If you are a Safety Surfacing installer, you want to get more customers in a wide territory and you are still not using social media, the answer is yes, at least you must be on LinkedIn, and I will develop why a bit later in this post.
As majority of LinkedIn members I started my account there as a job search and Curricular social network. I did it back in 2008 and would only enter the account to update a new skill, training courses or job positions and during very long periods I had no activity at all on LinkedIn.
During the last few years a lot of things changed on LinkedIn. The company was acquired by Microsoft, they improved navigation and search and it became mainly a sales tool. The growth of users was impressive with more than 740 million “active” users and more than 58 Million companies ending 2020, so becoming essential for our activity that is mainly of B2B nature (business to business).
As more and more users started to use LinkedIn as a sales tool, the company developed specific products for these tasks as SALES NAVIGATOR but even LinkedIn alone is a great sales tool for the modern connected economy sales process.
Internet and the digital landscape have changed all our buying habits. You are also probably ordering things at Amazon, booking flights by Internet and looking at the most recommended hotel or restaurant at TripAdvisor as I do. The same is happening for all Buyers and Supply Chain Managers on B2B companies. Before contacting any sales guy, they will surf on Internet and Social Networks to research and understand the products or services, see the potential suppliers and make a short list of alternative ones they can trust. They try to avoid the salesperson as much as possible and when they meet one, they may know a lot about the product they want and have references of main suppliers from other users or experts in their network. As a reaction of this different way to buy we also need to start a different way to sale.
In addition to this the COVID worldwide problem, made face to face meetings impossible and the social media tools and the video conferencing applications became essential for any company and professional for whatever business segment, accelerating an already existing trend to social selling. The rise of users on LinkedIn was impressive, with 100 million new users in just a bit more than one year.
We have to change the way we worked in the past and move to what is called modern sales or social selling and connected business. If you are an old-style sales guy using only your long-time relationships and contacts, that’s OK, keep and use these skills, but you will have to get the competences and move to become an Hybrid Sales person using all kind of communication channels used by your potential customers.
For B2B, LinkedIn is the first place where your customers are, and you must be. You can also try Twitter, Instagram and Facebook as a second priority but currently they are more successful for B2C (business to consumer).
First thing you must do, is to create or edit your existing personal LinkedIn profile to move it from a CV profile to your own personal image or shop space where you present yourself with authenticity and let your community or network know which kind of expertise, they can get from you. The shop is your business card and is open 24 hours per day, 365 days per year.
Second step is to start engaging with your network and let it growth, posting interesting content as your recent project’s pictures, prospecting for new people to talk to, sharing, linking. The shop is only open if the salesperson is engaging. This mean spending some time on LinkedIn, maybe at least a 3 hours per week.
When doing this properly you may end-up having a network where you have trust and authority on your field. The quality of the network is more important than the number.
If you post contents, your contacts and potential customers will have you in mind first when they need your products or services.
In LinkedIn you are also able to get a lot of information of what is happening at your business, your competitors, your suppliers and your potential customers.
You will have to use your traditional sales skills and maintain traditional sales methods to develop your relationships and build rapport with your contacts but what LinkedIn will give you is an easier way to do this using online techniques and to reach the buyers early enough in their decision-making process.
See you on the net or on the real-life world.
Take care
Rubberman Blog 