How to use your LinkedIn profile in every stage of the Sales Cycle

Let start with saying that it is almost impossible to sell via Social Media. You still need a phone or a face to face meeting to close a deal. But why do we call it Social Selling? Because Social Media helps you find new business, build a valuable network, engage with prospects and start conversations. 90% of key decision makers doesn't respond on a cold call. But, you can use Social Media in every stage of the Sales Cycle. Yes, your LinkedIn profile helps you with prospecting, engage with prospects, product demo's and closing deals.

Prospecting

Maybe you have a long list of account names or maybe you focus on new business. It always takes a lot of time to find the right people to engage with. LinkedIn is the perfect place to find the right people. You can see their profiles, read about their careers and experiences and get a good understanding of their job roles. This helps you finding the right prospects before speaking with the prospects. LinkedIn Premium or Sales Navigator are great tools to help you filter on job roles, seniority levels, locations and Sales Navigator feeds you with relevant information. This not only saves a lot of time, it also helps you find other key decision makers how are involved in the buying process. Today, more than 5 people are involved in the buying process. This means you can engage with more than one key decision maker and be sure that you influence the right prospects.

Recognize the need

When you found your prospects and you have a good understanding of their job roles, the company and the market they are active on it is time to start the conversation. You can use your profile to connect with prospects, to send InMails and to use Teamlink. Personalize every message you send. Also a connection invite needs to be personalized. Add a call to action to every InMail you send. After sending InMails and connection invites keep on sharing relevant and interesting content. When you receive an InMail back or when your prospect connects with you it is time to pick up the phone! Schedule a call and use your sales skills to find the compelling event.

Solution presenting

When you spoke with your prospect over the phone or face to face always connect on LinkedIn with your prospect. Send a personalized connection invite. When you have scheduled a demo or a meeting with a pre sales your prospect has an interest in understanding your product. Now it is time to share product related content. You can share content on your timeline or you can send a short private message to your prospect with the content. Don't do this every day, only when you have very valuable content, your prospects will appreciate this.

Closing the deal

The best part of the Sales Cycle, closing the deal. Follow your prospect, like his posts (not stalking) and read his updates. Specially the reading is important now. When you speak with your prospect mention the post and let the prospect know that you have a personal interest in your prospect. Make your prospect feel special. It is not about you, it is about your prospect now.

Retention

Don't forget about your customer after you've closed the deal. Keep on building the relationship. It saves a lot of time and energy to keep your customer in stead of finding a new customer. Send you customer a private message now and then, just to let your customer know that you think about him. And trigger your customer with relevant content, your content can lead to a new opportunity!