If I told you there was a tool that could increase your sales rep’s performance by 100 percent or more, would you ask about it? Of course! But, the name of the tool won’t surprise you, simply because you use it already: it’s LinkedIn.
Now, before saying, “I’ve tried it, and nothing happened,” remember that how we use a tool makes all the difference. If someone gave you a lifetime membership to the most luxurious gym in your city, would that make you fitter? Not necessarily — it depends more on our training routine, not on the fancy weight and machines at hand.
In this post, you’ll learn two ways you can start turning LinkedIn into a social selling tool that gets your MSP more meetings with potential clients.
Set a LinkedIn SMART goal
A S.M.A.R.T goal is specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-based. Think like an athlete for a moment. If you practice anything without knowing what you’re trying to improve, practice won’t help. Same principle goes for LinkedIn. First, we need to identify our objective and then we can build a plan.
For example, identify 50 high-quality prospects from your CRM that, despite your sales representative’s best efforts, haven’t agreed to meet you and make a bridge to them via LinkedIn. Start by printing a list of those companies and putting it somewhere visible on your desk. What’s the goal? You should send connection invites to the Presidents and COOs for those companies over the next 60 days.
Specific: 100 connection attempts over the next 60 days.
Measurable: Check names on the list. Better yet, track it in your CRM.
Attainable: It should take about 5 minutes per connection sent.
Relevant: Absolutely.
Time-based: Complete in two months.
Approaching LinkedIn with S.M.A.R.T. goals will make the platform a bottom-line booster because there’s a purpose and call to action behind every single login.
Referral program 2.0
Remember the referral program you put in place that was supposed to regularly bring in new clients? I bet it includes a landing page on your website, a few email blasts, and maybe some bonuses sprinkled in. If it didn’t work as well as you’d hoped, the reason why may surprise you.
The following, taken from an episode of Hidden Brain, may explain why old-school referral programs collect dust:
“This was actually at a conference that I run on habits on Catalina Island here in California. That year we had a bunch of European participants and I’ve noticed that Europeans eat lots of fruit. So, I ordered extra food for them. But, the cafeteria folks had put the fruit in a box that was just to the side of the cafeteria line, and no one was eating it.
I noticed it, so I put it right in the middle of the line, and it went immediately. But by then, the bananas were a little brownish. If I had made it easy and obvious how to get the fruit, people ate it.
The moral is that we humans, we’re creatures of habit. We’re not necessarily logical all the time. If we want more referrals, we need to “put the fruit in the middle of the line.” By that I mean, make it easier for friends to refer us by connecting and engaging with them on LinkedIn.
Here’s the LinkedIn to-do: send connections to every client, vendor account managers, and to neighboring business CEOs. Make it easier for friends to refer you by being active in the place where everyone is in a networking mindset.
Photo: Twin Design / Shutterstock
