Who Are You on LinkedIn? Circus Performers, Salespeople and Visibility.
If you are in sales and not seeing the importance of LinkedIn, then you are missing something vital to your continued success
LinkedIn has evolved. Over time, it has become a powerful platform for building credibility, nurturing prospects, and generating sales opportunities. If you are in sales and not seeing the importance of it, then you are missing something vital to your continued success. Just as worrying is the thought that while you are not making the most of LinkedIn, there’s a good chance your competitors are… and that means they’re gaining ground.
How LinkedIn went from job hunting to shop front.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, most people saw LinkedIn as a professional networking site. It was a sort of online CV repository and advice centre. Yes, it has other functions, but primarily, it was a sort of glorified job board where you could show off your CV and experience.
During the lockdown, though, the role of LinkedIn changed, particularly in the sales arena. As in-person networking opportunities disappeared, sales professionals began turning to LinkedIn to not just stay connected with clients and customers but also to prospect, engage and actively sell to new ones. In fairness, the platform was moving in that direction anyway, and salespeople were already starting to use it as a lead generator, but the pandemic hurried the change and amplified it.
Today, LinkedIn is a hybrid creature. A complex mix of business directory and storefront that is also built on the previous changes. It still maintains the job opportunity and advice aspects, but since Covid made us all reality stars as well as professionals, it has edged towards social media as well in some respects. LinkedIn is a growing, evolving, presence in the lives of salespeople, and it has considerable influence over buyers.
For businesses, it’s a place to showcase expertise, brand identity, and client success. For salespeople, it has become a vital tool for building a professional presence, demonstrating value, and engaging with potential customers in a non-intrusive, informative way.
In short, LinkedIn matters.
LinkedIn as a Sales Tool
It’s vital that sales teams understand the power of LinkedIn as a sales tool. From lead generation to insights about products and people, it has a particular role to play. LinkedIn enables sales professionals to identify decision-makers, understand customer needs, build trust long before a sales conversation takes place, and then maintain that trust after the close. In fact, a study by LinkedIn found that social selling leaders create 45% more opportunities than their peers and are 51% more likely to achieve their quota (LinkedIn Sales Solutions, 2022).
Those numbers alone should explain why I offer LinkedIn for Sales training to help professionals and teams harness its full potential. Done right, it can turn connections into conversations, and then you can turn those conversations into customers.
Who are you on LinkedIn?
‘How am I seen on LinkedIn’ is now one of the most important questions a sales professional can ask themselves. Your LinkedIn profile is more than just a list of jobs and achievements, it’s a reflection of how you want to be seen in your industry and by your clients and customers. Your profile and presence work as a sort of digital handshake. They set the tone of a sales relationship a long time before a meeting is booked.
Your buyers are looking for someone they can trust to solve their problems. A good sales professional is not just there to sell a product, they are there to guide customers. To work with them and guide them to the right solution. LinkedIn is part of that process. Most importantly, it is part of that process whether you want it to be or not because just as LinkedIn has evolved, so has the buyer journey.
Who do buyers see when they find you on LinkedIn?
The buyer's journey has changed dramatically because LinkedIn has inserted itself into the buying process in a very big way. As a result, if your LinkedIn presence is out of date, not up to scratch or, worse still, non-existent, you are missing a link in the sales chain.
If you fall into the above categories, the following statistic will certainly worry you.
75% of B2B buyers research vendors online through social media, with LinkedIn being the most commonly used platform (Source: IDC via LinkedIn, 2022).
The takeaway from that research is undeniable. Buyers are probably using platforms like LinkedIn to research you before engaging with you as a salesperson.
Take a moment to think about that.
It means that independent research on LinkedIn will most likely happen, and therefore, how you stack up a professional can have a direct impact on the likelihood of a sale. Before they even take your call or reply to your email, they’re checking your LinkedIn profile to see if you:
- Seem knowledgeable about their industry and needs
- Are sharing useful, relevant insights
- Have credible experience, training and knowledge
If your presence and profile are incomplete, outdated, or simply not there, you risk losing credibility. You may even lose the sales opportunity altogether.
LinkedIn is not about ‘if’; it’s about ‘how’
It’s no longer a question of whether your competitors are using LinkedIn. They are there, and they are most likely very active. It’s not a question of if they are doing it; it’s about how well they’re doing it. The top-performing salespeople are using the platform regularly. They are building relationships, nurturing leads, and establishing trust through content and engagement.
According to LinkedIn’s State of Sales report, top-performing salespeople are 33% more likely to use LinkedIn for networking than their peers. These professionals are active, visible, and leveraging the platform. They are using it to connect with decision makers, buyers, and the crucially, the people who influence purchase decisions. If you are not there when they go looking and someone else is, then OK, maybe you will still get the business, but you will have to succeed despite your competition having started with the LinkedIn advantage. Adding a barrier like that to a potential sale simply makes no sense.
You may be wondering why there is a mention of circus performers in the title. Well, it is there as a perfect example of just how important LinkedIn has become. Once, in a training session, we got on the subject of finding a career or job role that didn’t use LinkedIn. I joked that ‘perhaps circus performers were the only people who didn’t need to sell on LinkedIn.’ When I checked, there were over 200,000 of them listed. I guess it doesn’t matter what you are selling because LinkedIn is almost ubiquitous in any sector and relevant to almost every market.
LinkedIn is clearly vital to salespeople
LinkedIn can be where relationships begin, where trust is built, and where opportunities are often won or lost. Your presence should reflect the professional you are and the value you bring to your company and to your customers in a way your customers want to see. Whether you’re building your network, researching prospects, or establishing yourself as a trusted advisor, LinkedIn is not optional; it’s essential.
If you are managing a sales team that needs development or just want to know more about LinkedIn training, drop me a line or call me. The details are on the contact page here, or call on 01604 532004
