The was the sales challenges

“Unlike other B2B organizations, professional service firms don’t have traditional sales teams,” says Alexander Low, Head of Client Development for JLL’s Office Agency business. “As professionals move up the ranks, they move from executing work to generating business for themselves—sometimes with little formal training in sales. They don’t necessarily see themselves as salespeople.”

Alexander believes that social selling offers far greater opportunities than cold calling, and saw an opportunity to leverage JLL’s rich relationships. “We shouldn't necessarily have to take the cold approach to prospects and clients,” he shares. “We have an extremely valuable roster of organizations that we already work with.” At the same time, he explains, colleagues are protective of existing relationships. This can impede new sales, as colleagues are wary of stepping on each other’s toes or giving the client the impression that they don’t talk internally.

JLL needed a solution that empowered its professionals to find and leverage these existing connections both delicately and effectively: Sales Navigator was a perfect fit. The company deployed Sales Navigator to key members across the UK, Asia Pacific, and US.

Who are the target audience?

Thanks to their comprehensive range of professional services, JLL professionals target a broad array of investors, developers, property owners, and organizations across nearly every industry, including banking, hospitality, industrial, legal, and technology sectors. Due to this wide scope and JLL’s large footprint in the market, sales teams face the demanding tasks of prioritizing targets and distinguishing those who already enjoy an existing relationship with JLL.

What about the results?

As JLL deployed LinkedIn Sales Navigator, the sales organization integrated LinkedIn’s Social Selling Index (SSI) as a key metric to benchmark its performance against competitors, resulting in a more efficient, connected, and productive sales force. SSI measures how you perform against the 4 elements on LinkedIn: establishing your professional brand, finding the decision makers, engaging with insights, and connecting and building relationships outside your immediate network.

Just eight months since JLL adopted Sales Navigator, JLL has seen its sales performance on LinkedIn increase and its total SSI skyrocket to an SSI of 47.7, doubling its average employee score of 21.6, and outpacing the competition’s average of 28.6 by 60%. JLL’s teams are now over twice as likely to connect and build strong relationships, compared to competing firms (22.1 vs. 10.8) and 57% better at finding the right decision makers (9.1 vs. 5.8).

JLL wins new business and shortens its lengthy sales cycle by using Sales Navigator’s TeamLink tool to discover when JLL colleagues on LinkedIn Sales Navigator have connections with prospects and accounts—assuaging fears of intruding on existing relationships.

“TeamLink recently revealed a senior-level connection to a hedge fund we were targeting,” says Alexander. “We got an introduction and pitched a project worth £40,000. Extrapolate that out, and Sales Navigator could easily identify several million pounds in potential new revenue. The ROI speaks for itself.”

David Reynolds, National Director for JLL in the UK, embraces Sales Navigator to boost productivity while developing personal connections with crucial leads and customers. “People are extremely busy, myself included. We don’t have much time to take long lunches to meet new people,” David explains. “Sales Navigator helps us make those introductions and get our foot in the door faster. It’s a much more focused approach to social media, and has already brought me five new projects with an approximate fee value of £130,000.”

“In the past eight months with Sales Navigator, my team has booked in the region of £150,000 in new revenue. Factoring in the length of our sales cycle, the top quartile of users alone have built a pipeline of close to £1,000,000,” Alexander shares. “Sales Navigator was instrumental in helping us identify all this revenue.”

 

Sales Navigator gives JLL the advantage. Compared to competing firms JLL is:

About JLL

JLL provides commercial real estate strategy, services, and support to organizations all over the world. Specializing in commercial real estate and investment management, JLL serve clients in over 75 countries and manage over 3 billion square feet across the globe. With corporate roots dating back to 1783, JLL now stands as one of the largest commercial real estate firms in the world.