on the subject matter you can connect with me on LinkedIn and send me a message, or else you’ll find my contact details on my LinkedIn profile uk.linkedin.com/in/stevephillip.

If you need help to improve your sales and marketing skills, particularly using LinkedIn and social media, then please get in touch and check out our website www.successfulsocialselling.com and www.linked2success.co.uk. 

You can also follow me on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Linked2Steve or https://twitter.com/dontfearsocial