67% of LinkedIn Sellers don’t understand these…

I’ve seen more shitty social selling than most people have had in hot dinners. Just recently, someone shared their message copy with me for their outreach and it was truly horrific.

Once I got past the three paragraphs of boasting and name-dropping, I was presented with three options, join a webinar, download a whitepaper or book a call.

It finally wrapped up with a plea to follow their company page.

I was polite and said “maybe we should trim this down and give it a bit more focus”.

What I wanted to say we’ll leave for another article.

Of course, you don’t know what you don’t know. Although it was horrific, I see a person trying their best to get a result.

It is different selling on social media than any other method. It’s more like selling in-person, but the platform element feels like email. So it’s easy to see how people can get lost in it or do weird things.

That’s why my experience tells me more than two-thirds of people trying to sell on LinkedIn really don’t understand how to sell on LinkedIn.

I’ve compiled some of the common issues I see, in the hopes that if you recognise these in your own efforts, you’ll drop me a line and I’ll get you on the straight and narrow.

I’ll also fix your pipeline issues.

So here we go…

“They are either interested or they are not, I just get to the point”

This is one of the most self-serving statements and I hear it a lot. A Seller wants to book meetings so they justify just hitting prospects up to satisfy their need for a sale. The reality is, people rarely respond to direct pitches unless it is bang on the money.

I’ve got two things to say about this approach, firstly, most prospects aren’t in buying mode, so naturally, they are going to decline a pitch. Less than 3% of your target market are in buying mode right now. So, the vast majority of your prospects aren’t thinking about your service or offering, it’s not even on their radar. The hope is, as you send out pitches, you pitch lands with one of the 3%.

So what about the 97% of the market where your pitch was irrelevant. Is it really true that they have no interest? Or is it that they have no interest because of your approach?

This leads me to my second point. Just because someone isn’t in buying mode doesn’t mean they won’t buy. I’ve been on calls with companies where they came to the call and told me they love cold calling and it’s working for them, but then they see the LinkedIn opportunity and buy anyway.

When you can present the value and impact your service could have in a tailored way, some of that 97% shift into buying mode. But these lazy pitches miss out that. The truth is ‘getting to the point’ is a justification for lazy selling, it’s a strategy to find low hanging fruit.

The first rule of outreach

Is to get a reply. The first goal of outreach in the DMs is to get a reply. Statistically, if you get a reply, you are likely to be able to progress and move the conversation off-platform.

But most messages pitch services and try to offer a call.

There is only two ways to get a reply.

Be really really relevant. E.g your message is for them and about them and speaks to their needs (not your need for a call and a sale). The more relevant you are the more likely a reply.

OR…

Relationships. I’ve spent time adding value to my network both through my content and in the DMs I’ve sent. Offering insights, asking questions and showing an interest in them. All without pushing my goals and objectives on my connections.

Missing simplicity

If there is a simple way to say it, just flipping say it. Stop the waffle, jargon and complexity. LinkedIn is not a technical manual. It’s not even a newspaper. It’s a place where people visit in-between the brain tasking stuff they do.

They wrap up a meeting. They flick onto LinkedIn.

That’s how this place works.

So, keep it simple.

Write like you speak.

Avoid waffle.

Stop with “unique bespoke, end-to-end, state-of-the-art, truly game-changing”

Keep people curious.

Even the most intellectual decision makers come on here as a distraction. Use the platform to be their distraction. Build the relationships, give them interesting ideas and make them curious.

Embrace the power of 7

I bang the drum telling people on average, it takes 8 touchpoints to win a meeting with a prospect.

So why embrace the power of 7?

Well, simply put, every interaction you initiate with a prospect creates a response, a reply, a profile view or a content impression.

So 7 outbound actions could create 7 responses.

e.g 14 touchpoints.

That pushes you way over the 8.

Of course some will be small touchpoints, but still it plays to where things are at with how to engage a prospect in 2023.

So, engaging a prospect without shifting into a sales pitch initially can build familiarity, a bit of trust and give you a smidgen of advantage in the inbox.

A smidgen of advantage compounds all the way through your sales process.

Effort up front, without a pitch will:

Increase open rates of your DMs and Emails ➡️ Which means more prospects see your ASK ➡️ Which means more prospects respond to your ASK ➡️ Which means you book more meetings – SIMPLE.

For most people, that doubles their pipeline.

Yup – doubles it.

If your touchpoints resemble this:

• Pitch
• Did you see my last message
• I know your busy…
• Second Pitch
• Is it A B or C
• Are we breaking up

Guess what?

Everyone is doing this.

These are the templates you get with most ‘sales enablement’ platforms aka – auto pitching tools.

I get versions of these every single day.

What was novel, is now mainstream. Why does this matter? Because this typical cadence is what everyone is using, so your prospects see it or versions of it, multiple times. It’s tired and it’s obvious.

Do you really need to be in sales mode to create touchpoints.

Can you not just add value or create conversations?

Humour is your superpower

Lighten up a little. It will work wonders for your LinkedIn activity. Be more conversational. Be yourself and don’t be afraid to have a laugh.

Humour is a great way to connect with prospects. Make your prospects feel good.

If you haven’t noticed the world is pretty miserable right now. So, be positive and make your prospects feel good. Make them smile.

But don’t drift into being the village idiot. Your prospects still have to trust you to do a good job.

If you can inject positive emotions into your engagements with prospects, you’ll get responses and favourable outcomes.

Proving with evidence isn’t always effective, sometimes you need to just make prospect feel heard, valued and show them you put the effort in.

Keep it light and enjoy your outreach. Have a bit of fun, put a bit of personality into it.