“Communicate more. Ask questions and make your own decisions based on your situation. Be safe and take care of yourself.” – Scott Ingram in today’s Tip 419

How about you?

Join the conversation below and share your thoughts!

[email protected]
Sales Success Stories Podcast
Sales Success Stories Book – 60 Stories from 20 Top 1% Sales Professionals
Submit a Sales Tip

Have feedback? Want to share a sales tip? Call or text the Sales Success Hotline: 512-777-1442 or Email: [email protected]

Transcript

Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. We’re experiencing a time where there really aren’t tips available based on previous experience. This is unknown territory in so many ways. You’re probably going to have to figure some things out for yourself and make some decisions for yourself. I believe this idea generally, but especially now and that is that there’s no such thing as too many conversations. Don’t bury your head in the sand or ignore realities. Talk to your clients and future clients about that deal that you have in the works about how the current environment might affect outcomes and timelines. Talk to your leadership about their thoughts, expectations, and recommendations. Talk to your peers. Talk to your family. I’ve been talking a lot with my family because we’re planning on going on a short ski trip next week while my daughters are on spring break. As I record this we’re still planning to go. Again, we’ve had lots of conversations to make that determination. When in doubt, and there’s plenty of doubt right now. Communicate more. Ask questions and make your own decisions based on your situation. Be safe and take care of yourself.

And as always, be sure to come back tomorrow for another great sales tip!

“Be thoughtful about how you’re using my time and how we can be most efficient to get this project done that’s important to both of us.” – Jeff Bajorek in today’s Tip 418

How about you? How do you schedule a meeting?

Join the conversation below and share your thoughts!

Jeff Bajorek Website
Jeff’Bajorek on LinkedIn
Jeff’Bajorek on YouTube
The Why And The Buy Podcast
Submit a Sales Tip

Have feedback? Want to share a sales tip? Call or text the Sales Success Hotline: 512-777-1442 or Email: [email protected]

Transcript

Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. It’s Thursday, so here’s your weekly dose of Jeff Bajorek:

Jeff Bajorek: “Hey, we should meet next week.” “Yeah, that’s great. When’s good for you?” “Oh no. Whatever works for you. Just let me know it was good.” “No, no, really. I mean, I’ve got all kinds of flexibility that..” Please stop it. I see this happen all the time. It happens with people you work with. It happens with prospective clients. It happens with your good customers. Everybody’s trying to be polite. You know what’s really polite, not wasting my time talking about scheduling a meeting. The way to be the most polite and also get things done is to be specific about your ask. “Hey, we’ve got a lot to talk about here. I think it’s probably best if we set aside some time to do that. How’s next Tuesday afternoon, say 3:30 your time, right?” What’s the worst that can happen? They say, No. I know you’re afraid to hear. No, like terrified of hearing the word no, but when they say no, what are they going to do? The ball is in their core. To actually make another suggestion, not just suggest that we’re going to meet, ” You know what? 3:30 my time doesn’t work. I’ve got a thing that afternoon. Can you do the next day? Maybe in the morning?” Look, if you end up going back a few times and there’s a bunch of digital tools to make this so much easier, right? But even if you end up going back and forth a few times, at least there’s with a specific focus and direction, not just, I’m going to be as polite as I can and really not make an offer. Think about what you’re doing. We understand your intentions and being thoughtful is important, but be thoughtful in another way. Be thoughtful about how you’re using my time and how we can be most efficient to get this project done that’s important to both of us.

Scott Ingram: For more about Jeff, including the video version of this tip, just click over to DailySales.Tips/418.

Then be sure to come back tomorrow for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!

“Starting out your communication in this way puts you in a less than position and it creates an imbalance between you and your potential client, and that imbalance is where the chasing starts and the sales games begin.” – Liz Wendling in today’s Tip 417

Are you always using this email phrases?

Join the conversation below and share your own thoughts!

Liz Wendling Website (FREE Audio Program)
Liz Wendling Blog
The Heart of Authentic Selling
Sell Without Selling Your Soul
Liz Wendling on LinkedIn

Have feedback? Want to share a sales tip? Call or text the Sales Success Hotline: 512-777-1442 or Email: [email protected]

Transcript

Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. Today’s tip comes from Liz Wending. Liz is a nationally recognized business and sales consultant and the author of 6 books. Liz shows professionals how to make a profound difference in the way they sell and communicate both online and offline. Here she is with one of those ideas:

Liz Wendling: Many professionals don’t produce the results they desire when they’re online prospecting and trying to communicate online because they’re unknowingly sending messages, sometimes dozens a day that sound salesy and self-serving. And they come across salesy and self-serving because you’re using the same words, phrases and language as the spammers. You have some bad habits, bad language habits that sabotage your efforts, dilute your power and diminish your ability to present yourself with confidence. And I call them word landmines, lazy language and phrase grenades that show up in your communication and cause opportunities to blow up in your face. And I want to give you a few examples and as I go through them, I just want you to pay attention and think of how many times these show up in your messages. And my examples are in no particular order, they’re all equal offenders. And this is just a shortlist of so many more.

Let’s talk about minimizers the, I call it the minimizer before the message. Minimizers are words that lower your status, they sound apologetic and they come across like your apologizing for doing your job. Minimizers diminish your credibility and weaken your message. This is where you actually give your power away right out of the gate in an email. And they sound like this; I know you get a lot of emails, so I’ll be brief. I know you have a lot going on, so I don’t want to keep bothering you. I know you’re busy, so I won’t waste your time. I know your plate is full, so I’ll get to the point. I know you’re swamped, so I’ll be quick. Excuse my persistence. Sorry to trouble you again. I hate to keep bugging you. Stop, stop apologizing, stop diminishing yourself. Stop giving away your power and confidence in the very first sentence of your email. This makes you come across like you are not sure about what you’re doing. There’s no confidence in those words and keep in mind these phrases are for you, they’re not for the recipient. You use them because they put you at ease and they make you feel good using them. They make you feel like you’re being nice while you’re being persistent, but they’re only serving you, not the receiver.

Starting out your communication in this way puts you in a less than position and it creates an imbalance between you and your potential client, and that imbalance is where the chasing starts and the sales games begin. And your potential client, your ideal customer starts treating you differently. They get the width that you don’t have the confidence because of the language that you’re using and they start playing around with you. They start avoiding you. They stop emailing you back and they make you jump through hoops and you do take your power backstop using phrases and words like this and strip it from your email. They are no longer necessary on your path to profits.

Scott Ingram: As always we’ve got more about Liz for you at DailySales.Tips/417. One of those links will take you to a free audio program where Liz will show you how to transform your sales language and change your sales results.

Then come on back tomorrow for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening

“If you know what your best case, you know what your worst-case looks like, you’re prepared and ready to keep moving, keep taking action, and keep increasing that upward spiraling and momentum to have your best quarter you’ve ever had.” – Eneida Canev in today’s Tip 416

How you can improve your recoil time?

Join the conversation below and learn more about Eneida!

Eneida Canev on LinkedIn
Her Sales Resource
398: Recoil Time – Eneida Canev
Submit a Sales Tip

Have feedback? Want to share a sales tip? Call or text the Sales Success Hotline: 512-777-1442 or Email: [email protected]

Transcript

You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. Today Eneida Canev is back. Eneida is a sales and speaking coach at Her Sales Resource and talked about Recoil time in tip #398. That tip was really well received and one listener asked about how you can improve your recoil time. Eneida was kind enough to record this follow-up:

Eneida Canev: To be successful in selling, you have to be intentional about your activities and also about your responses to results in your day. This is where recoil time comes in. You want to minimize it and constantly be working on minimizing the time it takes for you to recover from setbacks and victories. So in order to do that, you plan, you just get out a mental checklist of how you will react in both scenarios of worst case and best case.

Here’s an example. Worst case scenario decides for you what would be the worst-case scenario situation that could happen to you this month. It could be a demotion, a chargeback, a client falling through, territory cut, compensation plan change, whatever the absolute worst thing can be. Decide what it is and then put a plan in place on how you will react if that does happen. See if you’re making this plan while you’re in a logical frame of mind, it’s going to be easier for you to actually follow through when the emotion hits you. Okay?

So if let’s say the compensation plan changes, that would be the absolute worst case in your pay gets cut and then plan now. Okay, what would I do if my pay got cut in half? Well, I would then have this list of people ready to call because I would want to double up my efforts. That could be a result. So then everything that happens to you during that month, if it’s a setback, you ask yourself, is this the worst-case scenario? Probably not. If it’s not a worst-case scenario, then it’ll be easier for you to keep moving because you have a plan in place even if the absolute worst of the worst were to happen. It’ll put your setbacks into perspective and then allow you to move forward faster.

Do the same thing with victories. What is the best thing that could happen to this month? I get the biggest client account of my life. That would mean the largest commission I’ve ever received. I get promoted, you know, I get a larger team to manage. Whatever the best-case scenario would be. Also, plan for that because victories tend to derail us because we celebrate too long.

So if you have the best case scenario planned out, allow yourself a reward. Say if this happens, a best-case scenario, I’ll reward myself with buying the new fancy watch, taking the evening off and going to my favorite restaurant, whatever the reward may be. You get to choose it because then when things do happen during the month that is considered victories, celebrate, give yourself a high five but you get right back to work because you’re like, you know what? This is great, but it’s not a best-case scenario because even have a plan. If you do hit the best case scenario on how you’re going to react so that you don’t celebrate too long. If you celebrate too long, you lose your momentum. So this way, if you know what your best case, you know what your worst-case looks like, you’re prepared and ready to keep moving, keep taking action, and keep increasing that upward spiraling and momentum to have your best quarter you’ve ever had.

Scott Ingram: You can learn more about Eneida and Her Sales Resource at DailySales.Tips/416 and from there click over to her website where you can download a free ebook on effective public speaking.

Then be sure to come back tomorrow for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!

“Make sure that you’re stating what you want out of this voice passage” – Morgan J. Ingram in today’s Tip 415

How do you do LinkedIn voice messages?

Join the conversation below and learn more about Morgan!

Morgan J Ingram
JB Sales Training
SDR Chronicles Podcast
Morgan J. Ingram on Youtube
Submit a Sales Tip

Have feedback? Want to share a sales tip? Call or text the Sales Success Hotline: 512-777-1442 or Email: [email protected]

Transcript

Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. Today’s tip comes from Morgan J Ingram. For most, Morgan probably needs no introduction, but just in case. Morgan is the Director of Sales Execution and Evolution at JBarrows Sales Training and host of the SDR Chronicles Podcast and YouTube channel. Here he is with the first of a bunch of LinkedIn tips we’ll be featuring on the show over the next few months:

Morgan J. Ingram: What is going on here to provide you all a tip on LinkedIn, this is incredibly important. People have been asking me this over and over and over again on how to do LinkedIn voice messages. I believe leaned and voice messages is something that we should all pay attention to because it’s one of the best things you can do to penetrate into net new accounts.

I’ve had people schedule meetings with CTOs, VP’s of sales, CRO’s, CEO’s, IT, Security, APAC, EMEA. The reason I’m saying all those things cause it doesn’t matter, people are responding to these messages and I’m going to give you all the formula I thought I’d go about this.

So first and foremost, when you go do a LinkedIn voice message, you have to be first degree connected with your prospects. This also is a great way to reengage with prospects who’ve gone goes on you. So once you have now understood how to go about this, you can also do this on the mobile, right? You can only do this on the mobile device on LinkedIn, mobile, right? Some of you guys maybe like, Oh, I want to do my computer. Sorry, only LinkedIn mobile.

Now let’s talk about the formula to do this. First and foremost in your first 10 seconds, you want to come with some type of insight or trigger that you have found. Now, how you go about that, that could be on their LinkedIn profile, on their website, something they posted on LinkedIn, YouTube, et cetera. But you’re using this insight and trigger to reach out to them, right? Because that’s gonna get someone’s attention. If you don’t get someone’s attention the first 5 to 10 seconds, they will not pay attention to you. So this is incredibly important.

Next thing is the next 30 seconds. Okay, so the next 30 seconds is focused on the value prop or an elevator pitch or think about it whatever you’re saying on the phone, that 30 seconds is that next bit there. You all know what that is cause you say it on the phone, you’re making cold calls inserted there.

Next is the last 10 seconds, which is the call action. What do you want them to do? If you’re going to event say, “Hey, come by the booth.” If you’re going to be in the city, “Hey, I’d like to come to your office and meet with you.” If you want to schedule a meeting scheduled for 30 minutes, right? Do your call to actions up to you, but you want to make sure that you’re stating what you want out of this voice passage.

My additional tip here, once you’ve done that, voice messages will be around 45 to 55 seconds. You can only cap it up to 60 seconds so you guys know that. Make sure two days later you follow up with asking this question. This will get you more responses. Let’s say if I’m reaching out to Scott, “Hi, Scott, Any feedback on my voice message?” That will help you get more responses and get more meetings. So hopefully y’all can take that insight and go execute and get yourself some meetings. Keep dialing y’all.

Scott Ingram: For links to more about Morgan J. Ingram, including the video version of this tip just click over to DailySales.Tips/415 and I mentioned this will be the first of a bunch of LinkedIn tips. On April 2nd I’ll be hosting a webinar called “Finding Sales Success on LinkedIn” and releasing a more detailed PDF and eBook featuring insights and tips from over 30 of the best of the best on the platform in the sales space. I’m learning a ton in pulling this together and can’t wait to share it with you. We’ll have a link so you can register for the webinar as well at DailySales.Tips/415.

Once you’ve connected with Morgan and registered for the webinar. Be sure to come back tomorrow for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!

“Keeping your statements short, asking questions and engaging them in dialogue is going to keep them more engaged.” – Scott Ingram in today’s Tip 414

How do you run and manage remote meetings and presentations?

Join the conversation below and feel free to share your thoughts!

[email protected]
Scott Ingram on LinkedIn
Sales Success Stories Podcast
Sales Success Stories Book – 60 Stories from 20 Top 1% Sales Professionals
Submit a Sales Tip

Have feedback? Want to share a sales tip? Call or text the Sales Success Hotline: 512-777-1442 or Email: [email protected]

Transcript

Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. With concerns over the Coronavirus, I have a feeling we’re going to be doing even more meetings remotely. So my tip for you today is along those lines, and that is to minimize your monologue. Remember that when you’re in a web meeting that distractions like email are just a click away for the participants on the other end. Keeping your statements short, asking questions and engaging them in dialogue is going to keep them more engaged. If you’ve got a number of different stakeholders on your call. Do your research beforehand and try to prepare an insightful question or two for each participant. Draw out what they care about and don’t solely focus on the decision-maker. The more you can get people involved in the conversation, the more likely you are to address some of the underlying objectives and concerns. Something you won’t be able to do it you’re just going on and on, which is exactly what I’m not going to do today, because I really want to hear from you, especially your tips for running and managing better remote meetings and presentations. Send me a note to [email protected] or hit me up on LinkedIn.

Then be sure to come back tomorrow for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!

“Taking these tests may save you a lot of time and money or it may help you find out what your strong skillsets are to actually achieve and have a long sales career.” – Hans Hansson in today’s Tip 413

Who are you? Is sales right for you? 

Join the conversation below and email me to get a FREE copy of his book!

Hans Hansson Website
Starboard Commercial Real Estate
Hans Hansson on LinkedIn
Stop Selling Yourself Short: Lessons Learned For a Successful Career In Sales
Stop Selling Yourself Short on Barnes & Noble 

Have feedback? Want to share a sales tip? Call or text the Sales Success Hotline: 512-777-1442 or Email: [email protected]

Transcript

Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. Today’s tip comes from Hans Hansson. Hans is the founder of Starboard Commercial Real Estate and author of the new book, “Stop Selling Yourself Short.” Here he is with today’s tip.

Hans Hansson: Many are in sales strictly for the money, particularly commissionable salespeople who live on commissions in order to have true potential to achieve higher income levels. However, if you’re not passionate about helping people are not excited about meeting new people every day or do not enjoy helping people make decisions, you may make money but go year after year wondering, is there something else I could do besides sales. Finding out through a personality profile test who you are will give you the roadmap necessary to answer those questions, it may mean that you’re not equipped for sales. If that is the case, taking these tests may save you a lot of time and money or it may help you find out what your strong skillsets are to actually achieve and have a long sales career.

Scott Ingram: For more about Hans and his new book “Stop Selling Yourself Short.” Just click over to DailySales.Tips/413 and Hans is generously giving away 15 copies of his book to listeners. To get yours. Just email me with the subject line: Stop Selling Yourself Short to [email protected] and I’ll choose the winners randomly at the end of the month.

Once you’ve done that. Be sure to come back tomorrow for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!

“If we forget to do the things that have made us successful in the past, it’s going to be very, very hard to sustain success in the future.” – David Weiss in today’s Tip 412

How do you find success?

Join the conversation below and be sure to connect with David!

David Weiss on LinkedIn
Your Definitive Sales Career Guide
87: Better Sales Leadership, Mental Health in Sales & Other Wisdom from the Weisses
75: Take The Lead with David Weiss
Submit a Sales Tip

Have feedback? Want to share a sales tip? Call or text the Sales Success Hotline: 512-777-1442 or Email: [email protected]

Transcript

Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. Today my good friend David Weiss from ADP is back with some more goodness:

David Weiss: Happy Friday everyone. This is David Weiss with a tip of the day. So as many of you know and some of you reach out to me to discuss various things going on in your lives. I recently had someone reach out to me about a topic that they were struggling with and this was a person that has had tons and tons of success in their sales career, but they’d hit a slump.

And so I started talking to this individual and one of the first questions I ask is “What is different from this year from last year or previous successful years?” And you know I heard some long pause on the phone and the response as well. This year I’m spending more time whale hunting and this year I’m maybe not prospecting as much as I had in the past. And you know, and then they kind of thought and they said, you know my head’s not as much in the game. And I said, “Okay.”

Well, one of the things that we can do is the areas of our lives that have led to success in the past when we forget those or forget the rhythms and cadences and habits and fundamentals that have contributed to our success in the past. When we forget to do those things or get maybe too busy to do those things or it’s just something happens, or maybe we just expect success to continue. If we forget to do the things that have made us successful in the past, it’s going to be very, very hard to sustain success in the future. And this has happened to me, and I think this happens to a lot of people where they maybe have success and then just expect success and they think that it’s you or something that is leading towards that. And it can sometimes be important to remember that success is in luck. It’s doesn’t just happen overnight and it’s not just one big event. It’s all these little events and all these fundamentals and habits and things that we get into that when done enough in the right way, over time, success eventually becomes inevitable. But when we forget that success no longer becomes inevitable.

So it’s just an important reminder and tip for me is if you’re having success, super proud of you, keep up the consistency in the good work. If you’ve had success in the past, make sure and you and you’re struggling now, think back to the things that led you there and make sure you’re doing them. And if you’re struggling to find success, go back to the blocking, tackling fundamentals of sales and build yourself the right habits and get yourself into the right rhythms every single day. And if you do the right behaviors and you do them consistently, you will find the success you’re looking for.

And of course everyone, please always reach out to me. Love coaching and helping folks in the sales community and figuring out problems and solving things for folks. So I’m always a resource to anyone listening and I hope everybody has a great weekend. Thank you.

Scott Ingram: If you’d like to connect with David, we’ve got links for you to do that at DailySales.Tips/412. We’ll also put a couple of links in there to some of the other conversations I’ve had with David on the Sales Success Stories podcast as well.

After you’ve connected with David, be sure to come back tomorrow for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!

“Use your snooze alarm as an egg timer on nine minutes of really focused, undisturbed thought, and you’ll get a lot more out of it.” – Jeff Bajorek in today’s Tip 411

Are you pressing that snooze button more than twice?

Join the conversation below and share your own thoughts!

Jeff Bajorek Website
Jeff’Bajorek on LinkedIn
Jeff’Bajorek on YouTube
The Why And The Buy Podcast
Submit a Sales Tip

Have feedback? Want to share a sales tip? Call or text the Sales Success Hotline: 512-777-1442 or Email: [email protected]

Transcript

Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. It’s Thursday which means that Jeff Bajorek is back with a tip. Hopefully, you’re in a routine where you listen to these first thing in the morning, because that’s what this tip is all about. Here’s Jeff:

Jeff Bajorek: You’re using your snooze button all wrong. I don’t know what nine minutes of extra sleep means to you, but to me that alarm goes off. I use my Apple watch, so it’s not really that disturbing. It just vibrates on my wrist. To me, that’s my signal to get up. It’s time to get going. It’s time to get functional.

What I’ve also noticed is that sometimes the clearest my head is all day I get to regroup, I get to think about my day going forward, and sometimes it’s just a great opportunity to think about projects that I’m working on, to think about customers or clients that I’m pursuing. And sometimes that undisturbed thinking time is the best time you’ll have all day. Well, the snooze button is an opportunity for a backstop to that. It’s an opportunity to remind me that “Hey, thinking time is over. It’s time to get going.”

It’s an egg timer If you use it right. It’s a project manager if you use it right. So use your snooze button as that safety net so that you don’t just drift off into sleep again, but don’t use it as a way to wake you up nine minutes later. Use that time more productively.

Then you can get up. You can grab your coffee and go hop in the shower. You can brush your teeth and get ready for your day after you’ve had that precious nine minutes, but don’t make it more than 18 if you’re going to make it more than 18 then you’re just, then your alarm is set way too worldly. Get the sleep if you need to sleep. But here’s the shift I want you to make. Don’t look for nine minutes more of sleep. Use your snooze alarm as an egg timer on nine minutes of really focused, undisturbed thought, and you’ll get a lot more out of it. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go get ready for my day.

Scott Ingram: If you need more than the short weekly dose of Jeff Bajorek that you get here, and I recommend it. Then be sure to click over to DailySales.Tips/411 where you’ll find the information that you’re looking for.

Once you’ve done that. Make sure you don’t press that snooze button more than twice and come on back first thing tomorrow morning for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!

“LinkedIn for me is that humanizing factor, it’s getting me to showcase my personality ahead of time so that the relationship is a little bit warmer by default.” – Amy Quick in today’s Tip 410

Who’s viewing your profile? Are your target companies viewing your profile?

Join the conversation below and be sure to connect with Amy on LinkedIn!

Amy Quick on Sales Success Stories Interview
Amy Quick on LinkedIn

Have feedback? Want to share a sales tip? Call or text the Sales Success Hotline: 512-777-1442 or Email: [email protected]

Transcript

Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. Today I’ve got a clip for you from my most recent full interview on the Sales Success Stories podcast with Amy Quick. Amy is winning LinkedIn and in January alone sourced over $10M in net new pipeline through the way she’s using the platform. Here’s a short excerpt from our full hour and 26-minute long conversation:

Amy Quick: He said, “I do want to talk. I’m really sorry I haven’t responded before now. Let’s shoot for a conversation in Q1 in January.” And I was like, “Yes, all right, good. This is something, this is progress.” And then I noticed about a month later he finally accepted my connection request on LinkedIn and you can see, you know when they viewed your profile and you can see when you have Sales Nav, you can see the time they spend on profile. And that was really interesting cause he spent like 10 minutes on my profile and I knew that he must be looking at my content. I mean either that or he just opened it up on the screen and just stared at my picture for five minutes.

So I thought, okay, well he’s familiarizing himself with who I am as an individual. And I’m like, at first I got a little scared because I thought, Oh my goodness. Like I’m talking about sales advice and giving sales tips, strategizing about deals and here this my perspective, my prospect is reading this. But as it turns out, I think it enabled a much deeper level of respect for who I was as a person. And so as a result, I ended up on a 13-minute phone call with this guy moving him to next steps, which include as strategic onsite. And this is a deal that no one really thought would go anywhere this year. It’s a big chunk of change and same thing happened with another deal, my connection requests got accepted. I noticed that he was actually looking at my content. I think he’d even liked a couple of my posts and I mean they were sales advice posts and this is a customer liking them or at least viewing them. I can see what company people are viewing my content.

So it was very impressive that I could take that back to my bosses and say, “Look, this is kind of what finally pushed them over and got them to commit to a conversation.” And once you get them in a conversation, they kind of feel like they know you a little bit already. And so when I talked with them, I was like talking to an a long lost friend and the conversations were very casual and easy and probably about 25% technical and 75% relational and fun and do you like barbecue? You know, it was more relationship than it was super salesy, sales tactics.

So LinkedIn for me is that humanizing factor it’s getting me to showcase my personality ahead of time so that the relationship is a little bit warmer by default. And that’s kind of where I’ve seen the most success is the fact that these people I’ve been emailing and calling now for just shy of a year and they’re showing up on my LinkedIn. They’re not engaging, but they’re watching. They’re kind of like those silent watchers people talk about. And then when I’m having conversations with them, they’re far easier. And by default, I can move them forward to next steps in a much more genuine and easy kind of natural manner. I mean, even going as far as to say, “Well I think it makes sense that the next step is this”, and they just kind of agree and go along with it because you, that rapport is there. So I guess that’s my encouragement to people when you know they’re looking at LinkedIn and how they can utilize it from a strategic standpoint to socially sell and progress deals, which is ultimately the goal is use it in the way that you want to grow your kind of your personal brand. Keep it professional, but don’t hide or mask who you are as a person and have some fun with it if you want to, I mean that people like fun people. So, but then keep an eye on who’s viewing your profile. Are your target companies viewing your profile? Are your connections that you actually need to talk to accepting your connection requests? And if so, are they viewing your profile? Are they viewing your content? Are they engaging in any way and using messaging at that point?

I use the voice messenger a lot. My leave, lots of voice messages that seems to be working. I’ve had about an 80% response from prospects on voice messages. A lot of times its just kind of shocking. They’re not expecting it so they respond. So yeah, I’ve really been two months. I can say that almost every single one of the deals that I’m working with currently, I am connected with them on LinkedIn. They have viewed my profile, engaged with content, talked with me on the platform. I’ve even set next steps in meetings through messenger because they’re not responding to emails because they probably have 250 emails unread. So it’s working as a platform for social selling.

Scott Ingram: In my perspective and I think part of what you’re doing is, pardon the pun here, but you are superhuman, meaning like you are just so real yourself, right? It’s not all super buttoned up all the time, right? You’re posting about your ponies and all the things that you’re doing like in real life and there’s also something about, and I think it’s a lot about who you are and you’re just communicating it well coming back to your top points is there’s something about what you’re doing that you are insanely approachable.

Amy Quick: Yeah, I agree with that. Sometimes that’s a thorn in my side.

Scott Ingram: I can imagine.

Amy Quick: But because of the type of person I am, and this is something that I would encourage other people too, it makes me curious and interested in other people.

Scott Ingram: To hear the rest of my conversation with Amy, you’ll find that in episode 88 of the Sales Success Stories podcast and as always we’ll have links for you to everything including Amy’s LinkedIn profile at DailySales.Tips/410

Once you’ve connected with Amy to see what she’s doing, be sure to come back tomorrow for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!