LinkedIn –The do and don’t of social selling

#ITECSOUTHAFRICA #ITECOFTHINGS #ITECINSIGHTS

I have been building my LinkedIn base over the past 5 years and have managed to develop a network of over 15000 followers/connections. Initially in my efforts to grow my base I just focused on sending out invitations to like minded business people. The intention was to grow my network and grow it fast. I can even remember the LinkedIn activity management team reprimanding me for sending out so many invites that they thought I was using bots to grow my base and even suspended my activity for 2 days. I’m not sure my approach is the right way to do it in 2019. Experts suggest that your invitation message to potential connections should be personalised and share a clear view of why you wish to connect with them.

At Itec Simunye where I am currently working, I had a meeting with my MD Derek to negotiate the trial of LinkedIn sales navigator as a tool to assist me maximise lead generation.

Thankfully he agreed and so for the past 5 weeks I have been experimenting with this great tool.

What I have learned from my previous work using only the basic LinkedIn interface and more recently using Sales Navigator, is this.

One of the biggest mistakes I have made is the hard sell approach. To explain more thoroughly what this means, it is when I have created a generic message explaining myself, the services my company offers, and a request to meet up. Thought I have opened up a few opportunities using this approach, mostly it did not work very well. Most of these messages received no response or I’m not interested.

After having used this approach and not achieving the results I had hoped for, I turned to Google the all knowing. After searching and viewing various articles and videos on how to best use LinkedIn most effectively for B2B selling. I did very quickly confirm that my hard sell approach was one of the biggest mistakes made by people when initially using LinkedIn for B2B selling.

What I have learned is that LinkedIn is not a quick fix to getting new customers fast, no matter how many connections you have! It’s about building relationships, telling a story, sharing content which is relevant, commenting and liking shares from your connections, learning about what your connections are doing and sharing.

The secret to gaining momentum on your base is around being focused, well researched, and sharing relevant content without trying to shove your company’s products and services down their throat. It appears that patience and manners are as important a requirement online as they are when building real life relationships.

So now I’m busy working a lot smarter using the LinkedIn sales navigator software. The software is very cool, in that the search tools are way more effective, also the level of information I am getting on my connections is much more elaborate, I have  gained a lot more insight to their online behaviour, what articles they like reading, what articles they publish, and what content appeals to them most.  

I am now shifting my behaviour towards warming my connections up much more before just quick hitting them with a sales pitch. I am now personalising my approach a lot more and learning how to be more engaging and interactive with my base. My approach now is becoming much more subtle and less in your face.

Based on research and data shared by experts in the field, when you begin the transformation from social media hard sell, to social media content sharing and relationship building, it is possible to generate 30-50 new clients a month.

So wish me luck as I continue forward with this new method and may I also reach a skill level using LinkedIn to generate my 30 plus new clients a month.