Social Media Clout
Yes, we had to talk about this sometime. There is no escaping social media because isn’t that the first thing every one has been doing for almost two decades now? Logging onto facebook anytime you want to check on someone? Thankfully we are well past finding your top 8 friends on MySpace and have proceeded to a more professional platform, which is LinkedIn. So what will a customer find if he or she checks your LinkedIn profile?
Your socials are your first impressions. The prospect will definitely be checking you on those platforms before even agreeing to a phone call. They will also be going through those with a fine toothed comb to find anything of value to them or their company before giving you any major project. Therefore, it is important that your LinkedIn in particular enhances your image rather than just list the jobs you have had and the duration of your employment. A well structured and detailed profile establishes your credibility from the get go and helps the prospect decide the kind of meeting they want to have with you. They may decide to involve their supervisors or other managers when they meet you and will already have some common topics to talk to you about that they find relevant to their company or even their personal interest. LinkedIn is not just a tool for searching jobs, it is a powerful tool that can be capitalized for selling tech solutions.
1. MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A CLIENT-FACING PROFILE
Keep your profile neat and professional by organizing data in easily digestible format which organizes all your information using keypoints that stand out. It is also very important to use a good quality professional looking photograph that makes you look approachable and competent. Here are some more changes you can make to your profile:
a) Flesh out your Summaries
Use these to liberally fill out the details that matter to your customers. Instead of just saying Account Manager, you may write “Account Manager at Fortune 500 Company and large customers. Strong track record of customer satisfaction and holding various corporate awards for bringing projects in on time and on budget.”
This inspires confidence rather than simply stating designation. Citing attributes that contain keywords the prospect is looking for can be mentioned in relevance to your position and it gives a better idea of your strong suits than the structured employment chronology can.
b) Your work with the previous employers
Every job that you have had has taught you something. All you need to do is figure out the skills that you have learnt there can be translated to your current position. Apart from listing the names of your previous employers, include specific items of interest that your new customers find important, such as
- The accounts you have worked with in the past
- Specifics of what you were selling
- Key Technologies that you have experience with or were sold by you
- The area of operations, or the region which was covered by you or industries that you worked in or sold to.
c) Add details to things that make you stand out
If you were ever awarded or given a certificate for something, be sure you mention those. Any vertical or diagonal change in position within the same employment can be listed as two separate entries. This enables you to show growth within the organization and allows you to write different skills under both entries, thereby portraying you as an expert techie and manager.
2. UTILIZE LINKEDIN’S OWN SEARCH ENGINE
You can utilize this social platform to build your customer network in addition to directly reaching out to former and potential clients. You can accomplish this by focusing on second connections, which are people and businesses with whom you share first ties.
There are two approaches to target second connections:
- Directing a message to a second connection about who you are and why you wish to connect.
- Requesting an introduction from the initial (mutual) connection between you and a second connection
Use the alumni search feature.
Another method for prospecting for sales is to use the alumni search function. Search for others who went to the same high school, college, or university as you.
You can refine this further by searching for alumni living in specific cities or countries. Alumni networks function similarly to old school groups, and you’ll often discover that prospects are more willing to help you if you’re in the same network. You can also utilize this option to get alumni to suggest you to a prospective student who did not attend the same university as you.
Second connections help you build a strong LinkedIn network and provide you with extra demographic data to help you generate a realistic and useful list of prospects.
3. USE LINKEDIN PULSE TO PUBLISH CONTENT
LinkedIn publishes some of the best business information.
Many of the world’s most powerful business executives, from Richard Branson to Marc Benioff, produce content on LinkedIn.
Previously, only thought leaders and influencers were allowed to publish content on Pulse. Anyone with a LinkedIn account can now use the platform.
For two reasons, this is a powerful tool for sales professionals.
1. It allows salespeople to share their knowledge by using their professional identity.
2. It allows you to reach out to a large number of people in a short amount of time.
Everyone in your network receives a notification when you publish on LinkedIn Pulse. That’s simply one more reason to use LinkedIn to connect with people in your field.
So, what sort of stuff should you put out there? Here are a few suggestions:
One of your employees can be interviewed.
You can analyze industry trends or give product updates
4. JOIN THE SAME GROUPS AS YOUR PROSPECTS
LinkedIn groups allow you to communicate with prospects even before sending that cold email if you’re doing outbound prospecting.
1. Go through your list of prospects and look up each one’s LinkedIn profile.
2. The majority of LinkedIn profiles make their group memberships public. Copy and paste the groups that each prospect is a member of from your list of LinkedIn profiles.
3. Keep track of how many people are in each group, whether it’s an open or closed group, how engaged the members are, and how many of your prospects are in each group in a spreadsheet.
4. Choose two or three groups to join and become an active member based on the information you’ve gathered.
BONUS: SELLING ON OTHER PLATFORMS SUCH AS TIKTOK AND YOUTUBE
It may not be possible to sell B2B tech solutions on TikTok but it is possible to build a social media following by making small videos that help educate followers on various topics pertaining to the industry. For example, a techie can give useful tips on using various softwares in a detailed youtube video and establish his/her credibility as a dependable expert in the field. One can make a series of tutorials that teach people skills to make them industry ready and thereby get fame independently outside the known network. However, keep in mind the following:
- Be mindful that the technology or skills being shared are not patented and are not the intellectual property belonging to an individual or organization.
- Be careful of not disclosing any personal information regarding your place of work or the work being done by you or others inside the business.
- Do not give any tips that can help people make financial decisions based on industry trends in the future, it may be considered insider information.
- Speak of your past places of employment in a positive light only and do not reveal any bad experiences by taking names or giving information that exposes anyone’s identity
CONCLUSION
In today’s world where digital lives have started taking more prominence than our physical lives, it’s important to keep up with the trends especially in a profession such as technology sales. The tips listed above will give you a head start. Be sure to pick one and master it before you diversify on many platforms at once.
