In today’s social media age, it should surprise no one that most B2B customers review LinkedIn before making a buying decision. However, it’s also shouldn’t surprise anyone that most sellers don’t know how to go about selling with LinkedIn.
In most cases, people don’t know how to sell on LinkedIn due to a lack of training. Our Crushing B2B Digital strategies system was made with selling on LinkedIn in mind. However, we also want to provide you with some tips to help you build a solid presence on LinkedIn.
Before you begin your attempts on selling with LinkedIn make sure you have a professional looking profile. A profile that is made with selling in mind more than placing your resume. Take a look at our LinkedIn profile makeovers if you’re not sure where to start.
It’s so important to have success selling with LinkedIn to have a good profile that we can’t emphasize it enough. Make sure your profile is geared toward appealing to buyers including your business avatars.
Here are tips for your profile to help your selling with LinkedIn results:
- Profile picture: Use a high-quality professional headshot photo
- Headline: your headline helps your clients find you in the search engines. It also gives you a chance to make a good first impression.
- Profile: Your profile should not read like a resume if your goal is selling with LinkedIn. It needs to communicate a good message that maximizes your credibility. It also should not have mistakes in grammar, punctuation or spacing. The words you use in your profile summary also feed the search engines to make it easier for your business avatars to find you. The content, links, and videos that you have on your LinkedIn profile make an impact.
- Updates: Your updates need to add value to your network more than sell your products or services. Selling with LinkedIn doesn’t mean spamming your network with self-serving updates. It’s OK to have some self-serving updates in the mix, but you’ll have more success if a high percentage of your updates are entertaining, helpful, or friendly in nature.
- Recommendations: Your recommendations are important for letting your business avatar get a feel of what to expect. Don’t be afraid to ask for recommendations from the right people. Having bad recommendations are often worse than having no recommendations.
- Endorsements: Endorse others and ask others to endorse you because the endorsements really matter a lot. The endorsements have a strong impact on how you are seen in the search engines. The more endorsements you have the better you will do in search results. It’s also important to have skill endorsements that revolve around what your business avatars are searching for.
Here are 5 basic tips to help your selling with LinkedIn:
- Spend a few minutes a few times a day scanning your news feed. Make sure to “like” or comment on other people’s posts and LinkedIn articles. Make sure to also focus on positive and relevant engagement. Don’t be negative on other people’s post.
- You also need to make sure to add connections whenever possible. The bigger your network is the easier it will be to market yourself in the search engines and in the news feed. The more first and second-degree connections you have the better your post and profile will do in the search engines. So don’t be shy about asking people to connect with you. It’s also a good idea to target your business avatars and send out personal invites whenever possible. Go ahead and connect with me so I can help you build your network.
- Following people before you send them an invite is a great way to stand out. Most people just send a cold invite without a personal message, so this practice stands out.
- Join and engage in groups in areas that will help you find and connect with buyers or people in your industry. You should also join networking groups like the Crushing B2B Digital Strategies & #SPN.
- Send messages to people to say hello, catch up, check-in, or set meetings with people you may want to know better. People buy from and refer business to people that they like so don’t be shy about making friends.
Summing up selling with LinkedIn
There is a lot that goes into selling with LinkedIn due to the size and reach of the site. You can literally sell anything and everything on LinkedIn with the right approach and network. Our team of implementors can give you countless tips and strategies for selling with LinkedIn. We also like to build win-win relationships whenever possible so contact us today!
Selling with LinkedIn Sales Navigator
Sales Navigator is a LinkedIn tool that provides a lot of value due to how it taps into all their data. It’s a tool that can help you find the right prospects in your network so you can target them directly. If you want to know more about your business avatars then you should be using the LinkedIn Sales Navigator. You should also be using it correctly and we can help you do that.
Selling with LinkedIn Sales Navigator
Selling with Video
A lot of people really don’t like to be on camera any more than they like public speaking. However, LinkedIn video is so crucial to making a personal connection with your network we can’t stress it enough. There is no need to be a top actor or director to make a great LinkedIn video. You just have to know your voice and be authentic with the stories you tell. Our team of implementors can teach you the skills and techniques to be dynamic and persuasive in your videos.
Selling with video