Top 10 ways to Use LinkedIn for Sales Success

My position on using social media in sales is simple: It's a fantastic tool for building relationships and an absolutely awful environment to deliver your pitch!

Think about it...You wouldn't walk up to someone at a 'real-life' networking event and pitch them so what makes you think this works online.

As I often say: relationships are a function of the number of interactions over time multiplied by the value of those interactions to the receiver. So...

Customer Intimacy

In my work as a sales coach and mentor I often speak about Customer Intimacy

For many, Intimacy is an awkward word to use when referring to your customer (or prospective customers) relationships.

Awkward in the sense that most people are uncomfortable with the dynamic of intimacy in their personal lives. For most, Intimacy is actually an element they seek to avoid or extract from their professional world.

This makes sense when you think about what the word intimacy suggests.

Stop Using The B-Word!

One of the common barriers for sales professionals is understanding if (and how) a prospect intends to pay for our product or service.

Unfortunately, most attempts to qualify prospects default to using the dreaded B-Word!

Typical questions include:
- Do you have budget?
- What is your budget?
- Is there a budget established?
- Can you share how much you have budgeted?

These are ridiculous and worthless questions!
At best, they provide limited or inaccurate information: yes or no answers are common. More likely, these questions invite the prospect to you they cannot or will not share that information.

Oh Great...He's a 'process' guy!

When I begin a relationship with a new company, it doesn't take long for people to get the sense that I am a ‘process’ guy.  I place the term ‘process’ in quotes because I believe it is often misused and even more often misunderstood. Most of the time, coming on board as a 'process' guy generates equal amounts of euphoria and dread - both of which are unnecessary and usually a result of bias - for or against - process.

Don't Ruin your Twitter Rep!

A nice piece from the Bit Rebels