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The moment I realized what life really could be
I can proudly say that I was one of the first 1 million members to join LinkedIn. This was back in 2004, and I didn’t really focus on the platform that much at the time.
I was happy in my life and had a comfortable job so I was letting things exist on auto-pilot. After a while, I wanted more and a friend gave me a copy of Richard Branson’s book “Screw It, Let’s Do It!”
This book was a game-changer for me. It opened my mind up to the possibilities of what life could be.
It led me to quit my safe job and going into business for myself. Now, I needed clients to survive and suddenly LinkedIn popped back into my mind.
I gave the site a try and within a few weeks I had landed 3 clients. They were all early-adopters like myself, so we were on the same page.
During the 2008 financial crisis, I began sharing more of what I learned using the platform with other people.
At the end of the year, a few of my friends invited me to speak about LinkedIn at their company functions. It was supposed to be a small group, but I ended up presenting to a room of over 60 people!
I was nervous at first, but once I started talking I fell in love with the feeling! Since then I’ve helped thousands of folks with social selling and I’ve been happy ever since.
LinkedIn is all you need
Social selling is all about creating a mindset shift. Salespeople have been trained to think like hunters when it comes to closing sales.With social selling, it’s not so much about selling as it is about creating relationships and engagement with your audience.
I had a scary experience years ago while I was driving with my family. I briefly lost control of the car while we were on the highway and we spun out of control.
Luckily, everyone was fine, but my heart my racing and my life flashed before my eyes. My six-year-old, on the other hand, thought it was the coolest thing to ever happen.
Go figure! That’s the power of perspective for you.
Social selling is all about your ability to connect, collect, and convert relationships into prospects and then sales. LinkedIn is really all you need to be successful with this strategy.Headline not on point? Forget about connecting
First off, you need to have a professional profile. The headline and summary are the first two areas that require attention. If you don’t win someone over with your headline and then your summary, forget about it! They’re going to move on to someone else.
I also recommend you include a call to action of some sort so you can convert new contacts onto your own list and begin a relationship from there.
Include your keywords in your current job title. If your job title is just “account manager” you’re not doing enough to differentiate yourself from the masses.
Once your profile is set up, you need to produce good content for the platform. I call this LinkedIn personal branding and you can do it all in maximum 20 minutes a day.
Don’t spend more time on it than that.
Action Steps
- Include relevant keywords in your headline and job summary.
- Make sure your job title is descriptive and eye-catching.
- Create some type of CTA for your personal description that can convert profile visitors back to your website.
- Provide a relevant lead magnet then that will increase conversions further.
Result You Will Achieve
A LinkedIn profile that’s set up for you to excel at social selling.
This article is based on an EHQ interview with the mentor.