Social Selling Success: How to Become an Effective & Successful Social Seller on LinkedIn to Improve Net Margins

It frustrates me that a good deal of business owners, sales reps, and B2B executives aren't optimizing LinkedIn for generating more leads down their own pipeline. This is probably because they don't understand how to do it! 

And so, I'm here to share three LinkedIn activities that you and your sales reps could do to become a successful social seller:

1.) Bait your buyers using a fantastic B2B LinkedIn profile

Your profile shows who you are as a seller. Your buyers can see your and your employees' LinkedIn profiles when they do their research about what your business can offer. Additionally, LinkedIn profiles act as a resource for the buyers if they need to know if your company can solve their business pain points.

Therefore, a LinkedIn profile isn't a resume. It's a place where prospects know what you do and how you solve their pain points. It is all about authenticity and taking your share in the "industry thought-leadership pie." If you and your team do not have your profiles set up properly, buyers simply won't associate themselves with your company.

Here are three ways to kickstart your LinkedIn profile optimization:

?? Have a billboard of life!

Do you notice billboards as you drive on the highway? Particularly when you are stuck in traffic? Obviously you do!

LinkedIn has a similar feature as a billboard. It's none other than the LinkedIn Profile Banner! It's a place where you can catch the attention of your prospects, and market what your business is all about.

When users leave their banner ads with the default option, I call it the"blue screen of death." Why? Since it shows your B2B buyers that your company doesn't understand how to use LinkedIn correctly. Plus, it shows an incohesive B2B branding. Talk about an underused feature of free advertising!

?? Use a professional profile image and then write a compelling headline.

Together with your LinkedIn banner, your profile image and headline are tremendously important as well. Your profile picture ought to showcase a professional image of you. Why would prospects connect with you if your image proves you don't know what you are doing on the platform?

Additionally, your headline must reveal what you do to help your prospects resolve their business pain points. Headlines can be used to attract target buyers in the get-go. Besides your LinkedIn profile, your headline could be seen on all of your LinkedIn activities like posting and commenting on other people's posts!

?? Exhibit evidence of credibility on the Featured section.

The Featured section on a LinkedIn profile is frequently underused. This is probably because most users do not understand what to place on it.

The best way to utilize this section onto your LinkedIn profile would be to upload ebooks, whitepapers, presentations, documents, videos or images. These types of content must discuss the issues that your B2B buyers might be facing. The assets that you put on the Featured section can be downloaded or lead your prospects to an outside page.

2.) The 80/20 principle to create value -- USE IT

Have you ever heard of Pareto's principle? The Pareto Principle asserts that 80% of results come from 20 percent activity. The 80/20 rule is a general rule which can be applied to anything. It can also pertain to 80% of consequences stem from 20 percent of effort.

To illustrate, 20% of the people at a company do 80% of their work output. 80% of an organization's earnings come from 20% of its clientele. On LinkedIn, 20% of those users who are currently posting, do 80% of the posting. Thus, 80% of the chance to generate visibility is only taken by the 20% of LinkedIn B2B performers who exert the effort. This is why it's so important to develop out a 90-day content strategy.

The Pareto Principle can also be utilized on LinkedIn lead generation activities. 80% of your media activity should revolve around inspiring and entertaining your followers. Use these electronic platforms to construct customer trust through entertainment, inspiration, and education. The other 20% must be about setting your brand via marketing of what your company offers.

You get to build trust AND value by following this 80/20 principle.

Most B2B sellers on the LinkedIn platform don't possess a planned-out success strategy. They post rubbish content that are generic and focused on advertising. If you are worried about being embarrassed on LinkedIn, you ought to be embarrassed if you don't have a strategy that is well-thought-out of what you are posting! LinkedIn is NOT Facebook. Have you read “The Emperor's New Clothes' by Hans Christian Anderson? "But he has not got anything on!" The entire town cried out.

 Is your business naked on LinkedIn? Do users and your prospects laugh at your brand because of your agents' silly posting methods?

By putting IMPACT over quantity, successful B2B sellers minimize their posting activity. After all, the purpose is to get people OFF the LinkedIn platform and direct them to your B2B website for a sales conversation.

Focus on a content's TRACTION so your business stays on your buyers' feed and minds for some time. With sufficient traction, your business gets visibility to the right people and will also be able to create relationships with the ones who are important. 80% result = value created.

Again, this is why it's important to get a B2B social selling strategy and work with a dedicated company. Or, you can have your internal social media person be fully trained about the LinkedIn platform to be successful in actualizing your strategy. The most common mistakes companies make is to ignore LinkedIn, hire a generic digital marketing firm that is not held accountable to Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), or let their sales reps run rogue.

3.) Who to Connect with on LinkedIn: Build B2B Plans Which Drive Profit

Turning connections into offline conversations is the main goal of SOCIAL SELLING. Social selling isn't the action of selling on media. Instead, the purpose is to build relationships on B2B networking platforms by creating trust and value with your prospects.

Utilizing LinkedIn is all about the right strategy.

Social selling is a process of optimizing social networking platforms to generate leads and have digital sales conversations.

You have to pre-screen the people you connect by answering these questions:

1. Is the Connection a prospect?
2. Is the Connection someone who can help me in my LinkedIn goals?
3. Is the Connection someone who can help my visibility on LinkedIn?
4. Is the Connection someone who is fairly successful on LinkedIn?
5. Is the Connection going to make me look stupid by association from the content they post?
6. Is the Connection somebody I might be partnering with for lead generation?
7. Are the Connection's contacts my prospects? Who are they connected with?

Social Selling is a Procedure.

Answering these questions is essential because building connections is so, so important. Your connections can either help you with achieving your LinkedIn goals or generate profit for your company. Therefore, if you find a connection that checks lots of the appropriate boxes of your ideal customer and allied relations, build a relationship.

LinkedIn allies are as important as your prospects and clients. They can help you become successful by allowing you to reach a larger audience on the platform. It is all about the three-degrees of separation on LinkedIn. Kind of like the six-degrees of Kevin Bacon.

Before opting to take a connection offline, always screen. You will find timewasters on LinkedIn similar to offline timewasters. By pre-screening, you generate a workable selling strategy to improve profits, and you have the ability to make the most out of your connections.

Generate Leads by Building a System for Your LinkedIn Activities

LinkedIn is a gold mine for connecting with B2B buyers. Your business needs to execute a system about how to best locate the right people and do the three LinkedIn activities I've listed above. As a C-level executive, business owner or a sales manager, you're the leader of your company. So, it's time to learn LinkedIn! We are now in a digital selling world.

Feel free to contact me to brainstorm a few ideas! I work with companies that range in earnings from $500K to $50M+. Our Aim in Crushing B2B is to"Teach All Businesses How to Virtually Build Customer Trust."

Read the full post here: https://crushingb2b.com/top-6-successful-linkedin-activities/

About the Author:

Craig Wasilchak is the founder and CEO of Crushing B2B Digital Strategies. He is also an active member of the Entrepreneur Organization, as he is the owner of a business earning over $1M in sales annually.

Crushing B2B Digital Strategies is a Dallas-Fort Worth area-based company that teaches CEOs, C-Level Execs, & Entrepreneurs how to grow their business value by using success systems for LinkedIn, other social media platforms, and SEO. Crushing B2B offers a variety of Social Selling & LinkedIn training, Branding & Lead Generation systems that are proven to convert digital sales conversations into profits.

As a B2B Mentor that has extensive skills in Leadership, Mentoring, and Entrepreneurial skills, Craig loves to share his amazing business journey and help others achieve their maximum success.

Craig has built and sold multi-million dollar businesses over the last 25 years. Now, with Crushing B2B Digital Strategies, his goal is to teach other entrepreneurs how to grow and run profitable businesses in a disrupted business world utilizing practical business strategies. If you wish to connect with Craig here on LinkedIn, just send an invite! You are also more than welcome to subscribe to his YouTube Channel "The B2B Lead Generation Movement”.