Chapter 1
Why is LinkedIn So Important For You?
Reid Hoffman, the co-founder of LinkedIn, recently said: āIf you can get better at your job, you should be an active member of LinkedIn, because LinkedIn should be connecting you to the information, insights and people to be more effective.ā
In 2009, Jane began working with people on LinkedIn. It wasnāt that LinkedIn was new; it was that it had been reserved for executives. She was helping people get jobs after the global financial crisis, and every so often she would meet someone who needed to be on LinkedIn. They were so reluctant to get online. She tried to find someone who could write their profiles. There wasnāt anyone, so she began to write them herself.
Fast forward to 2011. Jane was on a plane next to a gentleman. She was flying between Brisbane and Canberra. She talked to the gentleman, and discovered he owned a technology company specialising in network security. He was also a professor of IT security at a university. He did a lot of consulting work in Canberra for the Australian Federal Government. Jane asked him: āAre all your team on LinkedIn? How do you use LinkedIn as part of your business?ā
He said: āActually, Iāve removed our sales team. I just have one sales manager now. I allow them to spend one day a week in forums on LinkedIn and other sites. Our technical experts answer questions and are connected to our customers. This is just how our customers want to communicate now, and our business has changed quite dramatically as a result.ā
Since then, weāve noticed that traditional sales approaches and the new ways of selling and creating leads are quite different.
Most people will ask: āIsnāt LinkedIn just like an online version of your resume?ā Or: āIsnāt it like Facebook, but for business?ā
A LinkedIn profile is like your own personal website for your business and for you as someone in charge of sales or business growth. Weāre in the connection economy. When weāre online, we want to be able to connect.
People do their research long before they get in touch with you. A CEB study found that about 60% of a buying decision is made before the person buys from you. Itās a bit like TripAdvisor, where people do their research online before they decide to connect.
You can access people, information and misinformation more readily. If you need a financial planner and youāre in Sydney, Australia, and you want to talk to someone in New York because you have been told theyāre the best, then thatās what you can do. Youāre no longer restricted by location.
You can also access experts. Nowadays, if there is an expert in flamenco dancing and they are in Spain, you can go online and learn from a flamenco dancing teacher in Spain.
This is because of sites such as Elance, oDesk and Popexpert.
You might be thinking, āWhat does that have to do with LinkedIn?ā What it means is that if you focus locally, you must have a strong presence, and LinkedIn is an effective way of achieving that.
Itās getting more difficult to access decision makers because theyāre so busy. According to a study by the Radicati Group, business users sent and received on average 121 emails a day in 2014, and this is expected to grow to 140 emails a day by 2018. The amount of information landing in inboxes is extraordinary.
To cut through this noise is quite difficult, so we have to go to spaces where people hang out. Considering the average person spends two hours per day using social media, this is where we need to go to connect with them. We are in the connection economy.
The truth is we donāt even know about missed opportunities because we donāt get feedback.
Challenges with the Current Sales Process
Pigeonholing, Stereotypes and Unconscious Bias
You would have heard the saying: āfirst impressions lastā. In fact, Margaret Thatcher once said: āI usually make a decision about a person in the first 10 seconds and I usually find that Iām right.ā
There is a lot of information and misinformation out there. People want to understand who you are and where youāre coming from. Otherwise, they will stereotype you very quickly. Their perception could be based on what you have done in the past, rather than what you can offer for the future.
You need to determine what you want their interpretation of you to be, and convey yourself in that light when you connect. They may not need your help right now, but they may know someone who does.
Something to remember is that your mistakes are not as obvious online as they are in the real world and you donāt know the opportunities youāre missing. People can look at your profile and move on, and you donāt even know. There is a world of opportunity sitting at your fingertips. Itās now time to take the opportunity to help those clients who are looking for you and need your help!
Some other challenges in the current selling climate include:
ā¢Access to decision makers: This is more difficult as gatekeepers are becoming more challenging to manage.
ā¢āDigital Firstā: Increasingly customers are undertaking research online before making buying decisions. As mentioned, 60% of a buying decision is made before a customer makes contact. This means the use of Google searches are increasing. Sites such as Trip Advisor to choose hotels and Urban Spoon to choose a restaurant are examples of that.
ā¢The high cost of doing business: Organisations are finding it increasingly challenging to meet skyrocketing overheads and wages. Businesses donāt have money to waste any more.
ā¢Flexibility: Businesses need to be able to move fast. Customersā needs change quickly and businesses need to be agile, yet stay on track.
ā¢The struggle to find more ideal customers: Itās difficult for businesses to position themselves for new clients and markets.
ā¢Time and money: A businessās growth isnāt restricted to a local area anymore. We have access to markets nationally an internationally, but it takes time and money to build those markets and have a presence in those locations.
ā¢Unqualified leads: We donāt have time to waste on people who donāt meet your sales criteria.
ā¢People do their research: Customers research online to find the cheapest option.
ā¢The increasing cost of search engine optimisation and Google AdWords: Itās becoming extraordinarily expensive to get results from online advertising.
ā¢A feeling of paralysis: With the sea of information available, combined with a lack of time and money, many businesses choose to do nothing. It can all seem too hard.
The Connection Economy
The old ways of selling have changed. It used to be about calling. It used to be about samples and then trying to get meetings with people. Now itās quite different. Now itās about leveraging peopleās social networks. Itās about engagement, which means connecting with people, and itās about education. We need to be able to educate people about how we can help them. This is, essentially, the social sales model.
Past | Present | Future |
Employees | Role Models | Ambassadors |
Cold Calls | Tribes | Engagement |
Sales Demonstrations | Education | Thought Leadership |
Salesperson | Trusted Adviser | Expert |
Transaction | Solution Selling | Lifetime Partnership |
According to Ipsos Open Thinking Exchange, the average person spends two hours a day on the internet. IBMās Global CEO Study found that CEOs believe social media utilisation for customer engagement will increase by 256% over five years to become the second-most popular way to engage customers after face-to-face communication.
How Youāre Found in the Marketplace
Customers find you via various means when they work with you. The following quadrants are the most common.
So, How Do People Find You?
āIf I know someone and I donāt know what I want.ā
If this is the case with a customer, theyāre going to ask the people they know. If theyāre more extroverted, they will probably go to their networks. If theyāre more introverted, then they will jump online and do a Google search.
The benefit of being referred in your networks means you have a good reputation. If youāve got a good reputation, then youāve got good positioning.
The problem with someone doing a Google search is that they donāt know you, so you will be competing against others who have experience with search engine optimisation or Google AdWords. What it also means is that you will be like toothpaste on a supermarket shelf, looking the same as everybody else. You will compete on price, and thatās a very difficult space in which to sell.
If you are well networked, then your referrals will come to the fore and that can be more effective.
āIf I know someone and I know what I want, then what Iām going to do is direct contact.ā
If this is the case, the customer is going to pick up the phone and call you or email you because they already know who you are. The challenge for direct contact is that you have to be front of mind.
āFor someone I donāt know and I donāt know what I want.ā
In that case, your job is to educate. You have to make sure youāre putting content out there so people understand what you do and realise that they do have a particular problem. If someone has a problem, theyāre not going to know unless you keep educating them. You want them read your content and think, āThere, thatās exactly what Iām after.ā
āI donāt know that I have a problem and I donāt know someone.ā
In that case, your job is awareness. Your job is to make sure your profile is clear about how you help people, but you also must write blog ...