I gave a presentation on social selling on LinkedIn in San Antonio Texas recently, which brought me two realizations.
I thought The Alamo would be bigger.
And…
The art of social selling on LinkedIn isn’t as widely practiced as I had thought.
Many of the folks attending the presentation (smart, successful, sales and marketing professionals) had no idea what it was, let alone how to implement it. Which started me thinking about all of you. How many of you are utilizing social selling in your day-to-day routine? How many of you are realizing the benefits of a solid social selling strategy?
So what is social selling on LinkedIn?
In my eyes, it is the art (not the science) of using (relevant) content and information to connect, to inform, to educate, and to influence prospects. Surprisingly it is in many ways neither social nor selling, at least not on the surface. Perhaps it is this misnomer that throws people? So let’s break that down.
First, it isn’t about every conversation happening on LinkedIn, or even online. The social aspect of social selling does not imply “social” media. It implies delivering value, benefit, and solutions to a prospect in the right place, at the right time through personal relationships. That is key! The “social” part is about relationships, not platforms.
Second, it isn’t selling, at least not in the conventional sense. It isn’t about delivering a hard sell or closing the deal. If you are pitching and negotiating on Linkedin, you’re doing it wrong. Your focus should be to inform, educate, and subtly influence your prospect, not to close them. Offer them solutions to their problems, ideas they can benefit from, and ways to improve their process, practice or profits and you won’t need to pitch them. They will actively reach out to you!
Social selling on LinkedIn is not:
- Pitching or delivering the hard sell
- A replacement for talking to your leads and prospects
- Something you can set and forget
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Social selling on LinkedIn is:
- Creating a strong professional brand to increase your visibility
- Building long-term relationships backed by trust and respect
- Establishing yourself as a thought leader and SME (Subject Matter Expert)
These are just a few ideas that I shared recently on the topic of social selling on LinkedIn. What do you think? What does it mean to you? Leave a comment below and discuss via Twitter and Facebook.
And watch for upcoming posts where I’ll discuss the simple steps you should take to optimize your Linkedin profile and specific actions you should be taking on a daily basis to implement a solid social selling strategy!
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