Get the Most from LinkedIn Sales Navigator [Social Selling Ebook]
Selling in today’s environment is challenging. Buyers are exposed to countless marketing messages, have endless product options, and complete the majority of their research online. To effectively sell in this dynamic and noisy environment, sales teams need to adapt and shift their strategy. They need to seamlessly weave together offline and online interactions, while also standing out from the crowd.
Social selling is just one approach that smart sales teams are taking as they adapt to the modern buyer. In short, social selling is when salespeople build relationships using social networks with the end goal of selling more.
To jump-start their social selling efforts, many companies turn to LinkedIn Sales Navigator, a paid platform that helps sales reps find the right people at the right companies and stay up to date on what’s happening at their accounts. However, it’s not immediately obvious to many LinkedIn users how to harness the power of Sales Navigator. That’s why we’ve put together a short guide.
Before you start flipping through the guide, let’s take a look at one of the most common mistakes sales reps make and how they can remedy it.
A Quintessential Social Selling Mistake
Many sales reps fret over their LinkedIn profiles or writing the perfect connection request to a prospect or customer. While those are important, that’s not where many reps go wrong.
Sadly, many sellers forget to research their buyers and then tailor their engagement to each individual buyer. Sure, they might personalize an interaction by changing a first name or a company name as they go about copying and pasting messages. But they don’t individualize their messages for each buyer.
Remember that social selling is about creating meaningful relationships for the sales rep and the buyer. In other words, a social selling connection is not about pushing a product on the buyer as quickly as possible. The salesperson must create real value for the individual buyer before sales negotiations can begin.
To add value, reps need to first understand their prospects by researching each prospect. They can use the “Recent Activity” feature on LinkedIn’s platform. Or, with Sales Navigator, reps can see their prospects’ recent posts on their homepage and start to better understand their prospects.
By looking at what their prospects share, reps can extract sales intel. They can learn about their prospects’ professional interests, understand their pain points, familiarize themselves with initiatives at the prospects’ companies, and get to know their buyers’ personalities. A template like this one can help you get organized:
As you research buyers, don’t forget: LinkedIn isn’t the only place reps can gather intel. Consider checking other social networks like Twitter, as well. Often times, other social networks will show you a different side of your buyers. LinkedIn tends to be a more buttoned-up network.
Listen First. Engage Second.
Make this your mantra: Listen first. Engage second.
Today, forming individual connections with your buyers is not optional. It’s absolutely required. Tools liked LinkedIn Sales Navigator can help you get started. You just have to know how to use them correctly.
For more information on how you can maximize your investment in LinkedIn Sales Navigator, check out our newest ebook!