“People love to step into stories that are impactful and impact them.” – Jacob Gebrewold in today’s Tip 725
How about you? Have you tried building a relationship using voice notes?
Join the conversation below and feel free to share your experience!
Jacob Gebrewold on LinkedIn
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Transcript
Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. In yesterday’s tip, you may have heard Stephen Chase mention mentors as another of his key success factors. One of the masters of mentors in my network is Jacob Gebrewold. Jacob is an Account Executive and Klue and active facilitator of community for black tech sellers. As the son of two Ethiopian refugees, Jacob is eager to share with other often forgotten underdogs everything that great mentors pass on to him. Here he is:
Jacob Gebrewold: If you like me, you’ve got lots to learn and there are tons of great experts and executives to learn those things from. Only problem is there’s a ton of other people who want to have time with those experts executives too. So how do you go both standing out from the pack in a way that allows you to build a relationship and experience all the great joys and doors open at those relationships to get? I like to start those relationships off with voice notes on LinkedIn, how this works for a first-degree connection. You can’t send them through InMail. If you aren’t sure how to send voice notes on LinkedIn, just Google it. It’ll take you two seconds. But with first to reconnection is a really powerful way to stand out from the pack.
Three voice notes that I send back to back to back, which hopefully will reflect a why that resonates universally. And how’s, that might be applicable for you. Chop and edit this, how you like to fit your style, but hopefully the why resonates at the very least.
So a three-letter voice note cadence is thanks, context, and an ask.
First, thanks. Before we get to the context and the ask part. I like to thank potential mentors for whatever it is about them that made me want to reach out to them, right? I could be talking to millions of people, but I’m asking for their time. Why? Not just generally, but specifically what content has stuck out to me, which podcast, what webinar, what is it that they did that planted seeds that resonated in not just what but why? Right? Why is it that they changed me or transformed me or encouraged me or enriched me in some way that made me want to reach out what was the impact accomplished of their content in my life that sparked the request.
So that note of gratitude done with a genuine tone in ways that you can’t really accomplish in text, just with the sound of your voice, to have sincere pauses and reflections and moments of just sincere awe or gratitude. That’s a unique thing that you can accomplish in a voice note. And a first voice note entirely dedicated to gratitude is my first take.
Second. And this’ll typically come off of like a cliffhanger ending like that actually made me want to ask you something, transitions me into the voice note about context. So this is the context for the ask them about to make ideally this, ask them about to make a specific, right. I’m not just reaching out to a general person and reaching out to a specific person, not for general reasons, but because of something specific that they’ve done. And so I want the context to be a story that they’ll want to step into that frames up their expertise they know they have that relevance piece, right?
So, you know, what that could be is, you know, I’m in a sales contest right now with other reps on my team. This deal that I’m looking to get across the line might be the difference-maker. And I think the thing that’s holding me up is this, then what you’re talking about in this webinar, and I’ve taken in the content that I can around it, but I just, you know, if it was at all possible to get some more insight from you on the topic, it’d be a huge game-changer. And so that’s why I had to reach out to you. Right? And that’s typically the kind of cliffhanger that I’ll have leading into the ask voice note was your number three. But the main takeaway of that context one is to make it a story If you can. People love to step into stories that are impactful and impact them.
So what’s the ask? The ask is, by the way, I typically start with, you know, if this is something that you’ve got time for, I totally get it. I opened the back door immediately. I give them the ounce so they don’t feel bad, but you know, it would really mean the world to be able to ask you some really specific questions about X, you know, for 20 minutes this week or next, if you’ve got the time. I would typically layer in there that you’ve done your homework, right? It’s not like something that you’re expecting a one-on-one course on. Like, you’ve done your homework on the thing you’re asking about, because if you haven’t like, you don’t need a mentor on it, just go and look up the general stuff. So show you done your homework. So it’s a high use of impact use of their time. Promise you won’t pitch them, you know, some sort of subtle way so that they know this. Isn’t some connecting pitch sort of set up, take the pressure off, you know, at the end, if you can, again, by saying, and Hey, like I said, if this isn’t something you got time for totally understand, but either way and then circle back to the original thank you that you had for them. That for me has been helpful too.
Thank them. Give context for the ask and then make the ask. You can do this in video format. You can do this in voice notes, but I’ve just found the voice notes to be unique and helpful. So go ahead.
Scott Ingram: For more about Jacob including links to connect with him on LinkedIn and to a session we did together on How to Land Your Dream Tech Sales Job, just click over to DailySales.Tips/725 and we’ll have everything for you there.
Once you’ve checked that out and gotten connected with Jacob, be sure to come back tomorrow for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!