The Ultimate LinkedIn Sales Guide
Beschreibung
With the impact of COVID, remote working has become big, and so has the use of digital/virtual sales tools. More sales teams want and need to understand how to use social media platforms like LinkedIn to sell, and most do not use it properly. The Ultimate LinkedIn Sales Guide is the go-to book and guide for utilizing LinkedIn to sell. It covers all aspects of social and digital selling, including building the ultimate LinkedIn profile, using the searching functions to find customers, sending effective LinkedIn messages (written, audio & video), creating great content that generates sales, and all the latest tips and tricks, strategies and tools. With the right LinkedIn knowledge, you can attract customers and generate leads, improving your sales numbers from the comfort and safety of your computer.
No matter what you are selling, LinkedIn can connect you to buyers. If you're savvy, you can stay in touch with clients and generate more repeat sales, build trust, and create engaging content that will spread by word-of-mouth--the most powerful sales strategy around. This book will teach you how to do all that and more. In The Ultimate LinkedIn Sales Guide you will learn how to:
* Use the proven 4 Pillars of Social Selling Success to improve your existing LinkedIn activities or get started on a firm footing
* Create the Ultimate LinkedIn Profile, complete with a strong personal brand that could catapult you to industry leader status
* Generate leads using LinkedIn, then build and manage relationships with connected accounts to turn those leads into customers
* Utilize little-known LinkedIn "power tools" to grow your network, send effective messages, and write successful LinkedIn articles
* And so much more!
The Ultimate LinkedIn Sales Guide is a must read for anyone wishing to utilise LinkedIn to improve sales.
Weitere Details
Weitere Ausgaben
Andere Ausgaben
Person
www.thedailysales.net
Inhalt
About the Author xvii
Introduction xxiii
Part 1 About LinkedIn 1
Chapter 1 The History of LinkedIn 3
Chapter 2 LinkedIn Free versus Premium/Sales Navigator 7
Chapter 3 The Pillars of LinkedIn Success 13
Part 2 The Perfect Profile 19
Chapter 4 Creating a Fully Optimised LinkedIn Profile 21
Chapter 5 Your Digital Suit or Dress... 29
Chapter 6 Common LinkedIn Profile Mistakes 37
Chapter 7 Building the Ultimate LinkedIn Profile 43
Part 3 Growing Your Network 73
Chapter 8 Using LinkedIn Searches 75
Chapter 9 Growing Your LinkedIn Network 87
Chapter 10 Sending Personalised Connection Requests 97
Part 4 Messaging 107
Chapter 11 LinkedIn Messaging 109
Chapter 12 LinkedIn Message Templates 119
Chapter 13 LinkedIn Audio and Video Messages 127
Part 5 Content 155
Chapter 14 Sharing Content on LinkedIn 157
Chapter 15 Creating Content on LinkedIn 173
Chapter 16 Writing Articles on LinkedIn 221
Chapter 17 Creating Viral Content on LinkedIn 237
Part 6 Personal Branding 245
Chapter 18 Building an Industry-Leading Personal Brand 247
Chapter 19 Generating Leads from LinkedIn 259
Part 7 Sales Strategy 265
Chapter 20 Account-Based Marketing, Managing Accounts & Building Digital Relationships 267
Chapter 21 Multi-Touch Selling 271
Chapter 22 Linked In Tools, Technology & Software 275
Chapter 23 Measuring Results on LinkedIn & Your SSI Score 281
Chapter 24 LinkedIn Sales Navigator Tips 285
Chapter 25 The Future of Social & Digital Selling 293
Chapter 26 The Prospecting Maze 299
Working with Daniel Disney 311
Acknowledgements 323
Index 329
CHAPTER 7
BUILDING THE ULTIMATE LINKEDIN PROFILE
Let's dive straight into how you can build the ultimate customer-focused LinkedIn profile designed to help you sell.
LINKEDIN PROFILE URL
Character Limit - 30
Whenever you first joined LinkedIn, they would have created a unique web address for your individual profile. It's normally something like www.linkedin.com/in/d234f87hgsn820 (a random collection of letters and numbers). The first thing I would recommend doing is customizing this, so it looks more professional when people view your profile.
When you go onto your profile on LinkedIn, you'll see in the top right-hand corner the option to 'Edit public profile & URL'. Click on that and on the next page, in the same spot in the top right-hand corner, you'll see the option to 'Edit your custom URL'.
What I would recommend is then deleting the random letters and numbers and changing it to your name, or your name and business. Mine is http://www.linkedin.com/in/danieldisney.
LINKEDIN PROFILE PHOTO
Recommended Photo Size - 400 X 400
LinkedIn profiles with photos get 21x more views and 36x more messages.
(Source: LinkedIn)
The first place I'd recommend starting is with your profile photo. This is often the first thing that will be noticed on your profile, which means it has a big impact on the first impression that you make. I mentioned earlier some of the common mistakes people make when choosing a profile photo, the wedding photo being the most common!
Several years ago, it was really difficult to get a good profile photo, but right now, in 2020 and beyond, it has never been easier.
The best option that I would recommend is to get a professional headshot photo taken. Having a professional photographer guide you to the right angle, bring proper lighting equipment and proper backgrounds will always create the best possible photo.
If you're based in the UK, I'd highly recommend 'Shoot Me Now'. David Green is their extremely talented professional photographer and is the man behind my profile photo on LinkedIn right now.
LINKEDIN PROFILES WITH PROFESSIONAL HEADSHOTS GET 14X MORE PROFILE VIEWS (SOURCE: LINKEDIN)
Many professional or headshot photographers offer LinkedIn packages, and the cost is often very reasonable. Again, think about how much you have spent on your work clothes; the cost of a professional photo will rarely be anything similar to that, yet is equally as important.
If you can't afford it, however, another option is to look at local or regional trade shows and events. There are now a lot of companies who will bring a professional photographer with them and offer free LinkedIn headshots in exchange for your details and the option to send marketing emails to you. A few emails into your inbox is a pretty fair exchange for a professional headshot.
The next best option that I would recommend, and this works very well, is to take a photo (or get a friend/colleague to take a photo) on a phone. Most phones these days have super-powerful cameras that take amazing photos.
My advice is to find a plain-coloured wall somewhere that is super-well-lit (ideally with natural lighting) and to get someone to stand a few feet away from you and take a nice headshot (shoulders and above).
Whilst this will not be as good as having a professional photographer do it, I'm confident it will probably be better than the photo you selected from your cousin's wedding last year!
PROFILE PHOTO TIPS
- - Have a plain background behind you. This will amplify you, whereas a cluttered background will distract the viewer from you. If possible, have the colour of the photo background match the colour of your LinkedIn background, which we will cover in the next section.
- - The photo should be of your shoulders and above.
- - Ideally you should be looking at the camera and smiling.
- - Aim to have your face taking up at least 60% of the frame.
- - Dress in the sort of clothes you wear at work.
LINKEDIN BACKGROUND/BANNER IMAGE
Recommended Image Size - 1584 x 396
Behind your profile photo sits your LinkedIn background/banner, which is one of the most under-used parts of LinkedIn profiles.
It's an amazing bit of space that I like to call your own personal billboard. It's your opportunity to help show people what it is that you do and how you might be able to help them.
Similar to your profile photo, this used to be very difficult to do. Only if you paid for LinkedIn's Premium version would you get a set of template backgrounds that you could use to make your profile stronger. Now, however, it is super-easy to create amazing LinkedIn backgrounds that bring your profile to life.
For the last couple of years I have personally used a platform called Canva (www.canva.com). It's completely free, although it does have a paid upgrade option with some pretty good features. I've built my backgrounds over the last few years on the free account.
Canva has predesigned templates for LinkedIn banners plus the option to create them from scratch, where you can choose the colour, add your logo and any relevant photos and as well as text.
Remember, the focus of this isn't to push what you sell, but to show people how you might be able to help them. I'd recommend having a photo of your product (if it is a physical product) or your company logo, followed by as few words as possible to showcase what you offer, like this:
Top Tip
If you can match the colour of your background to the background colour of your profile photo, this will make it stand out even more. For example, the background behind my profile photo is the same red that my background/banner image is.
One thing that I think works really well if you work with a team of people, not just in sales, is where ALL the profiles have the same background/photo style. This creates a social uniform.
Let's say that I had a team of people or ran a business with people in different departments. I would encourage everyone to have the same red background/banner image and the same style of profile photo, ideally taken by the same professional photographer, with the same red colour behind it.
(Check out the team at Gong.io who bring this to life.)
For anyone looking to take their profile to the next level, there are now companies offering professionally designed LinkedIn profile banners. I used the 'LinkedIn Banner Boy' Jack Bainbridge to design mine and he was able to design something that I'd never be able to do myself. A small investment for a very important part of social selling. Email hello@iamproductionsgroup.com for more information on their LinkedIn services.
LINKEDIN NAME AND HEADLINE
LinkedIn Name
Character Limit - First Name 20 characters, Last Name 40 characters
After your banner it's time to look at your name. This may sound like a weird one to have to think about, but you do have a few options.
As you'll see on my profile, I have an emoji before my name. This was added recently to test how many people were using third-party software applications to spam people on LinkedIn. These software platforms are unable to distinguish the emoji from the name, and so when a message comes through starting with 'Hi (Emoji)', you know it's not from a real person.
With regards to whether you should put an emoji in front of your name, I'd recommend doing what you feel works best for you, your personal brand and industry. For example, I've seen people who work at Hootsuite have the emoji of an owl next to their name, which is the logo for their company! Use it if it works, but don't worry if it doesn't, it makes very little difference.
Some people also choose to extend their name with a phrase or keywords relevant to what they sell. I could change mine to:
DANIEL DISNEY LINKEDIN AUTHOR, SPEAKER & TRAINER
I've tested this, and also spoken to several people who have done this, and can confirm it makes little or zero difference from a sales or personal branding perspective. Having just your name is just as successful.
LINKEDIN HEADLINE
Character Limit - 120
After your name comes your headline .
For most people your headline is simply your job title. It could be Sales Development Rep, it could be Account Executive, VP of Sales, etc.
There are three ways you can write your headline that work.
Important
I have A/B tested all of these styles many times over the years, both on my personal profile and also with many of the companies that I work with. In my experience there is MINIMAL difference between them. I've seen each of them generate great results; my advice is to choose the one that you feel best aligns to you and your personal brand.
- Style 1 - Your job title
- Style 2 - We help people...
