B2B sales strategies and trends

Supercharge Your Social Selling On LinkedIn

supercharge-social-selling

It is a fundamental truth that people buy from people they know, like and trust.

How well you are able to help your prospects get to know, like and trust you is your LinkedIn (Social) Currency. The more you have, the more successful you will be at social selling.

But just how powerful can your LinkedIn Currency be?

Let me share an example of what a large network full of people who know, like and trust me were able to do.

After 46 years of fruitless searching, I was ready to give up on finding the father I had never met. It seemed hopeless. I gave it one more try and made a video asking for help.

What happened surprised me deeply and fundamentally changed my worldview.

People shared it. Not just the few people that knew me well. Not even just the people in my amazing community. It was shared by complete strangers. They shared my plea across the globe.

In just 72 hours I found my dad. Not only did I find him, I was talking to him, on the phone.

On that day I received back 100X what I had invested in my network.

But just what does it take to build such a powerful network that spans the globe and is full of people invested in their relationship with you?

I am going to share the three vital elements to help your network know, like and trust you. Once you have built up your LinkedIn Currency, you can use it to supercharge your social selling efforts.

1. Community

Members of your community/network will be most engaged with you when they know that their challenges and needs are important to you.

Be Real: Allow people to see the real you (but don’t overshare) and keep it professional. Include your perspective when sharing content.

Engage: Speaking AT your prospects with your content and sales materials does not build your currency. Relationships require give and take. Respond to your network in a timely manner.

Provide Value: Provide value in every interaction. Consider it from their perspective. Send your hottest prospects an interesting resource and be helpful.

2. Collaboration

Crucial to the success of any effort to create an engaged and interactive network is collaboration.

Be A Connector: Help your connections grow their network and you will grow your own. This evokes reciprocity, provides value and greatly increases trust. Introduce your connections to each other when relevant.

Be Helpful: Help your connections achieve success. Share great posts or pieces of content shared and/or created by them.

Take Initiative: Don’t wait for opportunities to collaborate. Create opportunities. This helps you build your authority on your topic. Actively help your prospects, develop referral partners and create strategic alliances.

3. Commitment

Random, occasional actions will not have the same impact as those that are planned in advance, carried out on a consistent basis and that prospects can trust will continue. Show your network that you are committed to them.

Intention: Understand and correctly share your intention or why message so you will attract the right prospects and be more effective in converting those prospects to customers. See Simon Sinek’s TED Talk, Start With Why.

Time: Commit to investing a set amount of time each day on your social selling efforts. Creating a checklist or daily action plan will help you to be consistent as well as efficient with the time you have and keep you on track and on task.

Trust: Trust must be earned and this takes time, so commit to building relationships and trust without rushing the sale. Without trust, there can be no sale.

If you want to take your social selling efforts to the next level, you need to invest in your LinkedIn Currency. Once you have shown you offer true value and have built a solid relationship with your prospects (they know, like and trust you), they will be much more inclined to do business with you when the need arises.

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Want to learn more from social selling experts who are just like Melonie? Then check out our latest eBook, Proven Strategies from the World's Top Sales Professionals

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