The #2 way to sell more by using social media is to harness the power of people and relationships to get things done and the single most powerful relationship building and relationship harnessing social media resource is LinkedIn.
Now a lot of readers will say it should be #1 and for the longest time I would have agreed with you. I do agree it is the social media tool with the biggest number of different ways it can be used to sell more but in the last year I have found a social media tool that provides users with the most powerful information to sell more.
There are so many different ways to use LinkedIn to sell more that Amazon lists over 200 books on how to use LinkedIn.
Here are my three favourite ways to use LinkedIn to sell more:
- Company Search: A search on a company lets you know who to target and the best way to get to them. The #2 most powerful Trigger Event is when there has been a change in decision makers at a prospect. These people who recently experienced the Trigger Event of being hired or promoted are the ones most likely to have interest in your products or services. When you do a company search you can see who recently got hired and who recently got promoted. A company search also lets you see who in your network works there now and who use to work there. Those in your network who use to work there can give you some valuable insight or context for your sales pitch and those in your network who work there now are the ones likely to make the most valuable introductions.
- Contact Information: Someone who was a customer in their last job is likely to become a customer in their new job. Being connected via LinkedIn give you access to their latest contact information and with this contact information you can reach out to congratulate them on their new position and see if and when they will have a need for your products or services in their new position.
- Profile Organizer: Keep track of all your interactions with your connections – I have a personal plus account which allows me to use LinkedIn’s new profile organizer. This allows me to organize contacts and even keep notes on my activities with each person. The best part is you don’t have to be connected with someone to add them to a folder or make notes. It’s like a mini Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. Sometimes it’s not worth the time and effort to add every prospect’s contact and company information into your CRM tool until there is enough activity or interested in becoming your customer. Now there is a quick way to keep track of the early interactions without having to take the time and effort required to enter all that company and contact information into a CRM tool first.
So this month’s question is how else can you use Linkedin to create or harness relationships to sell more.Win $2,000 worth of Trigger Event services by submitting either a great example of, or great idea on, how to use LinkedIn to sell more. To win the $2,000 prize you must get the most votes for your answer. This month there is also a second prize of $1,000 worth of Trigger Event Selling services to the person who gets the second most votes for their answer.
Answers are submitted by commenting on this blog post. Answers are voted on by clicking on the 
button that appears at the end of each answer/comment.
Winners are announced the last Tuesday of the month – March 30rh – so voting ends at Midnight (MST) on Monday March 29th.
Answers/comments need to be approved – to avoid spam – which typically takes just a few minutes. Contact me by phone (+1.403.874.2998), Skype (Craig.Elias), or this contact form, if you don’t see your comment approved within a few minutes of posting it.
Use the button below to Tweet , Stumble!, Digg, and email your friends so you get the most votes, because the voting system I use does not allow you to vote for your own answers.
Good luck & have an eventful week!
Craig
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Not sure if this is a “best” way or not, but if done correctly, it works well. When done poorly, it hurts more than helps, so it may be considered an “advanced use,” despite the fact that it begins as one of the most recommended ways to “maximize” you use of LinkedIn.
What am I babbling about? Using LinkedIn to create “positioning” for yourself. Specifically through the answering of questions. Every book you read about using LinkedIn will mention how you should be going to the questions and answers section and answering the questions in the categories in which you specialize. Answer enough of them, and you’re sure to get some “Best Answers,” and begin to be known as an expert in your field. The challenge there is that too many people are trying to do the same thing, and many of them have hundreds of answers in numerous fields, and they come off looking like someone who does nothing but spend all day answering questions on LinkedIn.
Better idea: Get laser-focused (use the target audience info you gathered from Facebook – see the earlier tips), and only answer the questions in the fields that apply directly to what you want to specialize in and those that affect your target audience. Sure, you may have fewer “best answers” on your profile, but they’ll present the picture of an actual expert in your field. In addition, your target audience will see you as the person who is answering their questions – not everyone else’s, but theirs.
Best idea: This is the “advanced level” technique. Every question asked gives you the opening to “Reply Privately.” In effect, the asker has just told all of LinkedIn that they have an issue they need addressed, and they’d like to be contacted by someone who can give them the answer. Many times (not always), questions herald a Trigger Event – either one happening soon, or one that recently happened. Fire off a public answer (always provide value), but then ALSO reply privately with a little “something extra” and a (genuine) offer to help out (preferably at no charge).
Sometimes it’s appropriate to say something like: “I help a lot of people in situations similar to your own. I’d be happy to help you out as well (no charge!), but it’s difficult to advise you specifically without knowing the details, and I’d hate to steer you in the wrong direction by accident. If you’d like to discuss your specific situation, feel free to email me at…” Sometimes that’s seen as unwelcome solicitation – especially if the issue doesn’t really call for such detail – use discretion. You don’t want to be known as the person who spams every questioner.
If you do this correctly, what the question-asker sees is a person who has a reputation as an expert in this field taking the time to answer their question personally, and even offering some extra value, just because that’s what they do. Perhaps it turns into a sales opportunity right off the hop, perhaps not, but what it does do is connect you with a prospect who is either in the middle of, expecting, or just passing through a Trigger Event, and positions you as a helpful “expert resource” they can call upon (and/or refer to others).
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