When I'm speaking to sales teams on the power of sharing content online, one of the most common responses I get is: "How am I going to find the time!" After diving in, it quickly becomes clear that it's not just a matter of minutes and hours, but of training and bandwidth. Creating relevant and insightful content isn't easy. That's why there are whole departments of people (called "Marketing") that do it. They spend their time and energy developing the skills, doing the research, and putting together the messaging. So salespeople are understandably frustrated when they feel they are being asked to become brand marketers as well as … [Read more...]
3 Science-Backed Reasons You Need to Post on LinkedIn
The image that most professionals have about posting on social media isn't too positive. In fact, it's usually downright horrible. When you picture "posting on social media", what image comes up: Teenagers sprawled on their beds and posting Instagram selfies on their phone? The hipster taking a picture of their food at a restaurant for Facebook. Your friend who can't seem to stop posting their every thought to Twitter? If that's how you view social media engagement, it's easy to blow it off. It doesn't seem connected to the goal of winning more business. But what if I told you that there was actually science behind why you … [Read more...]
The Surprise Addiction that is Killing Your Sales Focus
These days, there's an ever-growing list of addictions that can derail your sales career. There are the old standbys like alcohol and cocaine. There are the new ones like online pornography or opiates. Even the addiction to work that seemed like a boon in the past is now a clear path to wrecked health and relationships. But there's one addiction that has crept up on almost every single one of us, and it's especially destructive to sales careers. What makes it even worse: we don't even know we have the addiction, almost everyone around us has it too, and we don't even know when we're getting a bump to satisfy it. The Brain Chemicals that … [Read more...]
Using Video for Selling? You Need to Avoid 5 Basic Miscues
According to the song, video killed the radio star. But the recent explosion of easy-to-use video tools has also made video a killer opportunity for salespeople to create content and share with prospects and customers. It captures all of the nuance of in-person communication with the ease of on-demand access. You don’t need to go through the hassle of uploading videos to YouTube anymore (although you still can). Facebook Live and the new embedded Linked video app make it easy to put video on social platforms. And new services like Vidyard and Bombbomb let you easily send personalized videos right to contacts, prospects, and … [Read more...]
Are You a Salesperson Who Hates Writing? Here’s How to Still Create Powerful Content
We live in an information-soaked world right now. It used to be that articles were only found in magazines and newspapers, but now anyone (and any company) can start a blog and start writing. "Content marketing" has become a key tool for companies trying to capture shares on social media and better Google rankings through their articles. And professionals trying to share their personal brands have also jumped on the bandwagon. But what about content marketing for people who aren't writers or marketers? In talking with many salespeople and entrepreneurs, I hear a lot of push back against creating content. They say that it takes too … [Read more...]
The Simple Social Media Mistake that Kills a Salesperson’s Credibility
I come from the sales world. I grew up professionally around salespeople. My friends are salespeople. At the core I'm a sales guy and proud of it. So salespeople, listen to me when I tell you this. Most of you are killing your credibility on social media instead of building it. And trust is a key ingredient in becoming a Sales Sherpa™ for your network. Don't Brag About Your Wins on Social One of the biggest mistakes that sales professionals make on social is being all about "me, me, me". If you only talked about yourself (your successes, your opinions, your needs) in the offline world, you wouldn't be very effective in creating … [Read more...]
Social Selling is Here to Stay: Here are 7 Ways to Make LinkedIn Work for You Today
Updated December 2018 I often think about the sales meeting when a sales manager first suggested using the telephone to sell. I'm sure there were a bunch of reactions to the thought: One person probably yelled out that you have to talk to prospects face-to-face if you want to have success and the phone would never work in sales. A few people in the back of the room probably whispered to each other about how confusing phones were. And still another person probably stopped paying attention because they thought, "Well, none of my customers have telephones." I'm sure that there was a bunch of resistance and confusion. And then … [Read more...]