2 Tips To Improve Your Social Selling
I am a huge fan of LinkedIn and social selling. I have made a career out of prospecting through this professional networking site, and I love being able to teach others how to have the same success. While I have talked about the importance of reaching out through both InMail and email, it is also beneficial for you to see the exact procedure that I follow. Keep reading to learn more about the particular cadence that I used when reaching out to prospects and how to track your successes.
What Type Of Cadence Should You Follow?
When prospecting, I have a mantra that I like to keep in mind throughout the process – personalization, persistence, and patience. It is rare to hear back from a sales prospect the first time you reach out to him or her, so there is a specific cadence that I have found to be particularly effective.
Day 1 – Send your prospect an InMail. Keep it high-level, and do not send them a lengthy message explaining all of the reasons why they should buy what you are selling. Another helpful tip is to avoid using the word “meeting.” People love to “connect” or “network,” but they do not necessarily want to commit to a sales meeting.
Day 3 – Send a second InMail message. Reply from the original message in your Sent folder, and keep it brief. Simply ask if they received your first message, and see if they would like to connect.
Day 4 – Send your prospect an email. The subject line of the email message should say, “Check Your LinkedIn Inbox.” You want to direct them over to LinkedIn so they can put a face with a name, which can make it harder for them to say no. Additionally, an email like this creates a sense of mystery. What did this person send me? Why does she want to connect? When is she going to be in town?
REPEAT – It usually takes me an average of eight touches before I get a response. This is why it is extremely important to remain persistent in this process. You cannot just send one or two messages and call it a day.
How Can You Track Success Within Your CRM?
When you are putting forth this much effort into connecting with a prospect and trying to make a sale, it is important to keep track of the activities of each salesperson and how meetings are secured. Without understanding the how you cannot know what is actually working well.
Any time I send an InMail to a sales prospect, I log that activity in Salesforce and put the content of the message in the comments section. This practice allows me to track each message and see what all of my team members are doing as well – how many InMails they are sending vs. emails vs. phone calls. Additionally, I also add information in the “lead source” and “lead source detailer” sections each time I add a contact or create an opportunity. For example, if I have a scheduled meeting with ABC company, Salesforce will show me that the “lead source” was prospecting and the “lead source detailer” will note that the connection came from LinkedIn.
Adding all of this information is imperative because you need to understand where your contacts are coming from and how they are coming to your company. Keep track of various prospecting tactics, including LinkedIn, Twitter, cold calling, and cold emailing. This will allow you to easily create reports each quarter to indicate how many opportunities you generated from LinkedIn compared to other avenues. This information also enables you to see how many touches were necessary to get in touch with each prospect or opportunity, so you can see how both you and your sales team members are performing in this area.
Are you ready to take control of your social selling?
**Note: We use Salesforce at etailinisghts, but these same tactics can be applied to other CRMs as well.
